WACOM Bamboo Fun (Pen and Touch) digitizing Tablet

Tablets are a very useful tool for graphic designers, illustrators and photographers, if you work in any of these fields, you probably would like to learn more on this subject. About 10 years ago, you could only dream of buying a tablet, nowadays, this type of technology is more accessible not only to professionals but also to students.

Another important thing to point out about this technology is that there is a growing market for multi-touch input devices, such as cell phones, track pads on laptops, touch screens, and more. In the past, you had to choose between a mouse, a drawing tablet or a touch input device. Wacom Bamboo fun is one of the first devices that combines both touch and pen capabilities.

Wacom, PhotoPlus 2011

There are several tablets on the market, with different sizes, features, and colors. The Wacom reputation precedes them, the accessible price, and functionality for graphic design, photography and illustration; are what most appealed to us buying this device. Wacom has many models specifically created to fulfill the needs of various professions.

One model that caught our attention is the Inkling Digital Sketch Pen, a device that captures strokes into digital files, while you draw on any piece of paper.
This is a very new technology, and we haven’t had the opportunity to test this, this is one of the reason we decided on a Bamboo Fun tablet, for which we saw great reviews.

When we get the chance to use an Inkling Digital Sketch Pen, we will be able to decide how useful this technology is for graphic designers and maybe switch to this. At FLAAR we have over, 496,600 readers on our digital photography web site, www.digital-photography.org.

FLAAR graphic designers using Wacon Bamboo Fun tablets: above, María Renée Ayau; and below, Pablo Martinez. This particular model is both sensible to pen or touch, and is very user-friendly.

At first you might feel that tablets are not essential for graphic design, however, once you get your hands on one of these devices, a lot of opportunities become available to you, that were once limited by the use of the mouse.

There are several types of Wacom tablets for different needs, it depends on the size and type of pen you need or want, the bigger the size and fancier the pen, the more money you have to spend. The fancier pens have a greater response, tip sensors, and greater pressure sensibility.

All the Intuos, Bamboo, and Cintiq models come in different sizes: small, medium and large. Most tablets allow you to draw and write on top of them, as you would with a pen; and others like the Cintiq model, allow you to draw directly on the screen.

Below is a comparative chart to illustrate the differences among models

First posted January 18, 2012, after being impressed by the Wacom Cintiq at PhotoPlus 2011.