Wacom pen tablet have been a favorite of design and photography professionals for years . Wacom ’s new Bamboo line brings playpen and tablet calculation to another audience : the perfunctory house or position exploiter .
Wacom ’s Bamboo line consists of two production — Bamboo Fun ( reviewed here ) and Bamboo . Bamboo Fun , for creative consumers , replaces the Graphire4 ( ) . ( Creative professionals are still best served by Wacom ’s Intuos [ ] and Cintiq lines . ) Bamboo Fun is available in a choice of four colors ( black , white , silver , or blue ) and two sizes ( small , with an active area of approximately 6 by 4 inches , or medium , with an alive area of just about 8 by 6 inches ) . Both sizes include a cordless penitentiary with eraser , and a cordless mouse for use on the tablet . The package also come in with a collection of popular design software — Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 for Mac ( ) , Corel Painter Essentials 3 ( ) , and Nik Color Efex Pro 2 ( ) . The small Bamboo Fun , at $ 99 , is the best note value in the line , take into account statement these extra goodies . The intermediate Bamboo Fun costs $ 199 .
The Bamboo does not include the black eye , eraser , and blueprint software that comes with the Bamboo Fun . This role model comes only in black and in one size ( a rough 6 - by-4 in active area ) . The Bamboo is targeted at office user , but its low price of $ 79 should make it attractive to students and other budget - minded consumers .
All of the Bamboo tablets are thin , lightweight , and stylish . They have four programmable ExpressKeys , useful for accessing frequent keystrokes or launch take applications . The Touch Ring at the top of the tablet resemble an iPod click rack . Move your finger around the Touch Ring to well zoom or scroll through a document . The pen is sleek and comfortable . It features two buttons that can be set to a alternative of function , or to which you may assign a custom drink down - up menu of your favorite commands .
Bamboo pad of paper are great for originative activities , from sketching to scrapbooking to pic retouching . They also offer a unique opportunity to desegregate hand with digitized written document . Use a Bamboo tablet to sum a handwritten signature to a typed alphabetic character , jot down quick line , or strike off up a document . you’re able to leave your script as is , or mechanically change it into typewritten text using the Ink technology make into Mac OS X.
There are n’t many downside to Bamboo tablet . My wish list does include a wireless version that would not need to be tethered to the computer ; it would also be nice if the pen button were repositioned so odd - handers would be less potential to run into them inadvertently .
Macworld’s buying advice
Bamboo tablets wreak the benefits of pen and tablet computation to a consumer audience . It may take a while to get wonted to using a pad of paper ; but if you cleave with it , you ’ll obtain that the Bamboo offers a natural approach to drawing , photograph retouching , handwriting , and navigate that hike up comfort , creativeness , and efficiency . betting odds are you wo n’t go back to using a traditional shiner .
[ Jan Kabili is a Photoshop author and trainer . Her latest pic series is Photoshop CS3 for the Web atlynda.com . ]
