Pen Tablet Recommendations?

[Obscura]

Hi guys...looking for your advice on a fairly inexpensive pen tablet to use for drawing on GIMP.

At the moment I have a really, really old Wacom pen tablet that is over several years old. For some reason drawing on it is really difficult and my lines are super shaky. I'm hoping to upgrade my tablet and be able to draw smoother lines on GIMP.

At the moment, the only way I can get a smooth line is by using my ipad, drawing directly into it, and then importing all the lineart into GIMP on my desktop.

Unfortunately once it's in GIMP, I have to make about a thousand changes, and redrawing a mouth takes me hours instead of just a few minutes.

Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks!!!

[LVUER]

Before you buy a new one, are you sure it's the hardware (tablet) that have problems? Try updating the driver (or use old driver). Try using other software, is it still shaky? Try tweaking the settings (both from tablet driver and the GIMP). AFAIK, Wacom is pretty durable. My bamboo is already more than 3 years old (and suffering from constant abuse, you can see it physically) but still works just fine... other than the weary nib that really need to be replaced.

[redeyesblackpanda]

What's your price range? They just came out with Intuos5 recently, which means that the Intuos4 is now "cheap" (or at least cheaper than it used to be). You can get a medium sized one on amazon for $230 right now. http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos4-Med ... 001TUYTZW/ It's value, but still pretty pricey...

[Obscura]

Before you buy a new one, are you sure it's the hardware (tablet) that have problems? Try updating the driver (or use old driver). Try using other software, is it still shaky? Try tweaking the settings (both from tablet driver and the GIMP). AFAIK, Wacom is pretty durable. My bamboo is already more than 3 years old (and suffering from constant abuse, you can see it physically) but still works just fine... other than the weary nib that really need to be replaced.

I LUVE you, Luver.

Updating my ancient driver made the lines smoother by 100. WTH.

I think you just saved me the 1000 work hours I was going to put into drawing an effing nose.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

[Obscura]

What's your price range? They just came out with Intuos5 recently, which means that the Intuos4 is now "cheap" (or at least cheaper than it used to be). You can get a medium sized one on amazon for $230 right now. http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos4-Med ... 001TUYTZW/ It's value, but still pretty pricey...

Panda, thanks for the recommendation. It seems updating my driver did the trick but I would so love to have a nice tablet one day. I'm guessing that at $230 that Intuos must be amazing?!

[redeyesblackpanda]

In terms of pressure sensitivity and accuracy, it's the highest I've seen (there didn't seem to be a change in the Intos5, which is interesting). It's pretty much the best thing Wacom makes besides the ones with the displays, but those are in the thousands (and they seem to be the same, just with the ability for you to see what you're drawing on)

[Graph]

Intuos is nice, though I'm not sure if the recent ones give you a leg up on the older models.

I'm still using intuos3. 5 years and still going strong, I've only replaced the cover sheet once and the pen nib twice. (though with how much I draw I should have replaced the nib more, since those are a lot cheaper than the cover sheets)

[Obscura]

Thanks all, I'm looking forward to updating all my tools at some point.

Right now I think part of the issue is that Gimp doesn't have a line smoothing feature like photoshop does?

The driver helped immensely, but I still have a shakiness in my line art that I have to go back and clean.

[Crocosquirrel]

If you're in Cheap Mode, you might consider the Bamboo as well. I've been using mine two years, and I'm still good as far as nibs. If you have piles of money, then get Photoshop and a Cintiq of hugeness.

Driver updates helping is good, but eventually, you're going to want to get better tools. Or at least newer ones

[nyaatrap]

BTW, reputation of Intuos 5 is pretty bad. It just added meaningless functions into intuos 4 to make its price higher, but there's no difference in actual drawing.

[khnachi]

Right now I think part of the issue is that Gimp doesn't have a line smoothing feature like photoshop does?

The driver helped immensely, but I still have a shakiness in my line art that I have to go back and clean.

Hmm.
In my experience gimp doesn't really produce very smooth linearts especially when dealing with small scale drawings. It either gets blurry or produce a very pixelize line. So in my case I use a different software in inking.(Right now I'm using fireAlpaca) (Hopefully this helps>.<)

[Reikun]

I've heard a lot of good things about Monoprice tablets. Way less expensive than Wacom and supposedly measures up to the quality pretty decently. I'll probably use one of those instead of a Wacom when my old tablet friend is eventually forced into retirement :3

[bunnypirates]

I've heard lots of negative things about Wacom tablets (I never tried one myself, so I can't really tell), like problems with the pressure recognizing and durability. I'm using a Trust slimline widescreen tablet, which was really cheap. We're talking about 65 euros here. But it's been a great tablet so far, I've had it for two and a half years, I only had to order a replacement pen this winter because the old one was lagging (I dropped it on the floor too many times). These days there are tablets with low prices and they also work well, so I personally wouldn't buy a expensive one only because it's name is Wacom or any other fancy brand.

(Also, not all the programs have nice anti-aliased brushes, so making small details can be pretty frustrating. I personally love SAI, because the lines are smooth and you won't see any ugly pixels unless you zoom it very close. When I tried GIMP ages ago, I thought the lines were kind of... Choppy. :c )

[HumbertTheHorse]

Wacom's drivers are always a work in progress. and so are their special pens

[PyTom]

Right now I think part of the issue is that Gimp doesn't have a line smoothing feature like photoshop does?

IIRC, this is one of the features added in the new Gimp 2.8.