The advantages of the mouse-driven computer experience have been well documented by most, but lamented by a small, artistic minority who crave a more naturalistic interface between themselves and the pixels they create. Companies like Wacom, CalComp and Kurta led the way with pen-driven interfaces for digital artists, with varying levels of technical success and user satisfaction.

With the advent of the Wacom Intuos pressure-sensitive tablets and accessories, Wacom maintains its position as the leader in artistic input devices. While perhaps not a revolutionary as, say, its PL-300 pressure-sensitive tablet (with built-in LCD screen), the Intuos family of products (various tablet sizes and accessories are available) is competitively priced and technically elegant.

The Intuos tablet we tested had an active drawing area of 12 inches wide by 9 inches tall. It was tested on graphics-configured Apple Power Macintosh machines, running MacOS 8.6, via the ADB port (PC versions plug in via the RS-232C serial port, and a USB version is also available). It installed with zero problems, and worked as soon as the software was installed and the machine was rebooted. Through our testing period we experienced no driver or extension conflict errors.

The tablet itself features the same plastic polymer surface used on most of Wacom's other products (that has prompted some artists to tape heavy paper to the surface for a more realistic physical response). Its size makes it suitable for tracing images printed on letter-size (8.5" by 11") paper as well as large-format freehand drawing. At 3.5 lbs. and measuring 17.75" wide by 14" tall (at its largest dimensions), it's much harder to find a decent place to put it than the 4x5 Wacom ArtPadZ we'd been using previously, especially when it's not in use. (But we find that a product which helps us find a reason to clean off our desks is generally a good one!)

The Intuos tablet also features a programmable menu strip comprised of a row of 22 "buttons," reserved tablet regions that can be assigned keystrokes, macros or other parameters to facilitate one-click operations. 16 of these tablet buttons are user-customizable, with the first 11 pre-assigned to everyday functions like opening and closing documents, printing, and quitting an application. Custom assignment of keystrokes can be either global or application-specific, allowing the buttons to serve multiple purposes. While macros may be triggered from these buttons, you cannot create macros using the Wacom software. You’ll need a third-party product (such as QuicKeys) to create your own macros.

The Intuos tablet we reviewed ships with two input devices - a pen and a mouse - neither tethered by cables nor limited by batteries; these devices gain power and tracking information from the tablet itself. The first is the Intuos Stylus 2, a pen-like device with two opposing pressure-sensitive tips (one styled like a ballpoint pen or pencil, the other like an eraser) and a two-zone programmable button, with a different . The lack of batteries is one of the main attractions of the Wacom technology, and yields an incredibly light stylus, delivering a very high degree of comfort and usability. The second is the 4D Mouse, a somewhat bulky device (just a little larger than a standard Microsoft mouse) without the rolling ball sported by traditional mousing devices, with a scrolling thumbwheel and five programmable buttons. The tablet and its input devices offer lightning-fast tracking with minimal latency between physical (stylus) and digital (cursor) movements.

The Intuos Stylus 2, which shipped with our 9 x 12 tablet, is lightweight, ergonomic, pressure-sensitive and (best of all) tilt-sensitive. You can start using it without even cracking the manual. The shape of the pen is subtly ergonomic; the flare near the user's fingertips is a huge improvement over previous pen designs, and greatly reduces fatigue by reducing the amount of pressure needed to hold the stylus firmly. In our tests, the stylus tracked without flaw and with a high degree of precision at screen resolutions up to 1600 by 1200 pixels. In fact, the pen stylus tracked perfectly through 1/8" cardboard, 1/8" masonite and 1/4" foamcore, and was accurately detected as high as 1/2" above the tablet's surface. With denser material - such as the thickness of two standard-format magazines - the tablet had trouble detecting the stylus reliably.

Users should be aware that although Wacom has been around long enough to inspire most imaging applications to support pressure sensitivity, only the full versions of MetaCreations Painter (not the Painter Classic that ships with the Intuos) and Corel PhotoPaint natively support the Intuos' tilt sensitivity. Photoshop does not utilize any tilt features, although Wacom's PenTools plug-in package (available at www.wacom.com and on the Intuos software instller CD-ROM) offers Photoshop users a Virtual Airbrush, which does take advantage of the Stylus 2's tilt features (but it's a plug-in, not part of Photoshop's built-in tool set). Synthetik Software’s amazing Studio Artist software (www.synthetik.com) not only supports tilt, but it’s also the only 2D graphics package that allows you to use both the mouse and stylus simultaneously (in Wacom's DualTrack mode). For example, you can use the mouse to change the angle of a paintbrush, while the pressure and tilt of the stylus can respectively affect brush size and density.

The Intuos 4D mouse is a bit "funkier" than the stylus. It is fairly large, having no less that five buttons and a thumbwheel (snapping off the top will re-adjust it for either right- or left-handed operation). It has a somewhat blocky shape, making it a little unwieldy in the hand. There is a distinct "bobbing" to the cursor's movement, whereby the cursor often overshoots where the mouse stops and quickly snaps back, like a rubber band. This can be minimized (especially when setting the tracking mode to Mouse instead of Pen), but it never seems to truly go away. It's also a bit trickier to calibrate properly, to ensure good tracking across the tablet, but with a little time and manual reading it isn't that difficult.

The best artistic use of the 4D mouse we've encountered thus far is making paths, which often involves one hand on the mouse and the over hovering over modifier keys on the keyboard. This process can be made a bit faster by assigning modifiers to each of the 4D mouse buttons, but it will take some time re-learning the process, not to mention trying to remember what button is which modifier (using small stickers to label the buttons helped us a lot).

The 9x12 tablet ships with both the Stylus 2 pen and the 4D mouse (see the Intuos Accessory Table). For Photoshop use, however, we'd prefer to have the Intuos airbrush stylus included with the package and have the 4D mouse available as a separate option, not the other way around. The older-style, beige-Macintosh rounded mouse is ultimately a more comfortable general controller anyway, although Wacom's upcoming mouse for their Graphire product line (available October 31^st, 1999) looks a bit more inviting.

Speaking of the new airbrush stylus, while it did not ship with the Intuos tablet we were sent, the documentation makes it clear that the primary difference between using the airbrush and the stylus is the airbrush's fingerwheel. It operates in the same way as the 4D Mouse's thumbwheel, but the airbrush's form factor places it directly under the user's index finger. Its primary use is to regulate a brush's pressure and opacity to simulate the regulation of ink flow. The shape of the airbrush suggests that it would be of great use to those who might have traditional airbrush experience, or the need to have another method of control beyond pressure-sensitivity and tilt.

Wacom has made significant improvements to the tablet's control software, accessed as a control panel. The control panel's tab-based interface is large, with a lot of options, but each tab is straightforward and the tablet's setup instructions are easy to follow. The addition of advanced stylus settings, highlighted by editable pressure curves and single-click sensitivity setting, provides different methods for performance and functionality customization without confusing novice users.

The Wacom Tablet Control Panel is much-improved with many new methods of customizing such parameters as function buttons, pen sensitivity and tablet scaling.

Wacom provides documentation in the form of an Adobe Acrobat manual, which is an adequate overview of the tablet's capabilities. The Wacom web site has a variety of tips, tricks, driver updates, and inspirational artwork available to the public.

For Photoshop users, combining Actions, keyboard function keys and Intuos tablet buttons means that repetitive tasks can be more easily accomplished with minimal hand movement (anyone who's done graphics-intensive Web page design or rotoscoping will know exactly what we mean). The Intuos product line represents the pinnacle of Wacom's technology: fast, plug-and-play functionality with excellent tracking and expressive response.