What brand pen tablet do you use?

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What brand pen tablet do you use?

Postby Matt » Nov 26, 2008 8:07 pm

I'm fairly new to surveying and very new to cartography. I've started working on a map in Adobe Illustrator and have been using a mouse for everything. Some people have told me that I should get a pen tablet to use, not a PC tablet, but a tablet to hook to my laptop through a USB port. What brand and models does everyone use and are you happy with them?
Thanks
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Re: What brand pen tablet do you use?

Postby Jeff Bartlett » Nov 26, 2008 10:00 pm

I use a 9x12 Wacom Intuos2 that was loaned to me and I highly recommend. Once you go "pen" you'll never use a mouse again (does that rhyme? I'm trying).
Jeff
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Re: What brand pen tablet do you use?

Postby Spike » Dec 1, 2008 3:37 pm

I use a Fujitsu Stylistic (tablet PC) and love it. While there may be drawbacks to not having a keyboard, I guess, I learned AI on the Stylistic and have never used shortcuts. The freedom of having the tablet PC is amazing. I drew up half a mile of cave in a hospital waiting room. I've sat on the porch of an evening and drawn breakdown listening to hoot owls. You can even sit in the mall and work on your maps while the wife does the all the shopping she wants after turkey day. I thought about taking the tablet with me while I've been bow hunting this fall but I'm afraid the sound of the cooling fan kicking on will scare "the big one" off. I may have to take it out on a windy day with plenty of cover noise. While it may seem anti social to sit on a couch during the Thanksgiving football game and draw cave maps at the in-laws, it actually is a cool way to show family what the whole cave mapping thing is all about and they will often watch the map come to life right there in the living room.

Oh I also here the Wacom tablets are the way to go if you want something you can plug into your PC.

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Re: What brand pen tablet do you use?

Postby Dangerjudy » Dec 1, 2008 5:51 pm

Wacom makes the best. I use one for work (video compositing) and all of the graphic designers I work with use Wacom as well.
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Re: What brand pen tablet do you use?

Postby Matt » Jan 7, 2009 8:56 pm

Well Santa was good to me. He brought me a Wacom Bamboo small for Christmas. I've only had a chance to use it a few times but think it will work fine. I just need to make more time for my map now. Thanks for the suggestions.
Matt
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Re: What brand pen tablet do you use?

Postby GroundquestMSA » Jul 14, 2014 5:43 pm

Now that a few years have went by, and possibly a few more people are drawing maps with graphics tablets, are there any more suggestions for a good, functional model? Anything I should avoid? Details about pens would be good, it seems that some are pretty expensive, and some wear out fast, and some are exclusive to a particular tablet.
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