Sharing a tip for Photoshop / imaging program users who like using wacom
tablets
Back before Apple ipads came into being and brought the term 'tablet' to a
wider audience there had been a decade of windows tablet development and a
rather impressive array of laptop/tablet convertible machines, mostly high
end and expensive, but all with screen style imputs - these are latops with
either detachable screens or screens that rotate and lay back down like a
lid but with the screen now upright.
I have a preference for touch screens in general (my first touchscreen
laptop, a Fujistu 8.4" B142 circa 1998 has just had the motherboard go :/ )
, but I also have a few wacom equipped tablets too - and there a heap of
Wacom integrateted laptop/tablets which used a stylus to interact - mostly
marketed to the business community for quoting, engineering or stocktake
purposes, they were largely ignored by other users due to their prohibitive
price.. for example an HP (compaq) TC4200 in 2005 cost $2099 - you could
have had TWO apple G4 laptops for that price.. or if you were a Microsoft
user, you could have bought four IBM T43 Thinkpads !
Step up to an even higher in price (2005 $US2350 MRRP) and you were looking
at the Fujitsu Lifebook series like the t2410 - for that you could easily
have bought 5 consumer laptops.
the point is, these business laptop/tablets all had 12 inch or larger wacom
tablets built in along with a provided stylus.. and being business machines
they were out of the public eye and largely unfamiliar to buyers. Add to
that, the business community generally write off tech within their
respective countries tax cycles, so these machines find their way into the
market place dumped en mass at silly cheap prices
So
For a Photoshop user these are pretty remarkable machines, all have the
ability to plug in a second monitor, usually at super high resolutions, so a
Photoshop user can have one of these plugged into a massive monitor, fire up
the machine load the image onto the large screen and work away on it using
the computers inbuilt Wacom tablet.. and they can do this extremely cheaply!
That is not counting the fact that they can still use it as-is away from
their desk too.
I once had a really early wacom-style tablet, way ahead of it's time it was
actually the first LCD panel tablet - the earliest equivalent of the new
$1000 Wacom Cintiq tablet.. a Polaroid device, LCD panel on a steel frame
which if memory serves correct sat at 30 degrees and was driven by a serial
pen, It was slow and only mirrored the main monitor, I picked it up at
auction for near nothing and sold it for a small fortune to someone in the
US who still probably got a bargain.. this would have been pre-1998
For those that haven't used a tablet, they're not like touch screen
devices - they use a stylus which means you can lay your hand on the
screen/tablet and don't need to hover above it to do intricate work. They
also have the ability to be used as a pressure device - ie, the harder you
press the stylus, the darker, denser or broader the brushstroke / line
depending on the way you set it up, and then there's the various
programmable buttons and the eraser.
For any really young readers here, none of these have the now-familiar 2
finger touch interface, but in truth there's little real application for
that function beyond zooming.
Now sure, you can go buy a new Wacom Intuso for around $300 - or a Cintiq
for near $1000, but my point is that the laptops I spoke of can be bought
stupid cheap from Ebay these days ..
in fact I'm looking at one TC4200 listing on ebay at $30, Lifebook T4210's
and T4215's seem to go around $100 .. there's even a kind-of-rare Motion
Computing ML400 on at the moment - they were top of the line in 2004 (and
$2100+ too) going at 'buy it now' for $135 .. even being a bit low-end it's
kind of a bargain.
I have no interest in the ones on ebay and I advise standard 'buyer beware'
practices .. I just thought I'd point out the cheap options to those who may
never have considered this style of laptop before. Of course the other
thing with these I need to mention is you either use them with screen-only
input and no keystrokes (if they are fully converted) OR you lay the screen
at a weird angle and reach over the keyboard to use the stylus, with the
keyboard still able to be used.
(my current favorite touchscreen is my tiny lifebook u1010, the t4215 is my
preferred tablet :)
references below
k
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Compaq_TC4200
http://www.cnet.com/au/products/apple-15-inch-powerbook-g4/
http://www.tabletpcreview.com/tabletreview/fujitsu-lifebook-t4210-review-pics-specs/
http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Cintiq-Interactive-Display-DTK1300/dp/B00BSOSCNE/ref=dp_ob_title_ce
http://www.cnet.com/au/products/motion-m1400-tablet-pc/specs/
http://www.cnet.com/au/products/fujitsu-lifebook-u1010/
