Best software for drawing?

[Joegris]

I have photoshop, illustrator and fireworks. I am not too familliar with anything but photoshop. What are peoples preferences, before I try to learn 3 pieces of software? Does one seem to be best suited?

Thanks,

Joe

[pastime106]

Photoshop CS2 works well for me. It is easy to conert images to greyscale, the brushes are many and you can add even more if need be. I have have some work published using only photoshop and a wacom tablet to draw on. In addition you may want to do a quick google search on "Photoshop actions" there are many, many, many... things that you can do in photoshop that are fully automated. Saving a great deal of time.

Hope it helps
Tom

[mtylerfl]

Photoshop CS2 works well for me. It is easy to conert images to greyscale, the brushes are many and you can add even more if need be. I have have some work published using only photoshop and a wacom tablet to draw on. In addition you may want to do a quick google search on "Photoshop actions" there are many, many, many... things that you can do in photoshop that are fully automated. Saving a great deal of time.

Hope it helps
Tom

Hi Tom,

We purchased two Wacom tablets for a couple of our computers here (the 'Intuos 3' models 4x6 and the 6x11). We love 'em!

Question...for certain operations, the tablet seems too sensitive, sometimes "clicking" on a menu item when we don't intend that. I know that the user can set certain preferences for the tablets to adjust this sensitivity. Do you have any special tips you can share as to what settings you've found work best for you?

Thanks!

[JOHNB]

http://www.getpaint.net/index.html
the free alternative to photoshop

[pastime106]

mtylerfl,

We purchased two Wacom tablets for a couple of our computers here (the 'Intuos 3' models 4x6 and the 6x11). We love 'em!

Question...for certain operations, the tablet seems too sensitive, sometimes "clicking" on a menu item when we don't intend that. I know that the user can set certain preferences for the tablets to adjust this sensitivity. Do you have any special tips you can share as to what settings you've found work best for you?

I must admit that I had not had any major issues with sensitivity. I have used several of the diffrent size wacom tablets and found the larger ones are more sensitive. My favorite by far is the 4x6. This may or may not help. I did NOT install the software that came with the tablet, I just plug it in, windows recognized it and photoshop had no trouble seeing it. It might sound odd, but maybe just letting photoshop or the standard windows driver cover it might fix the sensitivity problems you have run into to. By all means I would be happy to share any settings I have if you would like me to look in a specific location. Another idea to consider is a tablet PC, I also use a gateway tablet PC that has a screen that you write on directly. It is a little on the heavy side, but the screen flips over the keys and the stylus allows you to draw directly on the screen. The only problem I have had with this is that it takes forever to wipe the smudge marks off the screen after you have drawn for a couple of hours LOL

[mtylerfl]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your reply.

I agree that the 4x6 is the way to go, and is my favorite size also. We bought the larger 6x11 first and discovered there was no real need for us to have gone that large. What I ended up doing is actually scaling down the pen area to only about 3x4 on both pads! (I had gone into Circuit City, Staples and Office Depot when I was shopping a few months ago - none of them would hook up a tablet for me to try first. A clerk at Staples even told me they are "phasing them out" of their product line.)

I did install the "Wacom Tablet Properties" software so I would have access to the pad option settings (such as the scaling as I mentioned.) I'll goof around with the sensitivity settings some more until we find the 'happy medium' that suits everybody.

Was thinking about a tablet PC, but we already have 5 active computers now (4 others are dormant at the moment), and will be adding another "big desktop" to my multi-track recording studio as soon as the Vista 64-bit drivers are out of Beta and available for all my existing recording hardware! The tablet PC's turn will have to wait until next year's budget allowance!