Mr Elkins, this is an excellent post that I found using search. I am commenting to bring it back to the first page so many can see and read it if they are thinking about the Wacom tablet. I just received the Intuos Pro Medium for Christmas and have watched phlearn's videos online. Very helpful.

I like that it is easy to change to flip it over for us southpaws and have all the functionality the right handed people have. The pressure sensitive pen is amazing.

Your points about fatigue are something that I did not think of when I got the medium but remapping fixes any of that.

Another feature I like having the medium size tablet for is for tracing some drawings into PS.

I am very happy to have this tool and I really hope my "selections" in PS really improve over what I have been doing in the past.

Again thanks for an excellent and informative post! Which is why I went with Mr. Elkins!!!

The answer is yes if you want to be serious about creating world class images.
If you're a straight out of the camera type probably not.

Why do many people have problems with using tablets?

Tablets work on the same concept as a mouse so theroretically anyone using a mouse should be able to use a tablet. When using a mouse you can rest your hand on a mouse and hence, not get fatigued as quickly as what a tablet causes. Most people who attempt to use a tablet try to use a tablet like a mouse, however you cannot rest your hand similarly and the pivot point using your arm causes inaccuracies and fatigue when using a pen and tablet.

Is there a solution to the fatigue and inaccuracy problem?

Absolutely.
By remapping only a small portion of your wacom tablet to the screen you can rest the palm of your hand on the tablet and use the meat at the base of your palm as your resting point. A 4 inch by 6 inch movement can then cover your entire screen no matter how large. To do detail work you can zoom by using that same 4 inch by six inch area. This is how professional retouchers can do such fine detail work. It is more accurate to use this method as well as less fatiguing when compared with a mouse. I have spent many 12 hour days retouching photos with no fatigue.

As a final note, speed in editing is also increased by using less surface area on the tablet surface. The speed increase as you get better is substantial.

What is the best size tablet to get?
I could never figure out why anyone would go with anything other than a small Wacom tablet. If Wacom came out with a micro size I would prefer that tablet.
Again I only use 25 percent of the area of my small. Even using the entire area of the small can quickly cause arm fatigue. I am often on the go and a small more easily fits in a laptop case than any other size.

Arron Nace over at PhLEARN.com has a great tutorial on how to remap a Wacom tablet to get better use and less fatigue. You can also google it or go to YouTube. Arron would be considered by many to be the best of the best in photo editors.

If your having trouble with your Wacom tablet try remapping it and doing your work with the base of your palm as your pivot point. I promise it will be much more enjoyable than a mouse or using the full Wacom surface area.


I once had a Wacom intuous iii large when I started using a tablet. I ended up throwing it out. I couldn't sell it in good faith to anyone. In the tablet world smaller is really better.

If anyone doing photo manipulation has remapped their Wacom to using only a portion of the Wacom and has found that works, please post a comment of how that is working for you.

I personally could never get the quality of my images without using small movements controlled at the wrist rather than the elbow or arm.

Best regards
Russ Elkins.

I had the small Wacom and was fine using it on a 27" monitor. Then I got the Medium - I did not buy it, I won it at a drawing at a PPA convention. Took no time to map that sucker to a smaller active area.

There are two reasons I can think of to get the medium: the ability to map two monitors to that space- cool to watch the cursor just move to the second monitor as you move the pen across; and,
the control buttons and scroll wheel that can be used to cycle through layers, zoom the image (just like Cmd+/-), easily select the precision mode.

Great tutorial, Russ.