I’ve been dealing with a cartoonist lately for one of my jobs. He’s got a nice style — loose and simple. But he works in hard copy. As in, ink and paper. And since he’s in one state and I’m in another, this has posed some challenges for shuttling work, particularly since he doesn’t seem to own his own scanning device. (These days, I thought scanning devices were so common as to be handed out in cereal boxes.)

I’ve mildly suggested that he consider getting a software application to handle his work so that the digital copy of his art could be emailed to me, but there’s something about pen on paper that appeals to this guy.

But I’m thinking that maybe I need to present him with cool toy to spark his “inner geek.” Specifically, I have my eyes on the little Wacom Bamboo Digitizing Tablet. Priced comparable to the nicest Etch-a-Sketch you could ever buy, this device lets the user touch a pen tip to the tablet to write notes, mark up digital documents, create a digital signature and best of all, make quick sketches.

It works with Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007 or the OS X-built-in Mac Ink and connects to the computer via USB cable, which is detachable.

PriceGrabber reviewers love it. “My favorite aspect of this tablet is its texture,” writes anvilfactory. “When you press the tip of the pen onto its active area, it resembles the feeling of a pen against paper!”

“Compared to what my conventional method used to be, instead of having to scan my sketches and then redrawing solid lines with the mouse, I can now draw directly on the computer, as if I was drawing on paper,” writes shmps.

“This is the best for the bang tablet that made by a well known vendor and the only tablet that doesn’t use batteries!,” writes pcdoctor01 from GA. (The power draws through the USB connection from the PC — standard operating procedure, apparently, for Wacom products.)

Hmm. Maybe it’s time for me to put aside my keyboard and find my inner artist…

Posted on March 21st, 2008 by dian