Mice v Drawing Tablets

[Anonymous]

My old Wacom Graphire has finally packed it in, when purchased it was superior, well I thought it was, to the mice around at the time. I recently purchased a Logitech 400 laser mouse which seems to be every bit as good as the Graphire was.

I am just wondering now about getting a Wacom A6 wide Intuos 3 tablet as I think it might be better for editing photos etc. any opinions on whether they are better than mice or is this the best size to get.

Regards

Chris Dennehy

24" 2.4MHz iMac, AC 11

[Thomas Holm]

I've got a Graphire too. Nowadays, I use it only for special cases (like digitizing paper contour maps) or when my carpal tunnel syndrome gets too bad

The Intuoses have great resolution, so they don't have to be big. Except when digitizing maps But for CTS, small is better.

I find it generally better to use a mouse in Archicad, because it doesn't move when I click. The Graphire pen does. And it also lacks a scroll wheel.

In the end, I guess it's a matter of taste...

[Dwight]

Hello, Chris [LTNH]:

The smaller tablet is definitely better since it is all you need for getting that airbrush pen to the photo surface. And they have become inexpensive.

You will also notice that Wacom has the new Cintiq display that is tiny. They are finally waking up to "small."

But generally, RSI experts advise against pen tablet use for mousing. Wacom now has a mouse for the tablet - this is what i use. Since it has no battery, it is very light.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your views, since spent along time looking at mice and tablets and decided as I almost always used the mouse on the Graphire tablet there did not seem to be a need for a tablet at this time.

I eventually bought a Logitech MX Revolution cordless mouse with it's own Li-Ion rechargeable battery, plugged the receiver into the end of the Apple keyboard on the opposite end to the WIBU Box and worked straight away so the only cord now is the keyboard to the iMac and I'd ket rid of that too if the Apple wireless keyboard had a numeric pad. The mouse can be programmed to do most things with Logitech's software and it works well, much better of course when you remember to turn the battery switch on the bottom on.

Having got the mouse, decided that I'd go up-market with a mouse pad and here I blundered into the gaming world in which I have no interest, and now own a Razer eXactMat and wrist rest, it's a large aluminum thing about 330mm wide x 230mm deep with different black surfaces on both sides, shows the dust up quite well and I find the wrist rest comfortable. The mat is rock steady stays exactly where it's put and the mouse now has virtually no weight and just glides over the surface. razerzone.com also have a pro range of mice, mouse mats and keyboard which are worth a look.

Regards

Chris Dennehy
24" 2.4GHz iMac, 1st Gen Macbook, 2nd Gen iPod Nano (refurbished naturally) AC 4.55 to AC 11 (not sure if the 4.55 still works but it's there anyway)

[Eduardo Rolon]

Chris,

A reminder that Logitech's mouse drivers are known to cause some strange behaviours on Macs especially during system upgrades. The usual recommendation is to substitute them for either USBOverdrive or Steermouse (the one that I use).

If the iMac starts behaving erratically one of the first things that you should try is removing those drivers.