Wacom Cintiq: Drawing on Graphic Experience
Wacom Technology has been producing graphics tablets for more than 10 years, and during that time its products have come to dominate the market for artists who just couldn’t get the hang of drawing with a mouse. The feel of pen-on-tablet is much more natural than the utilitarian and distinctly foreign sensation of mouse-on-desktop. With steady advances in LCD technology (and concurrent declines in price), it was only a matter of time before Wacom merged its prowess in pressure sensitivity with the sleekness of a flat-screen display to produce a tablet that allows even non-computer based artists to jump right in and start drawing (see figure 1). The Cintiq is not Wacom’s first combination tablet/LCD device, but with a large, bright screen, natural-feeling drawing surface, and innovative stand, the $1,899 Cintiq is the first one good enough to make you consider skipping a mortgage payment to buy one.
Figure 1: The Cintiq’s bright screen and comfortable drawing surface make it a natural for even non-artists.
It Draws You In
For traditional artists seeking to embrace technology, one of the hardest adjustments to make is trading the familiar pen, paintbrush, paper, and canvas for the decidedly mechanical experience of a drawing with a mouse while looking at a flickering monitor. Within minutes of plugging in the Cintiq and installing its driver, however, our immediate thought was “now this is what a user interface should be.” When used as your main screen (the Cintiq requires its own video card), navigation is really “point and click,” as using Wacom’s UltraPen stylus allows wireless tapping, dragging, and even Ctrl/Cmd clicking all over your virtual desktop. The pen is stored in a sliding, track-mounted stylus holder that can be attached to either side of the display.
A key element of the Cintiq’s design is its innovative stand. A readily accessible latch allows you to lay the display nearly flat for drawing or position it almost upright for use as a second display (see figure 2).
Figure 2: The Cintiq’s innovative stand allows versatile positioning.
The Cintiq sports a 15-inch active-matrix TFT display sheathed in an attractive and slim dark-gray housing (see figure 3), with total measurements of 16 x 13.4 x 2.1 inches. The maximum resolution is 1024 x 768 pixels with 24-bit color support. Setup is easy, as Cintiq supports digital as well as analog display connections, USB and Serial data connections, and provides cables for every configuration.
Figure 3: The Cintiq’s slim profile doesn’t hog desktop space.
Like Pen on Paper
Wacom has been working diligently to improve the response of its LCD tablet technology. An earlier product, the PL-500, had many of the features of the Cintiq, but suffered from a drawing surface that was both slippery and imprecise. Using the PL-500 felt more like drawing on glass than on paper. The texture on the Cintiq’s screen is much more familiar, offering the tactile sensation of pen on paper. Additionally, the “drawing layer” — the sensors detecting the movement of your pen — is much thinner (1mm) than previous models (3mm), making fine detail work possible. In its defense, Wacom’s main market for the PL-500 was the medical community, and fine pen action was less important to that customer than tapping on-screen buttons.
The provided UltraPen supports 512 levels of pressure sensitivity, offers a two-function programmable rocker switch, and an eraser. One trick to getting familiar with the Cintiq is to have continuous access to the Undo command. Our solution was to program one rocker switch with Cmd-Z. The Wacom Tablet software installation includes a control panel for fine-tuning nearly every aspect of the interface to suit your workflow (see figure 4).
Figure 4: Contiq software includes a handy control panel that lets you fine tune tablet performance.
The Wacom Intuos2 tablets offer an upgraded, more comfortable pen, however, leaving us wondering why the high-end Cintiq doesn’t offer that nicety as well. The Intuos2 also offers double the pressure sensitivity of the Cintiq, but in this reviewer’s opinion, the lost sensitivity is more than made up for by the ability to draw directly on the Cintiq’s screen.
We did most of our testing under Mac OS 9.2 on a PowerBook G3/400, and the Cintiq performed flawlessly. Airbrushing, drawing, and painting in Photoshop has never been easier, and with the Cintiq, the newly enhanced interface of (and myriad of tools available in) procreate Painter 7 seemed fluid and approachable (see figure 5). Toward the end of our testing, we experienced some minor erratic behavior when trying to calibrate the Cintiq’s pen tracking in OS X, but a call to Wacom revealed that the video card used in pre-FireWire G3 PowerBooks is not supported. Given that, the Cintiq performed very well indeed. The Wacom driver for OS X will be included the included CD in the near future, but for now it must be downloaded.
Figure 5: In our tests the combination of Cintiq, Powerbook, and Painter 7 proved to be a good one, although we experienced some erratic behavior in OS X.
Write On!
Working with the Cintiq is, in a word, great. Most of that greatness comes from the fact that with this product, your workflow becomes natural — one step closer to “real” and away from “virtual.” And Wacom makes it easy to think that all computing will be this way in the future. After several days of consistent use, we could find little to complain about. Wacom has been on a quest to build a great LCD tablet for several years now, and it shows in the Cintiq. It functions elegantly, looks stylish, and if you do a lot of digital painting or are looking to make the switch from a more traditional media, the Cintiq warrants a good hard look.
This article was last modified on January 3, 2023
This article was first published on January 8, 2002
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I love this display. The company has flawed policies. The Cintiq 20/ slightly smaller than the 21, a good investment in time and a perfect way to integrate your drawing skills with production quality results. You can zoom in and draw, making detailed renderings with perfection and ease. It is still too heavy to place on your lap, but who wants a big heated screen on your lap anyway? The screen doesn’t tilt totally 0-90 degrees, but it’s adjustment stand is helpful when you get tired of standing over the tablet to presenting or using it upright. I pray that you don’t receive a faulty screen, however. The technical specifications (when I sent mine in because there was a 3×1 pixel black area) include a 2mmx2mm abberation in either subpixel or foreign object (lodged under or inside the LCD screen) NOT covered by warrantee. Technical support stated that if it was just under the top surface, however, they would’ve been nice and remove it, but since it’s in the LCD, no-go. I sent mine in (and had to pay for shipping) just to get it sent back with no fixes and a phone call of “It’s within our spec, your object was only 1mm wide, not beyond the 2mm allowance that we have for warrantee.” My friend who works for a major retailer had a dead pixel in her screen and sent it back for a brand new monitor! So, the LCD factory is able to get away with one thing and not another? I can still work on the tablet because it’s more fluid and natural than either paper or tablet, however, I have a bitter taste in my mouth because it was such a big investment (over 2K with tax) on a tool and their QC is poor to accept a 2 few pixel-sized dots to be clearly visible in the center of my working screen. Once you see it, you can’t ignore it! Maybe this is how they have such low return; they just lower their standards.
… I would want one right now. Maybe in five years it will be only 1/4 of a mortgage payment!