Notes from the Field

I have always advised my students not to try out a, because it is just like crack cocaine, you will not be able to use it just once. You will crave for it, dream for it and everything else that you try will just leave you empty. Or so I hear, about the crack that is.

If you are brand new to using programs like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter, you may have never heard of the Wacom company. They make these very cool drawing tablets that allow you to leave the mouse behind, when you are using programs that need something more than a mouse to draw onscreen with. Wacom is pretty much the industry leader in these tablets and they make several different models and sizes. But, I have never been a big fan of these tablets, not because they are badly designed, but I just could never grasp using the tablet and make it work faster than I could use the mouse. The biggest issue was that unless I used the largest tablet size, the size of the drawing space of the tablet was smaller than my monitor. Because if the size change, and my total lack of hand eye coordination, the tablets are just not my cup of tea.

But, several years ago Wacom took this great technology and put it into a LCD screen, called the Cintiq, and now you can draw directly on the screen with all of the same features as the tablet. You get a cordless pen that senses how much pressure is applied to the screen, buttons on either side of the screen that can be programmed with keyboard shortcuts and of course, a pretty hefty price tag.

I first used the Cintiq at an early Photoshop World and got almost a half hour of one on one time with the Cintiq and while it took me several years to get one, it is something I have craved since that day. I have found myself sitting at the computer and always thought, “This would be so much easier if I just had a Cintiq”.

So a year ago I decided to pull the trigger and buy the Cintiq. Wacom had released a 12-inch version of the Cintiq to go along with the 21-inch model. With money tight and the 12-inch being half as much as the 21 inch, I bought the 12 and never looked back.

If you are waiting for the end of the article to find out if you should buy a Cintiq, don’t, because this is a must buy. When I purchased the unit, it was somewhere north of $1200, now it is $999, and it has been worth every single penny.

Now some reviewers will give a product a must buy and just mean that the product is very good, but I am no kidding when I say buy a Cintiq. Nothing I have purchased in all of my years of working as a graphic designer and photographer has helped improve my work and save me time on projects. Not only are the mechanics of the pen great, but the Cintiqs also has these great hot keys on both sides of the screen. These buttons can be programmed to perform any action, like selecting a tool or change the size or softness or a brush. Not to mention that by taking your hands off of a mouse, you reduce your chances of carpal tunnel syndrome and make those hours at the computer so much easier to operate.

The 12-inch model is billed as a portable unit and a tablet that you can put in your lap as you recline in your chair and watch TV. With a power adaptor and a few cables, it is not something I think is that is very portable, but you can pack it away if you need to work on the road. I do find the unit to heat up a bit more than I would like to have in my lap. This may not be a big deal for some.

My 12-inch Cintiq serves as my second monitor, with a 23 inch Apple Cinema Display as my primary monitor, which is calibrated. I use the 23-inch to display the overall image so it is set to Fit to Screen, and then use the 12-inch Cintiq to work in at 200-400% to address problems in the image. The nice part of this workflow is that I do not need to zoom in and out of the image to check the overall look of the image, yet another time saving benefit of the Cintiq displays.

With the using the Cintiq in a dual monitor situation, I have found it best to make my Cinema Display my main monitor, leaving Panels/Palettes open on the larger screen. I set the image at Fit to Window, so I can see the entire image. I then open a second window for the image and move it over to the Cintiq. Since the interface is open on the other monitor, I have just a clean monitor to work in and do my detail work at high magnification. There is a quick key button that can be programmed to make the Cintiq jump from it’s screen, to controlling the larger monitor like a normal tablet.

I have noticed when I work on one monitor, the other monitor waits for what ever I am doing to finish before it shows the result on the second. So if I am drawing with the brush tool, I cannot see the results on the other monitor until I release the mouse or stop using the pen tool on the Cintiq. This may be because I run both monitors off of one graphics card, or my particular card, but it can be an issue. Another issue with this dual setup can be if you are applying a filter, say like Unsharpen Mask, you want to make sure you have the monitor you want to view the filter active, before you apply the filter. I use my large monitor to check color and sharpness, so I make sure to have that monitor active before I begin that process.

I do have to say there is one down side to using the Cintiq, outside of the price, and that is the setup. I have installed entire computer labs and 6-foot wide large format printers that had less over head than the Cintiq. It took me at least a week to set preferences correctly so they made sense to me and worked the way that I thought they should work. Now, before you think that I am now contradicting myself, because the setup is worth it and I have some short cuts for you.

The best resource on setting up your Cintiq or Wacom drawing tablet I have found is on the Counter Intelligence blog from the fine people at Image Mechanics. This post is a must read and I wish it was posted when I purchased my tablet.

With this information, you will not have hangover from the drunken bliss that is the Cintiq. While the cost can be pretty high, think of the time you will save and how much better your work you will be, it can justify that cost. If you need to test drive a Cintiq, check out their booth workshops and conferences like Photoshop World. I cannot recommend this device enough for saving your time and your wrists and keeping your wrist out of the shop.

Pros:
It is the best utility outside of Photoshop to make your images look better and make your work easier. Great for those with wrist issues as well.

Cons:
The price. It is hard to drop a grand or two in these times. In the case of the 12-inch unit, I do not find it to really be that portable and the heat of it can be too much if used in your lap.