Wacom tablets 101 for newbies

I often tell people that my Mac is one of the coolest things attached to my Wacom tablet. Yes, I consider the Wacom tablet more important than the computer itself. If I could choose one item that I would consider "mission-critical", this would be it.

I've been using Wacom tablets since early 1995 (back when we used them to do cave paintings), so I get quite a few people asking for advice on them. That said, it just made sense to compile this list to help others make the decision on whether or not to buy a tablet, or to make better use of one you've already bought.

Placement in workspace
When you first start using your tablet, you should try placing the tablet in a couple different positions to go along with whatever feels most comfortable. It seems about half the people that use tablets place them next to the keyboard: to the right- or left, depending on which hand is used for drawing. Others like to place the tablet between themselves and the keyboard. Still others prefer to hold the tablet in their laps.

I'm a "to the right of the keyboard" person, but I have the keyboard shifted to the left so that the right edge of the keyboard is adjacent with the center of my monitor. This centers my 9x12 Wacom tablet right in front of my right shoulder - a very natural position for me. I make frequent use of keyboard modifiers while I'm working, and it's easy to hover my left hand over the keyboard for this while my right hand is over the tablet.

The point here is that you want to try to get your workspace as comfortable as possible.

Connections (powered port)
You'll want a powered port for the USB connection on your tablet. In most cases, this means plugging it straight into your computer, or into a hub that has it's own electrical power cord. The extra ports on Mac keyboards and some external USB hubs do not have enough power to make the Wacom tablet work. These ports are designed for data only, but the Wacom tablets need both power and data to pass over the USB connection.

So just make sure you have a correct port available for the tablet.

Mapping & Movement
One of the things that really throws a lot of Wacom newbies off is the correlation of the tablet to the screen. If you're used to a traditional mouse (or the trackpad on a notebook computer), you're probably frequently picking up the mouse, shifting it over, placing it down again and moving the cursor further on the screen. This behavior is fine* when you are just moving a cursor around, but not when you're drawing or retouching photos.

Basically, the entire surface of the tablet gets mapped to the entire screen. So if you place the pen near the upper-left corner of the tablet, your cursor will jump to that same relative location on the screen. Then if you were to pick up your pen, then bring it down at the exact center of the tablet, the cursor will instantly jump to the exact center of the screen.

You can adjust the mapping to fit multiple monitors, etc., but the same general rules will apply to the area you assign to the tablet vs. screen(s).

One of the other things is that you need to be aware of the fact that touching the pen to the tablet - with even very slight pressure - will be registered as a click, just as if you are holding down the mouse button. If you want to move your cursor on-screen in the same manner as moving your mouse without clicking, you just need to hover the pen over the tablet. Keep the pen tip about 1/4" away from the tablet surface as you move, much the same way that you would move a pen or pencil across a piece of paper to get to another part of the paper.

*I could argue against the ergonomics on this, but not now.

Pressure: the Tablet's reason for existence
Perhaps the biggest reason most artists (photographers included) would have for getting a Wacom tablet would be the pressure sensitive aspect. Instead of just making a steady mark, you can vary the darkness or width of your stroke as you are making that stroke. Think of using a regular old #2 pencil. If you press it on the paper very lightly, you'll get a thin, light-colored stroke. As you press harder on the paper, the stroke becomes darker and thicker. This same behavior can be duplicated with the tablet, but you can also turn on/off thickness or darkness (opacity) independently in most creative software.

Button Assignments
Assignment of the buttons on the barrel of the pen (and elsewhere on the tablet bezel for some models) is really up to you. The switch on the side of the pen is a rocker switch that can be assigned different tasks or modifiers for pressing the forward side or the rearward side of the switch. Personally, I frequently find myself accidentally hitting the forward position, so I just keep it set to "Ignored". I have the rearward position set to be a double-click, as a regular double click using the pen tip can be tricky at times.

I should also note that each button can be assigned different functions depending on which application you are running (at least on the Intuos models). For example: If you have the rear button set to be the spacebar for quick panning in Photoshop, you might want it to be the command key in Illustrator to be able to quickly edit curves while you're using the Bezier pen tool. The Wacom tablet will know when you've switched from Photoshop to Illustrator, so it makes the adjustments on-the-fly.

One more note about the switch on the side of the pen: I usually keep it oriented so that I work the switch with my thumb, but I know of several people that use their first finger on the switch instead. Again, this is a personal preference thing, so go with whichever way feels right to you.

Trash the Mouse
Many of the people I know that use the Intuos line end up sticking their traditional mouse in a drawer or even the trash can. I keep a mouse attached to the home computer for the wife & kids, but I honestly don't know whatever happened to the mouse that came with the computer I use at the office.

The only trouble I have with using the pen instead of a mouse for regular computer usage (web surfing, spreadsheets, email, etc.) is that some versions of Apple's Safari web browser occasionally takes two or three "taps" from the pen to register as a "click". My solution is simply to use another browser like Firefox, which I like better anyways.

Downloading Brushes
If you've been around Photoshop much, you've undoubtedly discovered the myriad brushes that you can download and add into your Photoshop settings. Just be aware that most of these are designed as single-click placement like "clip art", and really aren't going to be much more effective with a Wacom tablet. Some, however, can be modified to make some neat effects... but the fact is, you'll have to do some tweaking on them to see them really shine with a Wacom tablet.

Size of tablet
Ah, one of the most popular questions you hear people ask across the internet: "What size tablet should I get?". This really depends on the way you work, and what your screen setup is. Honestly, I have little use for the smallest 4x5 or 4x6 size tablets.

If all you ever do is some occasional subtle dodging and burning in some photos, then the smallest tablets might be all you need.

For most people, the "medium" tablets are perfect. Currently, this means an 8.8 x 5.5 active area on the Intuos 4. Previously, Wacom offered a 6x8, and I know several pros who continue to use this one. This size is big enough to allow you to do some more detailed work like building complex masks in Photoshop, yet it's still small enough to travel fairly well. It also doesn't take up much more desk space than a typical mousepad.

The 9x12 or larger tablets seem to work best for people who use a tablet exclusively, and spend most of their time in Photoshop or Painter or similar drawing/painting apps. These take up a LOT of desk space, but if you want the tablet to span across a very large screen (or multiple smaller screens), this is the only way to go. This is also my personal preference, mainly due to the fact that I "rough in" a lot of my drawings by drawing from the shoulder.

Well, I hope this has been informative for you, and if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments below.