Archive republication: This review originally appeared in Digital Production 04:2019 and was republished online in May 2021. Features, compatibility, pricing and workflow details reflect the historical hardware and software tested at that time.
This article originally appeared in Digital Production 04:2019.
Wacom had introduced the latest Intuos Pro only a few weeks before this review. Rather than simply listing its new features, the aim was to test it in practice: what does a graphics tablet offer someone accustomed to using a mouse?
Learning a new input method is demanding, especially when it is not directly connected to everyday workstation use. At FMX, a reader had raised the practical question: if someone does not draw all day, is such a device worth buying, and how painful is the transition?
Challenge accepted. The Intuos Pro tested here was the latest revision of Wacom’s workhorse line. It measured 32 by 20cm, with an active area of 16 by 10cm. ExpressKeys and a Touch Ring made this model—and related predecessors—a familiar sight on professional desks. It connected by USB or Bluetooth and shipped with a pen, cable and pen stand. The street price at the time ranged from €200 to €240. According to Wacom, the pen offered 8,192 pressure levels and recognised 60 degrees of tilt. The programmable ExpressKeys and Touch Ring could trigger application-specific actions, be assigned freely or replace mouse buttons.
The reviewer
It would not have been a meaningful test if an experienced tablet user had conducted it. As a left-hander who had never spent much time with a tablet, drew masks with a mouse and possessed only rudimentary drawing ability, I attempted to make the switch during production of Digital Production. This issue and the following one would therefore involve plenty of clicking—and experimentation.
The first hour
The tablet arrived in sturdy packaging. Connection and setup were remarkably simple: connect by USB, download the current software from Wacom, reboot and it worked. The settings were notably left-hander-friendly, allowing the device orientation to be changed from a drop-down menu during the setup assistant.
The first hurdle was that, when using the pen as a mouse, the pen does not move on the tablet surface but slightly above it. Because I normally hold a pen just above paper, that behaviour was confusing. I changed the software setting rather than retraining the habit. The pen’s two buttons were assigned to right-click and middle-click, and the test began.
The first day
Three hours later, my aching hand was soaking in warm water to ease the tension: the transition used unfamiliar muscles. Tablet precision and my motor skills were not yet a convincing combination, and decades of leaving a mouse stationary to keep the cursor still were difficult to unlearn. Even drag-and-drop in the file manager became a challenge.
The first weekend
After three days, precision improved. Orientation on the tablet became more natural, and it was now used in touch mode roughly half the time. I tried around ten different button configurations but had not yet found the ideal setup.
Conclusion
The hardware itself felt sturdy and professional and performed as intended. The main obstacle was not installation but the transition from a standard mouse and familiar buttons to freely assignable ExpressKeys and gesture control. The long-term test continued into the next issue. At this stage, I still missed the mouse in daily work, and neither speed nor precision had reached the same level.
