Comments on: Exciting hints from Wacom

By: andrew

andrew — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:39:16 +0000

I’m thinking it’s beyond time to look for a tablet that is capable of running photoshop well- It’s been 4 years since we were hoping that the iPad would come out and run OSX and provide cheaper, mobile alternative to Wacom’s overpriced high priced tablets and yet, here we still are. The Samsung galaxy S Note came close with a wacom digitizer and multi-touch, but it doesn’t come close to running the necessary software. And none of them so far have shown the necessary willingness to put buttons on things to get us a tablet that works for painting.

Instead, I think it’s time to start looking at which software will replace Photoshop as something that works well on mobile devices AND on the desktop. Adobe has tried a few times and their mobile offerings have been lame to say the best. Photoshop is never going to run well on a mobile platform because it’s been developed on a certain architecture, with a certain method of working for 25 years. Even on a Cintiq, with all its buttons and multiple scroll bars, I found myself needing a keyboard and contorting into these awkward positions to use both.

I’m a windows fan boy at heart and have been for a long time but honestly, I think Apple is closer to having a full operating system with a UI that works in a mobile environment with Mountain Lion than Microsoft is with Windows 8. Their offerings in their app store like Pixelmator and Acorn have a better chance of providing photoshop capability on a touch UI, than Adobe has of making a satisfying mobile likeness of photoshop, or Wacom does of making a tablet that can make up for missing a keyboard.

I’m not holding my breath. I did for the iPad, then for the eepad, the Adam, the Galaxy S Note, bought one of each and was thoroughly disappointed each time.

By: Dragos

Dragos — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:40:27 +0000

I’ll be happy with “just” something like this: http://www.wacom.com/~/media/WTC/Images/Products/Cintiq/12WX/Gallery/DTZ1200WX_1.jpg or this: https://www.wacom.com/~/media/Images/Products/Intuos5/Intuos5%20Small/PTH450_1.jpg , with the power of a SurfacePro or Helix inside.

By: gregger

gregger — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:35:27 +0000

I have the X220T as well and was thinking of the Surface Pro. I have been having driver issues with Photoshop CS6 and the Tablet PC pen… sometimes it just doesn’t behave right (like, the pen tip is way offset for a stroke, and then returns under the stylus again). I need to uninstall everything and start again I think…

What about a little gamer keyboard like this for shortcut buttons? That could be cool…

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-G13-Programmable-Gameboard-Display/dp/B001NEK2GE

By: Jerry Harris

Jerry Harris — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:31:08 +0000

I should clarify my statement to say x86 win8 tablets such as the surface pro, or Samsung slate 7, etc.

I would add the “delete” key to the list of things MIA when using a computer sans tablet.

By: Claudius

Claudius — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:11:11 +0000

now that i think about it: having a small subset of a keyboard (possibly just b, v, z, d, x, a, f, r, Tab, space and modifier keys) would really be awesome. I think i should make one from a spare keyboard over the weekend :-D

By: Dragos

Dragos — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:33:09 +0000

I own a X220T as well. An excellent machine, but it perfectly illustrates what I wrote above: it’s very inconvenient to do proper Photoshop work because it lacks hardware buttons when in tablet mode. So Alt-shift drag or any other combinations are hard to achieve and require software utilities which are awkward.

By: Claudius

Claudius — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:26:41 +0000

what i’m trying to say is, they were awesome for photoshop even back then. Yes, they are more in the 1.5kg area than in the 0.5kg area, but it’s overall a better product for serious work.

(i don’t think by any stretch that they are a substitute for post-iPad Tablets, but then again i don’t see myself doing any kind of work on Tablets instead of Tablet-PCs.)

By: Claudius

Claudius — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:23:52 +0000

I don’t get the short-term memory of computer users these days. There were tablets before the iPad, and they _had_ touch. And they _had_ (wacom) pen input (and you even could rest your hands on the screen while you were using the pen).

I owned a Lenovo X60t and i am now writing this on a Lenovo X220t. Yes, they are windows-based, and yes, the screens do leave something to be desired. But portability- and performance-wise they are great devices.

By: John Stevenson

John Stevenson — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 02:36:18 +0000

Well, the consensus here appears to be that it should be better in features set and no worse in overall performance than a Surface Pro + Photoshop CS6.

By: Jerry Harris

Jerry Harris — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:27:13 +0000

We are all ears on any feature requests our customers might have in regards to becoming more tablet friendly!

By: John Stevenson

John Stevenson — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 23:03:31 +0000

That’s so. But the speculation is however that the forthcoming Wacom tablet could be used alone – no keyboard at all; just a touch screen and a stylus and some (a few) buttons. Maybe the Surface Pro could run Photoshop like this – that is without a physical or on-screen keyboard – with the addition of a few Tablet-user Scripts and/or Actions …?? and use of the pen.

By: Speed

Speed — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 21:45:48 +0000

The Surface Pro has a full keyboard (either the type cover or touch cover) that can be detached or folded out of the way when not in use. It’s a beautiful thing.

By: John Stevenson

John Stevenson — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 19:27:22 +0000

What about the alpha-numeric inputs – Select > Modify, or (even) Edit > Transform, Transform Selection, etc. ? (For me, Select without easy access to Shift or Alt would be problematic …)

By: Dragos

Dragos — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:19:28 +0000

There are various utilities (ArtDock etc) that allow you to have on-screen toolbars with keys and shortcuts on a tablet. And none is even close to the convenience, speed and non-intrusiveness of having the hardware buttons on a Cintiq/Intuos.

By: John Stevenson

John Stevenson — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 17:54:00 +0000

The Surface Pro has the prior (RT version) on-screen keyboard: http://tinyurl.com/a3x66lp Can be activated with the pen (but, don’t see an Alt key there though).