Intuos A4 (9x12) and widescreen monitor

[180gee]

hope this is the right forum...

I want to buy a Wacom Intuos A4 (9x12) but I'm not sure if it's going to work well on my widescreen monitor.

Has anybody any experience with A4 tablet + widescreen monitor? Is there any distortion or does the active area of the tablet get cropped? Should I rather buy the A5 widescreen Intuos (6x11). It would also be cheaper, but I'd rather have a larger drawing area since I like to move my whole elbow when I draw.

I'm also planning to buy an additional monitor to have a dual monitor setup. How does that work with the wacom? How does the cursor switch from one monitor to the other?

[m.a.r.k-13]

check the lounge ^^ and look at the stickies - "new to the forums" there's a F.A.Q link you can find

[180gee]

oh thanks! I kinda missed that FAQ.

Couldn't find the answers to my questions though. Can somebody help me out?

...guess you're all sick and tired of all these "What Wacom should I buy" threads :D

[janni]

180gee, the 9x12 wacom works just fine with widescreen monitors. probably there is some slight distortion happening, but i never realy felt a difference. nothing get's cropped or anything.
on an dual monitor system the wacom usually just works on one of your screens and u use your mouse to access the second one. oh you can set it up to work on both screens but then there would definetly be some distortion.

[ah.heng]

you won't notice any difference unless you're so used to blind drawing that you don't ever look at your paper while drawing.

[egerie]

It drives me INSANE when my wacom is not the exact 1:1 maping as my screen. I find it's potentially a very bad habit to draw with a scewed ratio. Try drawing circles in your sketchbook after a few months of that! The hand knows... The hand remembers... It's a lot related to muscle memory.
Anyhow, here's my two cents. Map your painting app to have the same ratio as your screen, even if you have to sacrifice part of your tablet space or screen space.

[180gee]

It drives me INSANE when my wacom is now the exact 1:1 maping as my screen. I find it's potentially a very bad habit to draw with a scewed ratio. Try drawing circles in your sketchbook after a few months of that! The hand knows... The hand remembers... It's a lot related to muscle memory.
Anyhow, here's my two cents. Map your painting app to have the same ratio as your screen, even if you have to sacrifice part of your tablet space or screen space.

oh that doesn't sound too good. anybody else had that experience?

I do a lot of sketches with pen and paper. drawing freehanded straight lines, ellipses and circles is very important to me and I don't want to lose that ability.

[Hybridstar]

I use an a4 oversize and an apple 23" cinema display. Never noticed a problem in any way and ive been using them for around 6 years now. My work ratio is probably 60:40 digital/traditional.

Although i was curious and drew around my camera lens cap, and the distortion was very evident!!!! ended up with a horizontal elipse! Hasnt affected my non digital drawing at all though, maybe coz i do so much of it. Would love to hear from other people and pro's who's work ratio is roughly the the same. I originally bought my wacom when we had a 19" square crt monitor was more equal in proportion. Should i force proportions now im working on 23" cinema? If there is a thread thats covered this would love a heads up as to where to find it.

[tensai]

i have a normal aspect ration 21 inch CRT and a 17 inch apple studio display, mapped to my A4 intuos 3. I do definitely notice my circles are screwed when I draw digi, meaning my circles are still ok traditional. I do a lot of colouring and compositing and some painting digital, but prefer to draw almost everything on paper and scan it.

This is what they made the Wide Aspect Ratio Wacoms for though. If I were in for a new one I would definitely take one of those if the size is right for you (I havent seen them in the really big sizes).

[Infinit]

you can use 2 settings
setting 1: the widescreen is stretched in height to match the complete tablett
setting 2: a small part of the tablett is unused (mostly at its bottom) to achieve a 1:1 effect from screen to tablett

I use setting 2 (graphire A5 with 20" screen)
everything is easily controleable in the drivers options

[180gee]

well, cropping the active area of a A4 (9x12) intuos wouldn't make much sense, since the remaining area would be only slightly larger than the A5 wide (6x11) intuos. considering that the latter is much cheaper, it would definitely be a bad decision to buy the A4.

Is there any way to quickly reduce the size of a widescreen when I need it (i.e. drawing)?

a 16x9 intuos would be awesome... *dreams*
Wacom hear my plea!

[Infinit]

well, cropping the active area of a A4 (9x12) intuos wouldn't make much sense, since the remaining area would be only slightly larger than the A5 wide (6x11) intuos. considering that the latter is much cheaper, it would definitely be a bad decision to buy the A4.

you have no idea what you talk aout right?

a A4 with 1:1 symetry (cropped) is still nearly twice the size of an uncropped A5

[180gee]

you have no idea what you talk aout right?

a A4 with 1:1 symetry (cropped) is still nearly twice the size of an uncropped A5

yeah but I was thinking about a 4:3 aspect ratio (1:1 would lead to even more distortion, right). in order to get an 16:9 aspect ratio you would have to crop about 2.25 inches from the bottom or the top. the remaining area would be 12 x 6.75 inches which isn't that much larger than 11 x 6 inches (A5 wide).

am I missing something?

[Infinit]

to ilustrate
here is a screenshot how the tablett will be cropped
with a widescreen (on the left) and a smaller second screen (on the right)
the wide screen is useing the tablett and by 1:1 I mean that the propotions of the pen movement are true to the movement of the "mouse" on the screen

[180gee]

I made a mistake by assuming that the aspect ratio of a widescreen monitor is 16:9, it's actually 16:10. so, in order to get an 1:1 pen to screen translation you would have to crop an 1.5 inches wide area, which is still quite large I think.

Funny thing is, that the aspect ratio of the A5 wide (11x6) isn't actually 16:10 and to get a 100% accurate 1:1 translation you would need to crop around 1.5 inches from the side! so this means that the Intuos A5 wide has an horizontal distortion on a widescreen monitor?!?

Another weird thing I found out:

"Intuos A5 wide" in Europe: active area = 27,1 x 15,9 cm

"Intuos 6x11" in the US: active area = 11" x 6" = 27.9 cm x 15.2 cm

Well, the actual size is more or less the same, but the ratio seems to be different?!
I'm more confused than before :-/

[Infinit]

buy it try it out
if you rly are interessted in digital art you'll love it anyways
useing a tablet for the first time is like driveing a cer with power steering for the first time after driveing one without for a loooooooong time

let me asure you that everything works great with wacom tablets and that they have a very usefull troubleshooting via e-mail

I bought mine installed it downloaded the newest drivers and everything is fine since then

[180gee]

yeah, I'll probably go with the A4

I already have a small graphire and I like it very much ;)