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Wacom Cintiq 21UX tablet
The latest pen-to-screen drawing tool is Wacom's Cintiq 21UX tablet. BD asked a trio of demanding users to put it through its paces. They found it precise, seamless and just tempting enough to be worth the cost
The architect: Stuart Piercy, director of Piercy Conner
We've been playing with Wacom graphic tablets in our studio for a few years, and after practice only very few people would return to a mouse. Tablets offer a freedom and a naturally precise motion that just isn't possible with the confined movement of a mouse.
The Cintiq 21UX is a pretty amazing bit of kit, incorporating a stunning 21-inch LCD screen with a fully functional tablet and cordless pressure-sensitive pen.
There isn't room here to discuss how the tablet can be customised but, in short, it has: a large seamless working area, 1,600 x 1,200 screen resolution, 170 degree viewing, 1,024 levels of pen pressure, pen tilt facility (you can actually use the edge of a chisel nib), full-screen rotation and a huge array of custom nibs.
This is a high-end graphics tablet and, at pounds 1,899 plus VAT, is not cheap. My immediate thought was that this cost (the price of two cad workstations) could simply not be justified. But this was before I tried the Cintiq.
Since then I've been trying to think of ways to justify the expense. There is no doubt that the...