Whether you're an artist, graphic designer, or business person, the Wacom Graphire4 4x5 USB Tablet can make your life a lot easier and more productive. Using the Graphire4's unique pressure-sensitive wireless pen and tablet, you can mark up Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF documents with your handwritten comments, edit and enhance your digital photos, quickly create original digital art work, add handwritten notes to your PowerPoint presentations, write your e-mail messages by hand, and much more. Not only will the Graphire4 help your productivity soar, it will also reduce the problems associated with repetitive stress problems and bring a level of performance to your work that is not possible with a typical keyboard and mouse.
Wacom Graphire4 4x5 USB Tablet features a unique, pressure-sensitive wireless pen and tablet. View larger.
An Artist's Tool That's Not Just for Artists The Graphire digital pen and tablet have long been essential for graphic designers and artists. With the help of Corel Painter Essential 2, which is included with the Graphire4, the Wacom pen can give you the control you need to create just about any type of graphics you want. You simply draw your design against the tablet just as you would with a canvas or piece of blank paper. And if photography is your art of choice, the included Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, along with the included nik Color Efex Pro2 GE filter collection, will let you quickly edit and enhance your digital photos for stunning professional results. And Macintosh users can use the Graphire pen to enjoy all the digital-inking capabilities of Apple Inkwell.
Wacom's cordless, battery-free pen is loaded with functionality.
Because all of Wacom's tablets are pressure sensitive--they literally feel the full range of pressure from the pen on the tablet--you get unparalleled control with your creations. Press hard, and you get a more opaque clone, a fatter paintbrush, or a darker stroke. Press lightly, and you have a transparent clone, a thin brush, or a gentle stroke of color. The tablet can even sense the tilt of your pen, giving you the ability to tilt your brush for cool effects.
Microsoft Office OneNote is specially designed for note taking. With the Graphire4, OneNote lets you capture information in several ways. For instance, you can move the cursor to any place on the screen and start writing. You can also add handwritten diagrams and pictures. If you're working with the English language version of Microsoft XP, you can also write directly in a Word document, Explorer search bar, or e-mail, and with the help of Microsoft's handwriting-recognition capabilities, your writing will be converted to text just as if you were using the keyboard.
If you've ever been in the position of reviewing documents, you know how inefficient it can be to print out your document, mark it up, and then forward your comments. With Graphire4, you can convert any of your documents to Adobe PDF, digitally sign it, and mark up the documents using your pen and tablet just as you would with pen. You simply select the pen tool from your PDF toolbar and add your comments and revisions. When you're done, you can just forward the document via e-mail, saving several time-consuming steps.
Altering documents and photos is a breeze with the Wacom Graphire4 tablet. View larger.
If you are a teacher or need to make presentations to a business audience, you can even use Graphire4 to turn your PowerPoint presentation into a "whiteboard." With PowerPoint's pen tool, you can add your handwritten marks onto a blank slide or straight onto your slides. This gives you all the flexibility of the old-fashioned overhead projector, but without the mess to clean up.
Advanced Tools That Know Few Boundaries At the heart of the Graphire4 is a wireless, battery-free digital pen that offers 512 levels of pressure sensitivity for maximum control, two programmable side buttons for convenience, and a pressure-sensitive eraser for easy fixes. Pressure sensitivity makes it possible to control the amount of a software tool's effect simply by varying how firmly the pen tip is pressed to the tablet, just as you would with a mechanical pen or pencil. Using a Graphire4 pen is easy because every point on the tablet has a matching point on the screen. When the pen is moved over the tablet, the cursor moves in precisely the same way on the screen.
The Graphire4 tablet uses a USB connection for quick installation on both PCs and Macs. At a compact 4 by 5 inches, it offers a large enough area to do your work but is portable enough to be carried wherever you need to go. A transparent photo frame surrounding the work area makes the tablet easy to personalize with photos and artwork. The photo frame also contains a clever pen compartment that, along with the pen stand, provides two convenient ways to keep the pen handy and secure. The Graphire4 also features a scroll wheel right on the tablet and two programmable ExpressKeys for navigation, mouse clicks, and keyboard shortcuts. With a sleek silver design, the Graphire 4 will nicely complement your work station. (Note: the Graphire4 4x5 USB Tablet is also available in white and metallic blue.)
The cordless, battery-free mouse offers smooth and highly accurate tracking with up to four times the resolution of an optical mouse. It features a rubberized grip for comfort, and the scrolling finger wheel also serves as a third programmable button for convenience. By alternately using the pen and mouse, you can significantly reduce the repetitive motion that contributes to stress injuries.
The Graphire4 also profits from years of research into how people use pens and tablets. Everything from the elegant shape and feel of the pen--with its tapered waist and finger flare--to the exact texture of the drawing surface is designed to minimize strain and maximize comfort.
The Wacom Graphire4 4x5 USB Tablet is loaded with great features, such as the ExpressKeys, Tablet Wheel, clear tablet cover, and the patented, cordless, pressure-sensitive pen. View larger.
What's in the Box Graphire4 4x5 pen tablet, pen, pen stand, mouse, 2 CD-ROMs, Wacom tablet driver software, user manual, and bundled software (Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, Corel Painter Essentials 2,and nik Color Efex Pro 2 GE)
Product Features
* Pressure sensitive pen and tablet ideal for creative and business applications * Battery-free digital pen offers 512 levels of pressure sensitivity for maximum control, two programmable side-buttons, and a pressure-sensitive eraser for easy fixes * Connects to Macs and PCs easily via USB connection * Includes Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, Corel Painter Essentials 2, nik Color Efex Pro 2 GE
Rated on 2008-08-21I have owned one of these tablets for a couple years now and really love it. It works great with XP and older versions of adobe and MS Office. When you spend $2000 for the entire Adobe collection and nearly as much for the full Office collection you expect your software to last a while.
The only problems I have had are due to the way I use the tablet heavily all day long on the arm of a recliner. It falls onto the carpet a lot and constant movement each time I get up and set it off to the side... which has now worn through the cable shielding and only the two wires are holding it in place. Another problem is the tablet would be better about 1/3 smaller on the arm of the chair for my needs.
With heavy use the rubber cover on the pen between the two buttons will eventually tear in that spot but does not affect the use or performance. It stays in place unless you mess with it.
The only other complaint was the lack of information which came with the tablet. It never explained how the product worked. Nor did it state that the product was of a magnetic nature and never required batteries. Even an experienced computer user who had never used a device like this may not know these do not need batteries.
Wacom should spell this out clearly in the instructions. If you have never used a product like this and with the total lack of info about the pen in the package, you would be wanting to know if it heId batteries or not and thus you would be inclined to check out the pen... which is not something you want to do. To open the pen is to break the pen. It cannot open unless you destroy it. Even though I'm an engineer, I broke the first one trying to look inside when I couldn't find info on the pen and was having problems with it because I had it too close to other devices which were interfering with each other. So I had to buy a new pen... pricey.. over $30 for the pen. If you want to know what is inside the pen, I will tell you. It is a very long narrow circuit board with magnets inside copper windings. If you try to pull the pen apart, it will break the tiny circuit board in half and unless you feel like resoldering the runs and gluing the board together, I wouldn't recommend it. There are microcircuits on it which can break in half along with the circuit board.
Keep the pen away from wireless keyboards and don't lay it on your chest if you have a pacemaker or defibrillator. The magnet is weak but can cause your cardiac device to reset or produce glitches. So if you are being constantly paced, you might want to avoid laying the pen or mouse on your chest... keep your cell phone away from your chest and wireless keyboards, etc., as well.
The Bamboo tablet is for Vista and doesn't work with older software according to others who bought it... so don't let them get away with forcing you to spend a ton of money to upgrade. This one works fine. Like I said on another commentary... it is just like the automakers who were greedy and would not listen... if a product is not user friendly and affordable, they will lose their shirts because most people are at the point where they are not going to be forced into buying a bunch of upgrades. Products should be able to handle older software. The Bamboo is the first time I have ever seen a product limited to Vista and 2007 software only. That is a sign of lazy software developers work on the drivers. Maybe they will get the message like the car companies if people stop buying their newer products.
I have become so accustomed to using the pen, I never use a mouse at all anymore. I particularly like the pinpoint accuracy I can get when editing images on Adobe Photoshop or CS3. Pen size is perfect and comfortable. I definitely recommend this product. I have never had any problems with the performance.
Rated on 2008-04-03As many mentioned it already, the unit is very well made and provides years of trouble free operations. I have mine for some two years and it is reliably fun to use it. The bundled software is huge value!
Rated on 2008-02-12The rubber grip of the stylus disintegrated in a few weeks. Then with an unprotected skeleton of a pen, one of the buttons fell out. (It still works, just looks bad.) I have used the same tablet before, though, and it lasted for years, so I would recommend it all over again and buy it again. The tablet is protected by a strong acrylic casing, so the entire surface is smooth.
Rated on 2007-11-24Works perfectly, no reason to get the more expensive version. Size is good for drawing.
Rated on 2007-10-18The Wacom Graphire4 may be a little small at only 4x5, but it is a great option for those looking for a cheap tablet. I purchased this item partly because of the great programs packaged with it. It is a great option for the casual artist.
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