Veerle's blog

As some of you know, I’ve been testing the Wacom Cintiq 12WX for about a month. The tablet has been returned to Wacom Europe about a week ago. Time to share my experience and thoughts, and why I’ve decided not buy it.

My left-handedness

This was a very meaningful experience for me. You see, I've never used a tablet before and I've always been very curious about it. People often rave about it and say once you try it you don't want to use the mouse anymore. I've always been very skeptical towards those statements. Probably because I'm left-handed when it comes to drawing, but I'm using the mouse with my right hand. I'm born left-handed, but I've been taught to write and use the scissors with my right hand when I was little. Some things I can do with both hands, still, I feel I'm left-handed for most things.

Testing with trial and error

When this opportunity of testing was offered to me, I took it with both hands. At first, I tried to see if I could use the pen with my right hand, but that didn't take me very long to realize that it wouldn't work as well when I compared it with my left hand. I knew this would take me a while to getting used to. It felt as if I had to start all over again, clicking and selecting menu items etc. When I was working directly on the Wacom display, it felt more natural, but the switch between 30 inch and 12 is huge: all the space in the world, versus not so much space.

At the beginning, I admit that I cursed a lot, because I wasn't able to select, double click, draw, drag properly as I'm used to. Having to retry it a few times in a row frustrated me. It was obvious that it would take me some time to become a fluent user with this device. A heavy schedule with deadlines breathing down neck didn't help as well. Time wasn't on my side either. Suddenly I wasn't able to work at the same speed as I was used to. There was a constant urge to grab the mouse with my right hand. And I often did. It felt weird having my right hand to do nothing :) After a bit I decided to use only the pen for at least 2 days. It was the only way, otherwise I would never learn. It helped, I got better and better.

My set-up

It took me a while to figure out what's the best set-up that works for me. Initially, I configured the ExpressKeys for the command, shift and option key, but I realized fast that this didn't work (as you can see from the position of my fingers in the picture below).

The ExpressKeys & Touch Strips

Thanks to all the people who have answered the poll a few weeks ago, I was able to try out some suggestions. First thing I did was disabling the Touch Strips because I always accidentally touched them and I didn't seem to use them anyway. Then I reconfigured the Expresskeys:

• Top key on both sides of the tablet: switching between screens (this is set this way by default)
• Vertical right key on right side of the tablet: command key
• Top left key on right side of the tablet: shift key
• 2nd left key on right side of the tablet: dropdown menu with long list of shortcuts
• Bottom key on right side of the tablet: key combination command+shift+option key

For me one of the best tips in the comments of the poll, was to reserve one key to set up as a dropdown menu with all your favorite shortcuts or frequent actions, such as: open, close, save, copy, paste, cut, delete, ... and many more. There also was enabling and disabling Smart Guides, undo, redo, paste in front, paste in back, group, ungroup, make mask, make compound path etc etc. My list was pretty long :)

Not sure if this is common for other tablet users, but I never seem to use the ExpressKeys or Touch Strips on the left side of the Wacom. I need to cross my arm over to the other side to be able to use them. I guess the opposite is true for right-handed people. They probably configure the left side keys and ignore the ones on the right.

The pen buttons

Then there were still 2 buttons on the pen I could configure as well. I decided to use the most bottom one for the option key. Very handy when using the zoom tool: press option to zoom out again. Some people suggested to configure one of them as 'undo' command+ z to undo an action, but I decided to add 'undo' and 'redo' in the dropdown menu instead. I really needed a good spot for my option key, for zooming out, and for drawing with the pen in Illustrator. The other pen button, the top one, was configured for the control key, to reveal contextual menus. A bit annoying was that I needed to change my grip each time I had to activate this button because of its location. I suppose this was just another thing that I had to get used to and learn.

Why I didn't buy it

A high price for my situation

Even though this is a lovely tool, I've decided not buy it. For me the biggest reason is its high price of 1.189,90 Euro (In the US: $999). You have to consider how much you'll use it and for me it wouldn't be full-time for sure. For this price I believe you need to use it all the time. If you are a full-time illustrator or a cartoonist, I see no problem here. The money would be well-spent. My situation however is different. I do a lot of different things: I do layout work for print and for the web, logo design, illustration work, GUI design,... Sometimes I do pure CSS coding for a couple of days in a row. Then I see no purpose for using a tablet. All in all I think I would use it for less than 1/4 of my production time and that's when I do illustration work and on some rare occasions photo retouching work.

The cable being at the worst location

One imperfection that annoyed the hell out of me is the position of the cable coming out of the tablet. It's at the worst location: top right. Because of this, I had to move my keyboard to the left. If I move the Wacom to the right instead, I don't have enough space left for the mouse. I tried moving both Wacom and keyboard side-by-side because I remember someone in the comments mentioned he/she worked like this. Not sure how this person got to manage it, but for me that was totally unworkable :) Having the keyboard close to me and the Wacom above it didn't work either. The fact that most common shortcuts are on the left side of the keyboard makes it very uncomfortable. Being left-handed makes it worse, because whenever I want to use my keyboard for a shortcut, I have to cross over my right arm to the left side of the keyboard to reach the keys. The other option is to drop the pen each time I use a shortcut. The fact that I'm really 'addicted' to using shortcuts, was one of my biggest frustrations the first days. Even with the dropdown it felt as if I was loosing time during my process. It felt as if I needed to make the switch in my head to 'turn off' using shortcuts and go to the menu instead, or the dropdown I configured. Maybe this was a matter of giving it time and getting used to a new working method. Still, the location of the cable was a big minus for me.

Space on the desk

This is of course a trade-off: the bigger the screen, the more space it takes on your desk, but the more interesting it becomes to work on it directly. Because I had to type a lot I find the tablet taking way too much space on my desk to be able to work comfortable. My keyboard was a bit too far away in front of me. I had to reach for my keys making me bowing over ending up with some pain in my back at the end of the day. I decided to move the tablet away from me each time I knew I needed my keyboard for a while. Each time I had to make this consideration, whether to move the tablet away for a bit yes or no. Ideally it stays in place and you use it whenever the situation rises. In the end it felt like a bit of a hassle of moving the tablet all the time.

Things I like

What I like about it is that you could sit back a bit, relax and take the tablet on your lap just to draw. I moved the palettes, toolbox and toolbar over at the Wacom display. This is really fun. It made me forget a bit I was working. It's good, because you sit in another position, plus comes the fact of course that you're not using the mouse and you're giving your wrist a rest. Using the pen instead of the mouse is ergonomically better. This is no doubt one of the biggest advantages of using a tablet.

Conclusion

I believe this tablet is a good investment for full-time illustrators. It's only worth its price if you believe you're going to use it day in day out. Because my job varies and I wouldn't use it that often. For me it would be a 'wrong' investment. That amount of money would be better spent on a new laptop (well, the biggest part of the money).

I feel that even testing it for a month is not enough for me to feel absolutely comfortable with it. It sounds long I know, but at this point I feel I'm still better and faster in using the mouse compared to the pen. And yes, even for drawing. Especially the Pen tool in Illustrator. You have to keep in mind that I've been doing this with my right hand since '89. Now I'm trying to do the same with the pen with my left hand. Drawing lines freehand style, is another thing. That feels completely natural and this goes way better with the pen. No arguing about this. That's one of the things makes you love using a tablet and pen instead of using a mouse I think. I believe if you get as good as this then you stick with it. Maybe it's just a matter of time for me.

If I ever decide to buy a tablet, I believe a Wacom Intuous (6x11) would be better a choice for me. The price is more justified for my situation. I also know that the cable is at the right position and I prefer its wider proportion. Who knows I might consider buying one in the future if a nice condition or price discount is presented :)