mouse or graphics tablet?

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ricky1980

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Richard Wong
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people who do a lot of PP, anyone prefer graphics tablet over mouse? or is there any advantages of using graphics tablet in Photoshop?

if so what is a decent piece of kit? seems to have a range of price brackets...a bit confusing
 
Go for the cheapest Wacom Bamboo tablet should be around £50. For photo editing you really don't need a big tablet, I have mine set up to use an even smaller part of it as the active area. Put your mouse in the loft for a week to force yourself to get used to it! Makes a massive difference, couldn't live without mine now.
 
Tablet, as above force yourself to use it for several days without a mouse chances are it'll be the first thing you reach for future PP.
 
Just to be warned the different models have different names in the EU / US and they appear to be constantly changing models every year so reading reviews is a bit tricky.
 
Whippet said:
Go for the cheapest Wacom Bamboo tablet should be around £50. For photo editing you really don't need a big tablet, I have mine set up to use an even smaller part of it as the active area. Put your mouse in the loft for a week to force yourself to get used to it! Makes a massive difference, couldn't live without mine now.
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:agree: Once you have the pressure settings sorted in PS your workflow is much quicker.
 
Prefer mouse, but I don't do any complex post processing that really benefits from pressure sensitivity.
 
It's about speed, precision and operating comfort. Wacom all the way. Cursor movements with the pen are fast since the hand motion is more fluent than when grasping a mouse and also there can be a gearing-up effect from how the (smaller) tablet is mapped to the (larger) display. A mouse is clumsy in comparison. The pen can be tapped to select with instant pixel precision - no hunting.
 
droj said:
A mouse is clumsy in comparison.
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I think that's it for me, but the other way around. I use a 5 button mouse and have the two side buttons mapped to keyboard shortcuts I use frequently. A pen is just too small in my large hands to do this comfortably - even if it has several buttons.....
 
I always have a keyboard present centre-stage and use that for shortcuts without putting down the pen (I retain it between my fingers). The essential value of the pen isn't to do with buttons - it's about speed and precision of positioning.
 
droj said:
I always have a keyboard present centre-stage and use that for shortcuts without putting down the pen (I retain it between my fingers). The essential value of the pen isn't to do with buttons - it's about speed and precision of positioning.
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shift-ctrl-right arrow is quite hard to do with one hand.... especially if you want to do it without your hand leaving the mouse.

You have to realise I'm not the norm: I use a keyboard to drive emacs on a daily basis. All the common key sequences have been taken and one like ctrl-c s d is not uncommon. I need to make the key sequences bound to the mouse as hard to get to as possible....

I also found the pen to be more difficult to mobilise on a desktop 6400 x 1440 (3 monitors)....
 
arad85 said:
I think that's it for me, but the other way around. I use a 5 button mouse and have the two side buttons mapped to keyboard shortcuts I use frequently. A pen is just too small in my large hands to do this comfortably - even if it has several buttons.....
Click to expand...
That's my only concern is that lack if customisation on the stylus. Anyway will give it a go.
 
ricky1980 said:
people who do a lot of PP, anyone prefer graphics tablet over mouse? or is there any advantages of using graphics tablet in Photoshop?

if so what is a decent piece of kit? seems to have a range of price brackets...a bit confusing
Click to expand...

Graphics tablet every time for photoshop. Natural drawing action makes it more intuitive, and there's pressure sensitivity for all tools.

It's less of an advantage with lightroom really, as that's pretty much a moving sliders around affair, but photoshop.. definitely!
 
OK anyone using wacom's bamboo? The active stylus area seems very small 150mmx96mm. Does anyone have a problem with this?
 
I used a bamboo for a year or so - I didn't find the active area to be an issue at all, it was big enough for my requirements. I have an Intuos now and the active area is more than I require. I couldn't go back to a mouse, the tablet offers much more precision and control. I upgraded because of the endless issues I had with the Windows driver.
 
ricky1980 said:
OK anyone using wacom's bamboo? The active stylus area seems very small 150mmx96mm. Does anyone have a problem with this?
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That area is pretty functional. Consider that your hand movement is in effect 'geared up' to your display - it doesn't take much pen movement to get the cursor about the display, and yet a high degree of precision is achieved. Comfort, speed and precision!
 
ricky1980 said:
OK anyone using wacom's bamboo? The active stylus area seems very small 150mmx96mm. Does anyone have a problem with this?
Click to expand...

I've got a Bamboo (this one) - the active area is fairly small but it's still usable.

The smallest Intuos isn't much bigger than the Bamboo so there's little advantage to it.

The medium and large Intuos models are a lot bigger but so are their prices.

Active areas in mm:
  • Bamboo MTE-450 (147 x 92) - £61 (discontinued)
  • Intuos S (157 x 98) - £175
  • Intuos M (223 x 139) - £275
  • Intuos L (325 x 203) - £369
 
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I now have the medium as I found the large to be too large
 
ricky1980 said:
people who do a lot of PP, anyone prefer graphics tablet over mouse? or is there any advantages of using graphics tablet in Photoshop?
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You may as well ask "anyone prefer pen over pencil?"

We all have our own preference of doing things which may or may not be right for you. The best person to ask if anyone prefer graphics tablet over mouse is yourself. You know yourself best and better than we know you.

Do you prefer mouse or do you prefer graphic tablet? If you feel a mouse cause you some hard time in trying to get a good graphic design on your screen and you believe a tablet would be better for you, then that would be an advantage for you. If you find using tablets an advantage with Photoshop than a mouse, then you should think about going for it.

You could try to see if you could borrow one to try it out, maybe someone you know got one, and you could ask to try it out? If you find it more suited for you, then you may know how you feel.
 
danny_bhoy said:
Not to hijack the thread but I'm looking at giving a graphics tablet a shot - there's a few quite cheap Wacom ones but with no 'multi-touch' functionality. Is this function a must for photo editing in LR and PS?
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Not needed for either LR or PS. You'll be missing nothing.

If you can get hold of a Wacom Intuos 4 Medium second hand they're brilliant. I've got no desire to upgrade to the 5. I think the 5 is ugly and has got rid of the graphics display icons on the tablet and replaced them with a stupid HUD software thing that actually puts them on your screen.... which just p1sses you off.
 
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Major Eazy said:
You may as well ask "anyone prefer pen over pencil?"

We all have our own preference of doing things which may or may not be right for you.
Click to expand...

This is true... but there are simply things you can not do with a mouse, such as pressure sensitivity or brush angle for example. This is no big deal in Lightroom which is just a basic moving sliders around kind of deal, but in Photoshop for proper retouching using a mouse means you're missing out on some pretty important stuff.

If you edit in Lightroom it's not essential, but if you do proper retouching in Photoshop you really need pen and tablet. If you've never had the pleasure of a pressure sensitive tablet and pen when retouching you've no idea what you're missing.
 
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Pookeyhead said:
This is true... but there are simply things you can not do with a mouse, such as pressure sensitivity or brush angle for example. This is no big deal in Lightroom which is just a basic moving sliders around kind of deal, but in Photoshop for proper retouching using a mouse means you're missing out on some pretty important stuff.

If you edit in Lightroom it's not essential, but if you do proper retouching in Photoshop you really need pen and tablet. If you've never had the pleasure of a pressure sensitive tablet and pen when retouching you've no idea what you're missing.
Click to expand...

I agree but I manage fine with using a mouse with my CorelDRAW software.
 
Check out huion tablets before you go splashing out on a wacom. The H610 is a great alternative to the bamboo (or lower end intuos as bamboos no longer exist) plenty of video reviews on the 610 on YT.
 
I have used a medium intuos 3 for 12 months and loved it but, having recently upgraded to the medium Pro, I realise just how handy the touch facility is. It has opened up a whole new level of usefulness when using Photoshop.

I bought my new one from a seller on eBay and paid £230 for a brand new, sealed box Pro special edition. There are lots of deals to be had just as long as you have the patience to weed out the US sellers who seem to have flooded the UK market!

I agree that, if you are unsure, buy the Bamboo (£49) but bare in mind that they are very, very basic with none of the functionality of a higher spec tablet.


Sent from my iPhone using Talk Photography Forums

Http://www.andykeeblephotography.com
 
And to reiterate what has already been suggested, bin your mouse for at least a week and force yourself to use the pen. I found it very difficult and kept returning to my mouse to start with which is the wrong way to approach it.

There are some really excellent videos on YT that show a complete edit using just the pen. It was viewing some of these that inspired me to try again!


Sent from my iPhone using Talk Photography Forums

Http://www.andykeeblephotography.com
 
I went straight for the wacom intuos 3, and never looked back, though it definitely still has functionality i'm not currently taking advantage of.
 
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