Which tablet?

[Cartography Dragon]

Hey all, I'm new to digital cartography and hoping to improve. I've downloaded GIMP and played with it, but I'm still kinda lost. I plan to get a digital drawing tablet (a Wacom or something) once I'm a little more confident in my digital skills. Anyway, when I get a tablet, what one should I get? I'm looking to spend no more then about 100$, but I might be able to cough up 150$. Thoughts?

[Tanu]

Hello CD,

I use Wacom Intuos for my work (I am a Video Game Designer) here are a few suggestions:

1. If you are a beginner, I find that wacom, is the company to go for.

2. Avoid small sized tablets, they are too small to work with and kinda get in your way.

3. Personally, I do not like tablets with both touch and pen features, they kind of get confused when i have too many peripherals attached.

Having said this, here is a good tablet for beginers:
https://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos-...+tablet+intuos

Hope that helps

[Cartography Dragon]

Thanks for the input! I have been leaning towards a Wacom tablet, seems like there are plenty of options in my price range.

[Jaxilon]

Wacom is solid and you won't really go wrong with one. It's going to change your world if you've been drawing with a mouse. Well, it will if you can draw with a pencil anyway. If you can't draw you will still have to work on that but it's going to be great once you get used to it. There are some threads about doing that but just make yourself use it once you get it and you will warm up to it pretty quickly.

There are some other drawing tablets you can get but I have no experience with any of them. I have an intous5 touch large and I'll second what was said before in that I don't use the touch features much either. It didn't cost anything extra when I got it so I'm fine with it. If I'm honest I probably use about half the tablet when i draw. If you paint and draw using your whole arm then you might care about the size. The really small ones I could see myself going off the edges quite often but I think the one linked above is probably good for most. I do also have a Cintiq companion which is more like drawing traditionally since you see are actually drawing right on the surface you are looking at but I go back and forth between the two products with no issues. It is nice for taking my art with me and working on it in remote places but if you are at your desk anyway, it doesn't really matter. And it's pricey

We do have a massive thread on mouse vs tablet which might be of interest to you as well.

Have fun!