今年圣诞节，女儿得到了一件她盼望已久的礼物----Wacom Intuos Graphics Tablet。这件礼物使她兴奋不已，因为她可以用它在计算机上自由地画画了。以前她喜欢在计算机上画画，但鼠标有多种限制，使得她很难表现一些理想的技艺。现在这件礼物弥补了鼠标的不足。从学校回来度假的第一天开始，她就迫不及待地画起来，经过两天的努力，终於完成了她的第一幅画。当她向我展示她的画时，我有点吃惊，没想到这个礼物，加上女儿的HARD WORKING，竟然有如此不同的效果。特贴上女儿的画，尽管有点SHOWING OFF 的嫌疑。但老实讲，我真有点想SHOW OFF，因我为她的努力和才干高兴和骄傲；同时也想让那些喜爱画画的孩子们知道有这么一个东西可以帮助你提高画画的兴趣和技能。下面是女儿具体介绍这件东西的功能和运用。谢谢女儿与我们大家分享。

God bless the Wacom Intuos graphics tablet! From my perspective, I can safely say that there is no device on earth that can more comfortably take you out of “artistic desert” and into “creative utopia.” Even though I might not be professional designer/artist material, drawing and art has been a passion of mine since childhood, and something I enjoy doing regardless of how fuzzy my skills may be. During a busy and raucous semester of classes and PRing for the Asian American Association, I hardly had any time to draw, and was suffering from a classic case of artistic withdrawal. Not only that, but I was severely lacking the proper accoutrements, as I had left my pens and Prismacolor markers back home.

I received the Wacom graphics tablet as a Christmas present from my boyfriend, and after only an hour of hooking it up to my laptop, installing the necessary programs, and taking the whole system for a test run, I knew it was love at first draw. The system comes with a tablet, a wireless and battery-free pen and mouse, and some useful software. I’ll introduce each component individually, and then give a brief rundown of its functionality, features, and advantages. Hopefully, this will be helpful for all the budding artists and graphics designers out there who are considering purchasing a graphics tablet of their own.

Keep in mind, however, that my review may be slightly biased. What I hope to show you is that the engineers behind the graphics tablet have truly thought of everything, turning a simple, little, gray piece of equipment into the greatest thing since sliced bread.

The tablet has a USB interface and connects to any computer or laptop (that supports this interface) through a long cord that gives the tablet a lot of free-range motion. This is great because, unlike with most digital appliances, you’re far from being confined to your desk/table. In fact, you could easily set the tablet on your lap and sit 3 feet from your computer or laptop if you wished. The surface of the tablet is smooth and includes 8 Express Keys and 2 Touch Strips which you can program yourself to zoom in/out, undo/redo, scroll, etc. The tablet is also compatible with a lot of well-known software applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and InDesign. On top of that, the advantage of the USB interface compared to a serial interface is that you don’t need to charge the tablet itself, since it gets its power from the computer.

Now allow me to tell you about my favorite part of the tablet: the pen. Before, my usage of Adobe Photoshop was limited to some minimal retouching, crude CG work, and playing around with the “filter effects” features. Since experiencing the mind-altering effects of the tablet, however, I feel like a new window of illustrating, editing, and coloring techniques have been opened to me. In terms of ease of use, for the purpose of coloring/sketching on Adobe, I believe that the pen is superior to the mouse for several reasons.

One, the pen is activated within a few inches above the tablet, and every point on the tablet corresponds to a matching point on the computer screen. In other words, when you move the pen over the tablet, your cursor moves precisely in the same way. When you touch the tablet surface with the pen tip, it translates into a click on the computer screen. This makes it so that you don’t have to switch back and forth between the pen and the mouse. Does this technology boggle your mind as much as it does mine?

The second reason is that the pen is lightweight and cordless. It is ergonomically designed to fit the curves of your hand and has a cushioned, contoured grip with two switches built onto the side that are programmable for special functions, just like the Express Keys. So in a sense, combined with the first reason, the pen can also double as a mouse. It has tilt sensitivity for heightened control and comes with a pen stand and replacement pen tips.

Thirdly, the pen is pressure-sensitive. Depending on how hard you press the pen tip to the tablet surface, software tools (airbrush, for example) from the software application you use (Adobe, for example) can be easily and effortlessly controlled. Things such as brush size, thickness of a stroke, transparency, and ultimately the color that is applied to a piece of artwork can be changed automatically with a single swipe. Just a few hours of practice is all it takes to coordinate your movements and become acquainted to tapping instead of clicking. Another great thing is that, when you install the tablet software into your computer, you can reconfigure the pen sensitivity according to whether you usually write with a heavy or a light hand.

The last reason I find the tablet pen incomparably easier to use than the mouse is its remarkable resemblance to a real pencil/marker/etc. Maybe it’s just that, with smoother movements and the ability to make long, sweeping, and consistent brushstrokes that would be very difficult with a traditional mouse, the tablet pen presents a more natural way of doing work. In place of hand strain, carpel-tunnel, and a sore back, one can have control, comfort, and accuracy. Oh! I almost forgot. If you flip the pen upside down, the opposite tip is an eraser. How cool is that?!

I think it’s obvious that I'm perfectly smitten with my new graphics tablet, but in reality, but if you’re committed to buying one now, there’s one factor that could become a huge impediment: price. Graphics tablets come in many sizes and brands, the most economical ones costing less than $100 and leading models easily shooting over $500. I’ve had no prior experience in using other graphics tablets, but upon reading multiple reviews, I believe that Wacom is the best brand out there.

The graphics tablet may not be for everybody. I have friends who prefer the old-fashioned pen and marker, which I understand completely. This article is by no means an ad to persuade you to buy a graphics tablet, only my own testimonial among a million others out there. But in case you’re a promising young artist (or the parent or boyfriend of a promising artist) who has been searching for a tool to unlock your artistic potential, perhaps this is just one of many answers that could help fulfill your search. Although life goes on without it, having access to a graphics tablet can definitely add an edge to any digital work of art. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the real deal. But whether the tablet is a godsend among graphics software apps, or whether its fancy capabilities are actually worth the price tag, I leave you to be the judge.