next »

For all you furs who do digital art out there. Just wondering what programs you use along with your tablet if you have one.

I've got a Medium sized Wacom Intuos 4 and use paint tool SAI mostly for my artwork. for stuff like scaling and letters I use gimp.

This is just to get an idea and hopefully find new alternatives to what I have and explore other possibilities as well. I've been looking at photoshop cs6 but the heavy pricetag is shooing me away x.x

Intuos 4!   Thats a big one.

I use a smaller (less expensive ) Wacom Bamboo Create. It is either the Create, or the Capture. I can never remember which one. But they are both relatively inexpensive. I would love a nice Intuos with a screen on it, but I would spend money I dont have.

As for the program, I use Photoshop. Got it relatively cheap and use it for most all my arts. I would love to use more of Adobe's stuff, like After Effects for example, but again, money is an issue for me. I have heard SAI is better than Photoshop for sketching on the computer, though.

Intuos 5 medium.  Mostly illustrator with PS for texturing / color adjustments.


SAI gets you the best raster line-work by far.  If you have a proper tablet with pressure sensitivity no other raster editor compares with linework from SAI because of it's stabilizers.  The art in my signature by jazzycat was done in SAI.

Intuos 4!   Thats a big one.

I use a smaller (less expensive ) Wacom Bamboo Create. It is either the Create, or the Capture. I can never remember which one. But they are both relatively inexpensive. I would love a nice Intuos with a screen on it, but I would spend money I dont have.

As for the program, I use Photoshop. Got it relatively cheap and use it for most all my arts. I would love to use more of Adobe's stuff, like After Effects for example, but again, money is an issue for me. I have heard SAI is better than Photoshop for sketching on the computer, though.

Hehe it is nice. Used to use the old bamboo pen tablet that went for around $60.00 that I got at bestbuy, then saved for a couple months and went to buy it on my birthday. Can say that if you use it enough, the extras and build quality are well worth the money. Only problem though, is the textured surface wore down where my hand sat probably because of the glove I wear to keep from getting it sweaty and messy.

Would still like one of the large cintiq models though which is what I think you were talking about with the screen and all. I've seen egoraptor uses a cintiq on an ergotron arm and it looks rediculously cool.

I've not been able to compare sai to photoshop yet as I've not tried PS. and the rare occasions where I do have access to it, I have absolutely no idea how to use it lol. But I do find that SAI is very good at sketching. Also good at lining with vector graphics though I'm not too good at lining yet.

Intuos 5 medium.  Mostly illustrator with PS for texturing / color adjustments.


SAI gets you the best raster line-work by far.  If you have a proper tablet with pressure sensitivity no other raster editor compares with linework from SAI because of it's stabilizers.  The art in my signature by jazzycat was done in SAI.

Hehe I've seen the new Intuos 5s
Have to say they are pretty sexy looking devices. believe they're wireless??
I wish I had the money to upgrade when the new ones came out lol

Only wireless if you buy wireless.  Honestly they're quite similar to four,  but the biggest improvement (i've used a 4 but never owned) is the surface.  It provides a much more realistic friction / surface.  Intuos 4 is really glossy smooth.  Not the best if you're used to drawing with paper.

Only wireless if you buy wireless.  Honestly they're quite similar to four,  but the biggest improvement (i've used a 4 but never owned) is the surface.  It provides a much more realistic friction / surface.  Intuos 4 is really glossy smooth.  Not the best if you're used to drawing with paper.

has yours worn any? because part of the surface on mine has gotten really smooth unlike the rest which is sort of matte finish. also, do the nibs wear down very fast?

The nibs wear down faster with an Intuos 5 than a 4,  yeah.  But i think it's well worth it.

Again,  the 4 has a much smoother surface than the 5.  5 is a lot more of the matte finish on the drawing area itself.


If you already have a 4 it's probably not worth it to upgrade.  If you're buying new i'd get a 5.

Hehe it is nice. Used to use the old bamboo pen tablet that went for around $60.00 that I got at bestbuy, then saved for a couple months and went to buy it on my birthday. Can say that if you use it enough, the extras and build quality are well worth the money. Only problem though, is the textured surface wore down where my hand sat probably because of the glove I wear to keep from getting it sweaty and messy.

Would still like one of the large cintiq models though which is what I think you were talking about with the screen and all. I've seen egoraptor uses a cintiq on an ergotron arm and it looks rediculously cool.

I've not been able to compare sai to photoshop yet as I've not tried PS. and the rare occasions where I do have access to it, I have absolutely no idea how to use it lol. But I do find that SAI is very good at sketching. Also good at lining with vector graphics though I'm not too good at lining yet.

I thought there was an Intuos with a screen display...but I could be mistake. I have seen a Cintiq before. It was massive and awesome, and I will soon be getting the chance to use on in school. I speak of course of college, as my cruddy little High School barely has the money to fund a class in graphic arts, let alone purchase a class set of Wacom Tablets.

And Photoshop is confusing, but I learned it with some time. Now it just seems natural. But I assume that is the way most anything works until you learn it a little and mess around in the programs a little.

I currently use Photoshop with a Wacom Graphire 4 tablet (4x5). I haven't used other tablets, so I really have nothing to compare my current tablet to. But as of now, I really don't have any complaints about it (except for the fact that my dog chewed the eraser nib off ). As for Photoshop, I find it a lot easier to work with than GIMP, which can get annoying at times.

I have a medium Intuos 4.  As far as programs, I use Illustrator CS4 for digital inking and Photoshop CS4 for everything else.

The nibs wear down faster with an Intuos 5 than a 4,  yeah.  But i think it's well worth it.

Again,  the 4 has a much smoother surface than the 5.  5 is a lot more of the matte finish on the drawing area itself.


If you already have a 4 it's probably not worth it to upgrade.  If you're buying new i'd get a 5.

Lol that's actually something i didn't know. I just thought they put it in a nice new pretty case and stuff like that. it's good to see they're actually making improvements on the older model other than looks.

Hehe it is nice. Used to use the old bamboo pen tablet that went for around $60.00 that I got at bestbuy, then saved for a couple months and went to buy it on my birthday. Can say that if you use it enough, the extras and build quality are well worth the money. Only problem though, is the textured surface wore down where my hand sat probably because of the glove I wear to keep from getting it sweaty and messy.

Would still like one of the large cintiq models though which is what I think you were talking about with the screen and all. I've seen egoraptor uses a cintiq on an ergotron arm and it looks rediculously cool.

I've not been able to compare sai to photoshop yet as I've not tried PS. and the rare occasions where I do have access to it, I have absolutely no idea how to use it lol. But I do find that SAI is very good at sketching. Also good at lining with vector graphics though I'm not too good at lining yet.

I thought there was an Intuos with a screen display...but I could be mistake. I have seen a Cintiq before. It was massive and awesome, and I will soon be getting the chance to use on in school. I speak of course of college, as my cruddy little High School barely has the money to fund a class in graphic arts, let alone purchase a class set of Wacom Tablets.

And Photoshop is confusing, but I learned it with some time. Now it just seems natural. But I assume that is the way most anything works until you learn it a little and mess around in the programs a little.

Lol I've only used a cintiq tablet once. and that was at some type of trade show and autodesk had them set up to show off their programs. It'd be awesome to be able to use one of those at school. you should consider yourself lucky x3

It seems like a lot of artists in this thread use an Intuos. In your opinion, what makes this model better than the Bamboo line of tablets?

My tablet is an Adesso CyberTablet 12000 and I've been using it for 6 or 7 years now, and it works great even after all this time.
As for software, I use it with Blender, Gimp, and Photoshop… With Photoshop CS2 being my primary, and Gimp as my secondary for 2D drawings.
Blender comes into use for both 2D and 3D, which gets a lot of use from my tablet, especially for painting 3D models.

Also…

I've been looking at photoshop cs6 but the heavy pricetag is shooing me away x.x

In addition to Gimp which you mentioned already using, there's also MyPaint, and Krita, as they also carry the very affordable price of free.

I have an medium Intuos 4. I use mostly Photoshop cs4 for coloring and Illustrator cs4 for inking, designs and posters.

It seems like a lot of artists in this thread use an Intuos. In your opinion, what makes this model better than the Bamboo line of tablets?

I actually only just recently upgraded from a, "Bamboo fun," tablet...  Going from a bamboo to an intuos is kind of hard to explain,  but i find i can actually sketch on the computer (i used to have to sketch on paper,  scan,  and ink.). The line quality turns out better.  You get tilt sensitivity. If you buy the art pen you get barrel controll.   The surface provides some friction / feedback...


It's not really easy to explain,   you just need to try one.

I use a Bamboo Create tablet (An upgrade from a very old Intuos I had- bigger drawing space and double the sensitivity) along with Paint Tool SAI. I have a copy of CS5, but know little about Photoshop. When I got back into digital art, I wanted a program that was simpler to use, and Paint Tool SAI fit the bill. I need to read my 'Missing Manual' book for photoshop so I can actually use it! 

~~Brunn~~

I use the low end Bamboo tablet with photoshop. It works fine for
me. I have tried large tablets, but since I only use a small area of
it to draw I saw no need to get one.

I think the large ones are generally more for architecture plans and
mechanical designs.

Old Rabbit

It seems like a lot of artists in this thread use an Intuos. In your opinion, what makes this model better than the Bamboo line of tablets?

For me, at the time I got my tablet, Intuos 3 was the only Wacom model available in the size I wanted (8x6 drawing surface.) I'm quite happy with it as it's the perfect size to fit into a laptop bag.

To answer the original question, I use Photoshop and Illustrator - CS4