Another tablet question

[Sed]

I am taking an art class and the teacher, who isn't very computer literate, bought a Wacom Intous. She has no clue how to use it, so I asked her to bring it in. I don't know much about tablets, but I figured I'd help her out.

So the next class, she brings the tablet. However, there is no stylus, only a mouse. It seems kind of silly, since you can only use the tablet mouse on the tablet. You might as well use the regular mouse. She suspects her cat may have run off with the stylus. She will look for it.

Anyway, the tablet is useless without any software, so I attempted to see what craptastic software was provided. One was a photo editing tool that doesn't even support the tablet. The other was a weird, crippled version of Corel Paint. I think we settled on Microsoft Paint (Yuck!) as it the best software she could get started quickly with.

I thought the tablet was supposed to sense the pressure you put on it and draw accordingly. Does this only work with the stylus? What software works best in fully utilizing the tablet? The best thing I have is an old version of Photoshop 6.

[PyTom]

I thought the tablet was supposed to sense the pressure you put on it and draw accordingly. Does this only work with the stylus?

At least in the tablets I've seen, yes. Most tablets locate the pressure sensor in the stylus, so you need only a single (or 2, if the stylus has an eraser) pressure sensor, rather than a huge number all over the tablet surface.

[Ren]

I think we settled on Microsoft Paint (Yuck!) as it the best software she could get started quickly with.

PyTom is right, also remember that Paint doesn't have line variation, every line you make always has the same thickness...
Maybe you could tru downloading Pixia or OpenCanvas1?

[Jake]

The bit of software which makes the most comprehensive use of the tablet (and probably the most intuitive, for someone with a natural-media background) I've seen is Corel's Painter. IIRC It's up to version 10 (X) now.

To my knowledge, Corel hasn't ever produced a bit of software called "Corel Paint"; they do a "Corel Photo-paint", but I believe that's only packaged as part of the CorelDraw suite. So I presume you're talking about Painter. Painter gets bundled with tablets quite frequently under the names "Painter Classic" (cut-down Painter 6, IIRC) and more recently "Painter Essentials"... but neither of these versions are crippled - just cut down. They should still, last I saw, provide a good enough starting point in digital painting - it's not like they won't let you save a document or anything. What makes you call it 'crippled'?

Still, one can get a trial version of the full Painter package from the Corel website, and more-recent (and more usable) versions of OpenCanvas also have trials available. OpenCanvas and the cut-down-from-full-version Photoshop Elements are both pretty affordable bits of software.

Unfortunately I don't think I know of any software which makes particularly good use of a tablet and is also free. I seem to recall Paint.NET has pressure-sensitivity support, but that it doesn't do an incredibly good job at implementing it.

As it goes, if the tablet is a Wacom and the stylus permanently lost, then one can buy replacements directly from Wacom so long as one knows which model the tablet is.

[Sed]

Ok, thanks. I'll pass on the information. Tonight I'll find out if the cat really ran off with her stylus!

I'll give the Painter Essentials another try. I was desperate to find something that works and it wasn't entirely clear how to use it, not to mention tell someone who is computer illiterate how to use it.

[Mikan]

The tablet should have a pen. The mouse is only a supplemental accessory.
The tablet's driver is essential in order to take advantage of all of its functions (pen-to-cursor placement, pressure sensitivity, the function of the extra buttons like the eraser or the side-click)

But anyway, try reading up on some of the other threads about tablets since there are quite a few of them:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 68&p=23732
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 51&p=23362
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 73&p=22154
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 05&p=50674
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 04&p=22661

They're mostly about buying a new tablet, but there's always some details mentioned in threads like them that may be helpful for you.

[luminarious]

ArtRage is an excellent drawing program for the computer illiterate. I mean, my 6-year-old sister is using it, so the interace is simple enough. The results look like they were done with traditional media.

http://www.artrage.com/artragedown.html

[Twar3Draconis]

If you're on a Linux or Windows platform, GIMP is a powerful program that has pressure, and tablet support. For some reason, tablets don't work with it on Mac.

Pixia is a good one too- I used back when I worked with Windows.