Drawing Tablets with FH11?

[MapmakerFL webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Is anyone on this forum using a drawing tablet with Freehand 11 (or 8)? I create maps, and certainly being able to draw with a stylus would be a plus. However, the tablets I've read about say that they work with Photopaint and similar programs, so I don't know if they would directly interface with Freehand so that I could actually use the lines I draw as, well, lines -- rather than having to import as a bitmap, JPG or other. I'd need to be able to manipulate the tablet-drawn file inside Freehand.

Comments, anyone? (PS -- I'm on a PC platform, not MAC).

Thanks!

[maxman23 webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Okay, first things first. It's "Mac," not "MAC." The latter is a huge cosmetics firm. The former is what Apple makes. Got it? (;->))

I don't know about the PC side of things, but I'm on a G5 using Panther and I have successfully used a Wacom Intuos tablet with FHMX... I just don't bother doing it much unless I fancy doing an illustration. Uusaly when I'm in FH it's more for layout and logo design, but I have certainly done a fair amount fo pure drawing with that app. It just seems to me that Photoshop is a more natural fit for a tablet, but as far as I've experienced it, FHG had no problems with my use of the tablet. I don't think that the app supports pressure sensitivity - in fact, I'm pretty sure it doesn't - but if your main interest lies in drawing lines (altering and varying stroke weights as secondary steps) you should be able to do it no problem. In my case, FH just considers the stylus as another pointing instrument - mouse, rollerball mouse, stylus and tablet - I'm guessing it's all the same to FH.

That said, you might try contacting a user forum associated with Wacom and asking the same question.

Max
____________
Max MacDonald
Toronto

[Martin Gamache]

I use a Wacom Intuos2 pen for tracing maps in FH9 and MXa on a Win2000
machine without any problems. I also use it with Photoshop and Painter. I
have a 6x9 tablet and it is a godsend for large vectorizing jobs.


--
Martin Gamache
Cartographer
Alpine Mapping Guild
[url]www.alpinemapguild.com[/url]




"MapmakerFL" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:brf52v$9el$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> Is anyone on this forum using a drawing tablet with Freehand 11 (or 8)? I

create maps, and certainly being able to draw with a stylus would be a plus.
However, the tablets I've read about say that they work with Photopaint and
similar programs, so I don't know if they would directly interface with
Freehand so that I could actually use the lines I draw as, well, lines --
rather than having to import as a bitmap, JPG or other. I'd need to be able
to manipulate the tablet-drawn file inside Freehand.

>
> Comments, anyone? (PS -- I'm on a PC platform, not MAC).
>
> Thanks!
>
>

[Tom Unger]

maxman23;
The calligraphic pen tool can make use of the pressure sensitivity
available with tablets. Wacom is the leading brand of tablet and it may be
the only one tested with MM products. -Tom Unger

[Judy Arndt]

Tom Unger wrote:

> The calligraphic pen tool can make use of the pressure sensitivity
> available with tablets. Wacom is the leading brand of tablet and it may be
> the only one tested with MM products. -Tom Unger

Variable Stroke Pen, Calligraphic Pen, Freeform tool and Eraser all make use
of pressure sensitivity. It's great for free sketching.

You can use the tablet pen to do anything else the mouse can do, such as
draw with the FH pen and pencil tools, access menus and panels, etc. My only
problem with a tablet pen is that it slides around a bit too much for
precision drawing. With a mouse I can 'put on the brakes' with other parts
of the hand.

Judy Arndt

[maxman23 webforumsuser@macromedia.com]

Glad I hang out in this place. I hadn't realized that FH supports pressure sensitivity in tablets. That's great. I'll have to try that out sometime. The little I did before I got too busy at work, was primarily using the freeform tool to make really organic indentations on larger objects. You could get very expressive in a big hurry and it's a gratifying way of moving away from a more clinical computerized illustration look... nice curves and volumes. Guess I simply have to wrap my head around how different the possibilities are in a vector app with a tablet than it is with a pixel app... stop thinking brushe, brush textures, spray radius, etc. and think variable strokes, angled strokes, rapid push and pull techniques to mold parent shapes... cool. Think I'll play around with this stuff a bit more on my break.


Max
____________
Max MacDonald
Toronto

[Rich Hudgins]

Judy,

To avoid the slippage of the typical Tablet/Pen (Plastic against
Plastic) try putting a piece of paper on the tablet surface.

Rich

Judy Arndt wrote:
My only problem with a tablet pen is that it slides around a bit too
much for

> precision drawing. With a mouse I can 'put on the brakes' with other parts
> of the hand.
>
> Judy Arndt
>

[david gangwisch]

I've also found that when using Wacom brand tablets, using their control
panel to alter the pressure curve can help alot. By raising the minimum
pressure, you can alter the minimun pressure so that the pen doesn't start
drawing until you press hard enough to get enough friction.

David W Gangwisch
Software Design Engineer - FreeHand
Macromedia, Inc.


"Rich Hudgins" <rich@nospam-weiss-associates.com> wrote in message
news:brkp8f$n0d$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> Judy,
>
> To avoid the slippage of the typical Tablet/Pen (Plastic against
> Plastic) try putting a piece of paper on the tablet surface.
>
> Rich
>
> Judy Arndt wrote:
> My only problem with a tablet pen is that it slides around a bit too
> much for

> > precision drawing. With a mouse I can 'put on the brakes' with other

parts

> > of the hand.
> >
> > Judy Arndt
> >