by Tina Z. Velgos

Point and click, click and d-r-a-g that mouse!! Let's face it. There's something unnatural about drawing on a computer screen by using a mouse. Sure, it can be done but it detracts from the artistic beauty and fine control of drawing, sketching, painting and even doodling! Drawing with a mouse is also more time-consuming and awkward than it should be. If you 'd feel more comfortable with a pen in your hand, digitizing tablets are the solution.

Digitizing tablets are high-tech drawing tools which allow computer users, with the use of a pressure-sensitive pen stylus and a thin, lightweight electromagnetic tablet, an affordable, fun and fast way to draw, sketch, paint and create masterpieces on the computer. You can even comfortably sketch images on a digitizing tablet on your lap. Think of it as a laptop drawing tablet!

One of the things that digitizing tablets are excellent for is photo restoration, including re-touching old family photographs which may have spots, stains and tears on them. They are also great for doing portraits of people and animals since you can easily balance the 4" x 5" size tablet on your lap. I was impressed with the precision and control the pen stylus gave me when I traced a stained glass pattern from a template, for instance. The possibilities are endless when it comes to using digitizing tablets for practical uses.

Gone are the days when digitizing graphics tablets were used solely by professional graphic artists and engineers.Of course, professional artists are still using digitizing tablets (the primary difference is the size as professionals tend to prefer larger and therefore, more expensive digitizing tablets), but fortunately, lower-priced consumer digitizing tablets are here to stay! With family budgets in mind, this is the first in a series of reviews on 4" x 5" digitizing tablets. This month's feature is on the CalComp Drawing Slate II.

CalComp is one of several companies who design and manufacture low-cost digitizing tablets for home use. CalComp's smallest digitizing tablet, the Drawing Slate II, has a 4 x 5-inch active surface area, is only about 1/4 inch thick, weighs less than a pound and includes a pressure sensitive, erasing pen . The Drawing Slate II (available for users of Apple Macintosh and IBM PC and compatible computers) has a suggested retail price of $150.00, and often comes bundled with Fractal Design's Dabbler 2 (the bundle often sells for about $130 in stores and catalogs).

CalComp's cordless pen uses electromagnetic technology to send information on its location, height and tilt to the sensor grid, which translates the pen's signals into electronic information usable by a computer. While, the controller board interprets analog and digital information for the microcontroller of the host computer. What does all of this mean to you? Simply, through this unique technology, CalComp has re-created the experience of working with real pen and paper. The technology is able to accurately imitate the size, weight and feel of a high-quality writing instrument. The software included in Drawing Slate II allows users to use the graphics tablet as both a digitizer and a mouse.

After three weeks of intensive family testing, the durable Drawing Slate II convinced me that we no longer need a mouse in our house! The ease of installation (We installed it on a Macintosh Performa in minutes) was a definite plus. Drawing Slate II connects to Macintosh computers via the ADB port and to IBM PC and compatibles via the RS-232 serial port.

The pressure-sensitive pen with "fumble-free" erasing feature (and handy pen holder) makes the Drawing Slate II the ideal multimedia tool for everyone ranging from pre-schoolers to the artistically challenged. I found the Drawing Slate II incredibly responsive, especially because of the the smooth drawing surface of the graphics tablet and the ease of the pressure-sensitive pen. It also has two buttons on the pen stylus which you can program with erase functions, macro options or double-clicking mouse functions. The product comes with a lifetime warranty from CalComp as well as support in the form of built-in diagnostics, help screens and a toll-free technical support hotline.

Pair the Drawing Slate II with most drawing programs, including kids' art programs like Kid Pix Studio or professional applications like Fractal Design Painter, Aldus Freehand, or Adobe Photoshop, and you'll see how easy it is to create wacky and brilliant illustrations and paintings, not to mention the ease of tracing patterns with the digitizing tablet. I recommend using Fractal Design's Dabbler 2 software with Drawing Slate II for the best all-around drawing and painting experience.

Digitizing art tablets are ecologically cool...just think of the amount of art supplies, including paper, paints, crayons, pens and pencils that you are saving by creating images on the computer! Of course, you can always print a design or save a creation by disk. With that in mind, digitizing tablets can quickly pay for themselves. When kids use digitizing tablets, there's no mess to clean up afterwards, unlike using traditional media like crayons and finger paints! Your computer becomes a virtual canvas with a gazillion possibilities and options at your fingertips.

CalComp's pressure-sensitive pen has up to 256 different sensitivity levels which you can adjust depending on your preferences. Initially, I had expected a learning curve to adjust to the feel of the pen stylus. However, I felt comfortable immediately with the pen because its weight felt very natural to draw and click with. The pen stylus is cordless, and uses two batteries (you can choose to run the pen with four batteries for longer periods between changes). The pen stylus goes to sleep if you leave it unattended for several minutes to preserve battery use. The Drawing Slate II comes with 4 batteries, while the average battery life is between 750 - 1,000 hours of use while using two pen batteries and 1,500 to 2,000 hours using four pen batteries.

The "fumble-free" erasing feature on Drawing Slate II is interesting. Unlike other tablets in which you can flip the pen upside down to activate the erase function, the user can press a button on the stylus to erase. Voila! This way, you don't lose track of the spot on the tablet where the pen stopped drawing. The erasable feature works with many software titles, like Dabbler 2, Fractal Design Painter 3.1 for Macintosh and Adobe PhotoShop 3.04 for Macintosh and PC.

Unlike other tablets in the $150 price range, Drawing Slate II has a menu strip, which is a row of 14 touch-pad keys on top of the tablet. Menu strips are usually found on high-end digitizing tablets and are an excellent time-saver, since you can customize your digitizing tablet with handy functions.The three groups of keys are Mode, Toolbox and Macros. For instance, in the toolbox section, you can open, save, cut, copy, paste and undo, all by touching a key! By using the tablet mode, the screen cursor appears at the exact location that the poionting tool contacts the tablet which is ideal for tracing and drawing. The mouse mode imitates the traditional mouse, excellent for selecting and pointing. I found these pre-programmed keys to be outstanding features of the Drawing Slate II, which give it a competitive edge over other digitizing tablets in the same price range.

There are two distinctive green indicator lights on the Drawing Slate II: power and tablet mode. The power light turns on when the power is on and indicates whether the pen stylus is within range of the drawing area. The power light glows when the pen stylus is inside the drawing area and blinks if it is outside the drawing area. The tablet mode light turns on whenever the tablet is in tablet mode. Tablet mode "maps" the tablet to the monitor screen. This simply means that when you place the pen stylus at a specific area on the tablet, your screen pointer also moves to that location on the monitor. If the light is off, the tablet is in mouse mode. Mouse mode simulates the traditional mouse.

Very similar to sketching with pencils, charcoal or pen and ink, the pen stylus allows you to apply pressure, responding by varying line widths, ease of shading and color blending. I was amazed at the amount of control 4-year-old Timmy had as he traced designs from a coloring book and applied color to the design. You can save, modify or revise settings that you make. For instance, I preferred a very light, sensitive touch to the pen stylus, while the kids exerted more pressure on the pen and needed a more moderate setting.

The beauty of the Drawing Slate II is its multi-function capacity. Besides a precise drawing tool, the pen stylus provides point and click functions of a mouse. It's no coincidence that the 4" x 5" digitizing tablet is a very similar size to a mousepad. You can easily substitute the Drawing Slate II for both mouse and mousepad. You can also use connect the mouse AND the pen stylus to your computer at the same time if you prefer using the traditional mouse for certain functions like file management. I felt very confident while using the Drawing Slate II for drawing AND file management, general computer navigation, and, of course, surfing the Web.

Although the 4" x 5" digitizing tablet fits perfectly next to a keyboard, some users may prefer a larger tablet. CalComp has a range of sizes available from 6" x 9"( $280.00 suggested retail price) to 12" x 18".

I found CalComp's Drawing Slate II an ideal family multi-purpose digitizing tablet. It combined all the advantages of a traditional mouse together with a sturdy graphics tablet which eliminated multiple input devices and allowed for a sleek, high-tech desktop. Simple to use, easy to install and affordable, Drawing Slate II makes artwork a comfortable experience, and is especially versatile for kids.

How do other digitizing tablets on the market size up? Read Pandora's ToyBox next month for a review of the Wacom ArtPad II to find out.

CalComp DrawingSlate II
CalComp
2411 W. LaPalma Ave.
Anaheim, CA 92801
(800) 932-1212

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