As far as I am concerned, a Wacom tablet is mandatory for anyone who does image manipulation. The level of precision is unmatched, the ergonomics are dead on (you basically are holding a pen) and the programmability is sweetness. I use a Wacom Intuos3 6″ x 11″ which is perfect for my wide screen. The tablet itself is wired to a USB port, but the stylus is not. I have three styluses, because at any one time I can only ever find one of them.
(At this point I should mention that my wife thinks I am crazy for posting about mice. To which I reply: Yep.)
The Good
The single best feature of a Wacom tablet is that the stylus (the pen part) is both angle-sensitive and pressure-sensitive. The best analogy I could come up with to explain this to anyone who has not tried a tablet is simply this: it’s the difference between a pen and a pencil.
With a pen, the ink is either there or it isn’t (all else being equal). Doesn’t matter how hard you press, or what angle you hold the pen at, there is no variation: ink or no ink is the choice.
But with a pencil, the harder you press, the darker the line gets. And the lower the angle, the fatter the line gets. With a pencil, you can make a dark thin line (pencil tip: twirl the pencil in your hand as you draw a line to keep the thickness the same. Don’t thank me, thank grade 12 drafting class) or you can make a light shaded area. And while I’m sure there are pen maestros out there, even they would agree that a pencil is far better for art than a pen is. In high school I had a set of 15 Staedtler pencils from 9h to 9B…wicked.:) All I have left is the 2H. Anyway, off topic.
A mouse is like a pen: when you click the button, it’s either on or it’s off: no half-pressing. But the Wacom is pressure sensitive, like a pencil: the nib of the stylus detects how hard you are pressing, and Photoshop can use this pressure reading to vary how it applies its various brushes and so on. The result is an amazing degree of control over how retouching is accomplished.
Here you can see lines made a mouse on the left, and a pen on the right. I pressed harder on the pen as I drew, making lines of increasing darkness and thickness.
The other big difference between a tablet and a mouse is that a table works in “absolute” mode, whereas a mouse is always relative. This means that if I touch the top-left corner of the tablet with the stylus, the curser goes to the top-left corner of the screen. A mouse has no framework to do this, so it’s always relative. Absolute mode with a tablet is the only way to fly.
If I sound like I’m going on and on here, it’s because I love my tablet. I cannot function in Photoshop without it.
The Bad
With a table you will get amazing control and precision…but at a cost. For me, I pay for my table with my right shoulder, specifically my trap. When I move the curser I am moving my entire right arm. Doesn’t sound like much but it’s enough to cramp my right shoulder after about four hours of work.
The only other drawback to the tablet for new users is that they are tough to learn. Yes, it’s just a pen, but it takes a lot of patience to stick with it for everyday use and not give up and go back to a mouse. When I got my first table in 1999 (a 9×12 serial version…remember serial ports?) I had to unplug my mouse to force myself to learn it. It paid off, but it was tough going at first.
Conclusion
I don’t like a tablet for everyday use (as you can probably tell since I’m evaluating all these mice). If it came down to it, I could make it work. But for me, an optimal workflow means using the best tool for the job…and while a tablet is the best tool for Photoshop work, I don’t like it for normal stuff. But for Photoshop: no question, it’s a must-have.
…Mike