Wacom Bamboo Paper App

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I just read a headline from Wacom announcing the new version of  their Bamboo Paper app for the iPad.

Wacom Bamboo Paper App

I’ve heard about it, but never stopped to figure out what it is exactly. I imagined it as an actual piece of paper that you lay on top of your iPad to keep the touch screen from detecting your hand. Silly me!

It’s actually a very handy app! Basically, it’s like having  different “notebooks” for sketching, note taking, work notes, etc, all in one place. They have music paper, grid paper, dots and all kinds of other paper simulations. No need to keep track of a lot of books. I can see this being extra helpful for students since a notebook can be made for each class or subject. It can also work as a digital collage since you can add your own pictures too. I’m amazed it’s a free app!

Wacom Bamboo Paper app for iPad and Android

Bamboo Paper makes me kinda wish I owned an iPad. It’s also available on Android phones.

For more info, go to bamboopaper.wacom.com.

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3Doodler Brings Your Doodles to Life

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3Doodler 3D Art Pen

credit: WobbleWorks LLC

The 3Doodler pen is amazing! It’s the real life version of Harold and the Purple Crayon.

The 3Doodler allows artists, hobbyists and anyone who can wave their finger in the air, the opportunity to create anything they want. I am honestly blown away by this product! They are currently working with artists on Etsy to create one of a kind pieces. Take a look at their Kickstarter video to see how it works.

It’s affordable too! You can pre-order one for $75 right now. I seriously have to have one of these!

For more information, check out their web site The3Doodler.com.

Valentine’s Day

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Valentine's day love message

Happy Valentine’s day to you whether you celebrate it or not! Personally, I don’t believe in the stereotypical V-day. Granted, there’s no harm in showing your love and appreciation for your significant other, friends and family. What I don’t like is when men and women get mad at their SO for not getting them any gifts. I hate the cliche situation where the man(typically) forgets to bring home flowers or whatever and then gets yelled at and is forced to sleep on the couch. That’s lame and very un-Valentine’s day. So please, if you celebrate this holiday, be kind to each other. 🙂

Joanna Behar has a different take on V-day sentiment that warms my graphic designer heart. See all of her Valentine ‘s on Behance.

Valentine's day art by Joanna Behar

Valentine's day love message

Wacom Bamboo Tablet, the Bamboo Splash

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This seems like the best and most affordable Wacom digital drawing tablet available.

Wacom bamboo tablet, the Splash

I don’t know how I missed the Bamboo Splash announcement! I’m either slacking or Wacom didn’t make a major announcement about it because it’s pretty inexpensive compared to their other drawing tablets.

Wacom doesn’t have a link to retailers on their site, but I found one on Amazon for $69.99. Click here to read more or buy.

The Splash is most similar to the Bamboo Connect. The only difference I can find is that the Bamboo Splash includes ArtRage and Autodesk, where as the Connect only includes AutoDesk.

This is an important difference if you are planning to use this tablet for art.

The Bamboo Connect is being advertised as a great tool for note taking and signature capturing. You can use it to draw, but you’ll need to own the right software for that already, like Photoshop or ArtRage.

Wacom bamboo tablet, the Splash

I recommend the Wacom Bamboo Splash an inexpensive and high quality drawing tablet for anyone looking to expand their drawing abilities. It may be small, but it’s really not any smaller than an iPad and as far as I know, you can’t use Photoshop or ArtRage on an iPad.

This Wacom tablet will make a great Christmas gift for someone who wants to make the transition from traditional drawing to digital drawing. Click here for more info or buy.

New Bamboo Stylus Pocket

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Bamboo Stylus Pocket

 

Wacom just came out with a new Bamboo stylus that seems exactly like the old one except it can expand so it is smaller than the original. Wacom boasts that it can be stored in the headphone jack of your iPad or other touch screen device, but I can’t figure out how just by looking at it.

So far, I haven’t found any videos of the Bamboo Pocket stylus in use.

What do you think?

 

Perks to Wacom Bamboo With Anime Studio 8 Upgrade

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Anime-studio-pro-8

Wacom and Smith Micro have formed a partnership. In doing so, upgrading Anime Studio 8.1 will allow artists to use finger gestures on the Wacom Bamboo multi-touch tablets. The update also contains 30 new features and performance upgrades.

Multi-touch allows animators, graphic designers and digital artists to be more efficient and save design time. You can use more than one finger at once which saves time performing ordinary commands. By making the process more user friendly, digital artists can use finger taps and gestures to design, create, adjust scenes and objects as well as zoom, drag and drop, scale and rotate designs.

Anime-studio-debut-8

Anime Studio Pro is retailing at $199.99 and Anime Studio Debut is $49.99. Currently, Debut is selling for $34.99 and Pro is priced at $139.99 on Amazon.

If you don’t own a Wacom Bamboo tablet, you can read more on my Wacom review site!

Wacom_bamboo_connect

The Return of the Pen Stylus For Non-Wacom Devices

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It looks like the stylus is making a comeback! Wacom is a pioneer when it comes to the pen for all of their pen tablets, but plenty of other companies are introducing their own stylus for smart phones, iPads and iPad counterparts.

For those who may notknow, a stylus is the “pen” used to draw, write or move images on a multitouch surface using pressure sensitivity. The more pressure sensitive the stylus, the more detailed strokes you can create.

Here are some styluses that are appearing for various pen tablets and smart phones.

scribbly stylus for ipad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Scribbly iPad pen stylus is a fun stylus that looks and feels like a giant dry-erase marker. It isn’t better than any other stylus, but it’s possibly more comfortable to hold. It reminds me of being a kid. It comes with a cap to protect the point and it’s affordable at $16. It’s not available for sale yet and the company says it will be out “soon”.

just mobile alupen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Just Mobile AluPen is another chunky stylus, but this one is shaped like a fat pencil. The AluPen has a rubber core and a rubber tip. The aluminium body shape keeps it from rolling away on flat surfaces. Unlike other rubber tipped styluses, this one doesn’t stick to the screen. The silver version is available for less than $20 on Amazon and also comes in red, blue and black!

crayola imarker stylus color studio

 

 

 

 

 

If you enjoy letting your kids use your iPad/iPad 2, but want a fatter stylus for their small hands, then the Crayola ColorStudio HD iMarker by Griffin might be the best for them. It includes a coloring app that has Crayola’s stamp of approval. The iMarker acts as a pen, paintbrush, marker and crayon. Parents can print, email or upload their pictures to Facebook to share. So far this seems like the best app and stylus combo for kids. It retails for $30, but sells for less than $30 on Amazon.

pogo sketch pen by Ten One Design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The slim Pogo Sketch stylus from Ten One, is not intended to be as accurate as a Wacom stylus. It’s purpose is to replace using your finger on your multitouch surface. No more finger prints messing up your device’s clean face because this pen has a foam tip. It’s also perfect for quick sketches where you need more detail that isn’t possible with a finger. The newest model isn’t available for sale yet, but you can buy the original on Amazon for less than $15 right now. Available in pink, orange and green as well.

These styluses are not going to replace the detail you can create with a Wacom graphics tablet and pen, but they do get you closer without spending too much.

Which Wacom Tablet To Buy?

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Here’s my top five Wacom tablets list. Click on the menus at the top for the full reviews!

My Top 5 Wacom Graphics Tablets:

Wacom Cintiq 24HD Tablet DisplayWacom Cintiq 24HD Multi-Touch Tablet / Display (Links to Amazon)- Best of the Wacom tablets. The Cintiq 24HD multi-touch is the largest graphics tablet display and is considered the holy grail of drawing tablets. For serious and/or professional artists, designers and animators.

Wacom Cintiq 22HD Tablet / Display (Links to Amazon)- Expect the same high quality as the Cintiq 24HD, but for about $500 less and about $1000 less than the 24HD multi-touch.

Wacom Intuos5 Pen Tablet – Excellent for a professional designer/artist. Available in different sizes and a wireless option.

Wacom Bamboo Splash Tablet – Great for an artist who has never used a tablet before and seriously wants to make the leap from standard drawing to digital.

Wacom Bamboo Create Pen and Touch Tablet – Great for someone who is interested in the same things that the Bamboo Splash offers, but wants more drawing space. Also, this Bamboo tablet  is bundled with more software than the Bamboo Splash.

:: Click here to read more or buy a Wacom tablet from Amazon! ::

intuos5 wacom tablet computerBuying a Wacom Tablet:
I’m a self taught graphic designer who has used several different graphics tablets throughout the years and I’m offering my personal Wacom tablet reviews here. Having been disappointed by other brands, I was happy when I found Wacom. I had some confusion researching which Wacom tablet was right for me so I thought writing this Wacom tablet site might help other people make a decision.

For me, Wacom is the frontrunner in graphic design tablets. I believe they are a great company and more importantly, they design and produce high-quality products. I’ve used the other brands in the past and have been disappointed.

Related Articles:

How to Choose a Wacom Graphics Tablet
Graphics Tablets for Kids
Wacom Cintiq 24HD Graphics Tablet Display Review
Wacom VS a PC Tablet
Which Wacom Bamboo Tablet is Best for Image Editing?
Why Buy Wacom Intuos4?

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Top 3 Tips When Choosing a Wacom Graphics Tablet

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Wacom Cintiq 24HDThere are three important things to consider before buying a Wacom tablet.

  • Use/needs – This is the first thing you should figure out before browsing for a graphics tablet. If you don’t need a lot of bells and whistles, you might be overwhelmed or believe that you need them once you start looking.
  • Features – Once you know exactly why and how you will use your Wacom tablet, you will know which features you need.
  • Size – This is important. You should consider the dimensions of the entire Wacom tablet as well as the active drawing area. It’s great to have more active area space (I believe the bigger the better) but having owned several in the past, what I’ve learned is that it also comes down to your desk working area and sometimes having something too big may not be practical.
I’ve learned that knowing exactly what you need from a graphics tablet is the key to choosing the best one for you. Maybe write out a list of how you would use the tablet regularly and then read my full graphics tablet reviews for more details about each tablet. You can also click on the menu at the top of this page to be taken directly to the Wacom tablet you want to read more about.

New Intuos5 Launched Today!

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intuos5 wacom tablet

Intuos5

Wacom launched the new Intuos5 in Europe today! It will be in the U.S. soon, but no date yet.

The most talked about feature is the multitouch gesture support and “Express View” head-up display software and soft-touch feel. You will be able to create custom gestures while the head-up display shows current tablet settings on your computer screen. The gestures are similar to an Apple iPad where you can use 3 fingers to zoom in or out, for example.

The new Intuos5 will support all standard Windows and Mac multitouch gestures. The different tablet sizes are 13×8″, 6×8″ and 4×6″.

With the new Wacom tablets avaialble, I suspect the Intuos4 tablets will go down in price. Intuos5 is currently priced at £200 to £430 in Europe. They come in three sizes, 13×8″, 6×8″ and 4×6″. The small is priced at $229.95, medium at $349.95, and the large at $469.95. A pen-only version of the small tablet will also be available, but a price has not been confirmed yet. An optional wireless accessory kit is available to convert your Intuos into a wireless tablet to make it more convenient and comfortable.

I’m not sure how much better the Intuos5 will be compared to the Intuos4 model. So far, it seems like they are trying to keep up with technology by adding standard and custom gestures. Some people may argue that this new feature is not enough to make them upgrade. I can see how designers who are new to using a Wacom tablet and are used to using gestures will enjoy this new Wacom tablet the most. I want to keep an open mind since it launched today and there aren’t enough reviews yet, but based on what I know, I do not recommend upgrading yet.