How to Set up Your Wacom for Awesome Results

Fri, Aug 22, 2008

Design Tip

header2 How to Set up Your Wacom for Awesome Results
A lot of you have asked about how to set up your Wacom for awesome results like this. In this post we’ll cover the basics of getting your Wacom working, some finer details of getting it to work well, and finally some tips for getting better at drawing with a Wacom. We use Intuos 2s & 3s here at Go Media. Specifically, this tutorial was written with the Intuos 3 6×11 in mind.

Step 1

Getting your Wacom installed
Well first of all, just plug the USB cord of your Wacom Tablet into your computer. You’ll see that the pen tracks right away, but it has one major problem; it will not reach to all corners of the screen without having to be picked up for another swipe across the tablet. This is because you haven’t installed the Wacom Software yet.

So calm down. Yes that new toy smell is really exciting, but we’ve got to install some stuff first. Pop in the CD that came with your Wacom or head over to wacom’s website to download the software & drivers for your model. Once installed, you should notice some things are different. First, the tablet is proportional to the screen now - you can point to any spot on the screen without picking up your pen. Second, unlike your mouse, your Wacam pen will point to exactly the same spot on your screen when it is pointed at the corresponding spot on the tablet. This is really cool once you get comfortable with it.

Step 2

Adjust your Wacom’s settings Fire up Photoshop or PainterX and play around

I know you want to!

I’m only going to to cover the use of the Wacom with Photoshop because it is all we use at Go Media. For a great video tutorial on Wacom settings in PainterX, check out Ray Frenden’s guest post from a while back.
PSD Brush PropertiesGo ahead and create a new Photoshop Document at a pixel resolution equal to your screen resolution. Set your foreground color to black and select the Brush Tool. Press on the rocker button closest to the tip of your pen, which should be mapped to be a right click by default. Set the brush hardness all the way to 100% and size to about 20px. Press F5 to bring up the Brushes palette and make sure the “Shape Dynamics” box is checked. Make sure the rest of the settings match the screenshot.

Now go ahead, draw a squiggly line! Does the brush vary in thickness in response to pressure? Great! It doesn’t? Don’t worry, it happens to us all of the time. Shut down Photoshop, fire up the wacom tablet properties software just for fun, restart Photoshop. Rinse & Repeat.

Step 3

Adjusting your Wacom’s settings

In your start menu you should see a ‘Wacom’ folder, and inside, a ‘Wacom Tablet Properties’ program. This utility helps you tweak the special buttons on your tablet, pen pressure, and a lot of other stuff. The most important setting here (and the only one I’m going to talk about) is the ‘Tip Feel’.
Wacom Tablet Properties
As you can see from the screenshot above, I like pen tip to have a firm feel. This means that I have to press harder to get the same line thickness than at the default settings. I find that being able to keep a constant medium to hard pressure helps me make smoother lines. The software has a handy little preview of how hard you’re pressing so use that as a benchmark to find the best setting.

Drawing Tips

Before I started using a Wacom I imagined that it would magically transform me into a good artist. Not so! In many ways the Wacom is more difficult to control than traditional drawing tools (it’s saving grace is the Undo function). So unfortunately even if you follow this tutorial perfectly I can’t guarantee you’ll be drawing scrolls like Jeff does. Even so, here are some tips for getting better as a Wacom artist.

  1. Practice! Plain old drawing is great, but also try some Wacom training drills. One that I’ve used is trying to draw perfectly spaced even lines from thin to thick. Then try it thick to thin, then thin, thick, thin. Try concentric curves, squares - anything that requires you to keep line thickness and spacing consistent is good.
  2. Zoom in. Your Wacom’s tablet area is proportionate to your screen, not your zoom setting. For that detailed linework go ahead and zoom in to reduce shakiness.
  3. Be Decisive. Quickly drawn lines are naturally straighter, so don’t be bashful.

That’s It!

If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, a Wacom is a great tool for a designer to have around. If you picked one up but never felt like it was working quite right for you, I hope this how-to cleared some things up.

Till next time!

,

This post was written by:

Adam Wagner - who has written 47 posts on GoMediaZine.

I'm a marketer, designer, armchair singer/songwriter, wannabe theoretical physicist/philosopher and recent college grad trying to pack as much living as possible into each day. Working at Go Media makes this pretty easy.

Contact the author

If you enjoyed this post, show your support.
We appreciate it!
Bookmark It! Stumble It! Float It!

44 Comments For This Post

  1. Scott Says:

    hey guys,
    love the posts. I have been completely enraged the few times i have used a wacom. Any lefties work there that have a preferred setup so that hand drag doesn’t make them loose their mind.

  2. Chris OB Says:

    I have the beginner-level Wacom tablet (for now), but it still rocks. Thanks for the tips, I am going to go install the CORRECT drivers right now, so my tablet will actually fit my screen!

  3. Andrew Says:

    Scott: I’m a leftie and I’ve never had a problem. I can’t figure out what you mean with hand drag, the Wacom’s aren’t like laptop trackpads. This uses the pen to measure the location/pressure so dragging your hand on the Wacom wouldn’t cause any problems.

  4. Maren Says:

    I agree with Scott, I LOVE my Wacom tablet. and thanks to you guys, you have encouraged me to use it more frequently to get the results that I want! However, being a lefty can drive you nuts when you roll your hand over the touch sensitive buttons! I’ve even been known to tape a paper over them- any ideas?

  5. George Coghill Says:

    I would also add that setting the buttons on the stylus is another must-do for setting up your Wacom; personally I set one button to the Spacbar so I have instant one-handed access to the Hand tool, and the other button to the Eraser. I actually disable the stylus eraser button since I never use it for anything.

  6. ChequeredManiac Says:

    Nice post, I will be doing a bit of config soon. Thanks

  7. Ragnar Þór Valgeirsson Says:

    Simple but grate as always!

  8. Puke Says:

    I love my Wacky Tablet!
    Trying to draw or use the lasso tool with a mouse is so damn hard. With the pen I have so much more control.

    I wish I could afford a Cintiq tablet…

  9. Grant Friedman Says:

    Great post!

  10. Steve Bryant Says:

    I use a Cintiq 21UX and a Intuos 9×12. I have found that the tips in my pens wear down faster using the Cintiq compared to the Intuos. More than likely due to the hard plastic on the Cintiq. I can say though, that I did get a speed increase with the Cintiq.

  11. whacko Says:

    I find it very useful to set the first rocker switch (the bottom one when holding the pen) to map to the Spacebar key. That way when I am zoomed in working on an Illustrator drawing, I can hold that switch down to drag my work area around, instead of switching to the hand tool or, you know.. actually pressing spacebar ;)

    You tip acts like a left mouse click, I don’t find it incredibly useful to have a button that also acts like a left mouse click.

    I have the upper switch on my tablets set to be right click which is useful for accessing context menus.

    Also one important thing that you guys forgot to mention is that you should map your tablet to your screens aspect ratio. On a 6×11 you lose about a centimeter on the right side of your tablet (depending on your screen size & ratio) but try drawing a real circle without matching aspect ratios…

  12. Pat Says:

    Great post! I love my Wacom. Retouching photos goes so much faster then with a traditional mouse.

  13. alanvalek.com Says:

    Once you use one—you will never, ever go back to a mouse.

  14. Eric Thayne Says:

    Absolutely love my Intuos.

    I had kind of hoped this tutorial would go beyond the basic steps though. Maybe that’s just me…

  15. Youri Says:

    I really should dig up that old Wacom which I never gave an honest chance back in the days. Nice post!

  16. NaldzGraphics Says:

    great tip!!im planning to buy my wacom on the next 2nd week)

  17. Godmachine Says:

    For anyone in Europe and the UK I thought I’d let you know that I use a Trust tablet- cheap (about £15/$30) and easy to use. I bought a Wacom Bamboo- used it for 2 days and returned it. Maybe its just personal taste. just my 2 pence/cents. Tablets are the way forward though.

  18. Geoff May Says:

    Cool tutorial!

  19. Daquan Says:

    This is just lovely…ordered a wacom graphire tablet months ago. Didn’t use it for many months, finally popped the baby open and it simply blooms with creativity in mind. I will purchase an intuos once I save up some cash. I love the software…I had no idea there was additional software to install but the new pressure sensitivity is amazing and the screen to model relationship is much better now.

    I know the intuos has twice as many pressure sensitivity levels as the graphire, I can’t wait to get my hands on that. Thanks so much for this great post, this is another reason why I make sure I read everything you guys post! ;)

  20. Chris Says:

    What is the best Wacom tablet to start off with? I’m an upcoming designer.

  21. Chris Says:

    What Wacom tablet would be the best to start off with? I’m an upcoming designer.

  22. whacko Says:

    One other thing that I find helpful sometimes, is to set the two extra buttons (one at the bottom of each button cluster) on the tablet itself to CTRL-Z for the left one, and SHift-CTRL-Z for the right one. When I am working off a laptop or something I find it convenient to not have to use the keyboard. The other buttons are set to Shift CTRL & Alt by default.

  23. Tom Sinclair Says:

    Great quick tutorial. Bought an Intuos a5 wide a while ago but couldnt get into using it. Really helps to know how to draw on paper before jumping straight in with a wacom!

  24. Tiffany Says:

    sweet

  25. Avangelist Says:

    genius, almost right up there with those Dummy’s books.

    next week:
    how to walk and breathe

    it’s a mouse, just thinner and more accurate.

    I find the pen kicks butt for touch up work on photo’s but struggle with things like UI design, It falls down in lengthy typog menu’s and when you are flicking in and out of the text tool and colour picker constantly you end up putting it down and picking it up more than anything else.

  26. Scott D Says:

    I am about to buy a Wacom and you guys rock for posting this… thank you!! Keep up the awesome work.

  27. Adam Wagner Says:

    @ Whacko, nice tips. I am definitely going to take the next step and set some of that stuff up.

  28. George Coghill Says:

    Scott may be referring to the ‘Touch Strips’ - the scroll areas on the side(s) of the Intuos3 models.

    These can be disabled ( and independently of each other)), perhaps that might be a solution.

  29. Roy Says:

    I love using Wacom tablets but it sure does drive me crazy when the pressure settings don’t register and I have to restart photoshop.
    Glad to know I’m not the only one with this problem.

  30. Matt Says:

    This is great to learn how to setup a tablet but we need more on best practices and tips for drawing. :)

  31. Chris Says:

    Now if only mine wasn’t a decade old. I really need to upgrade.

  32. Steve Bryant Says:

    If you want to use Illustrator and Photoshop to draw with your tablet, check out http://danidraws.com/. It has some cool things on it about using tablets.

  33. vincent Says:

    not bad~ ilike

  34. Adam Wagner Says:

    @ matt: we’re not holding anything back, the tips in the post are basically what we know. Still, I googled around a bit, and here are some pretty cool painting / drawing tips: http://fox-orian.deviantart.com/art/Wacom-Photoshop-Painter-Guide-85536306

  35. Gavin Says:

    I was wondering if you change the settings when you use your tablet to design websites etc? (Talking to anyone with experience) as I am guessing there is more box work and positioning rather than free drawing (Which i know is done on occasion)

    so different setups for different projects?

    If so, can you save and load these quickly?

  36. Scott Says:

    thanks for the replies, good to know that people actually read these, and then even crazier, actually help. I just disabled the buttons on the left.

  37. Clark Says:

    Good info and very helpful…
    But I have a dual monitor setup, with most of my pallets on the second screen… Any advice on setting up a Wacom for that?

  38. Knoxville Website Design Says:

    I too have a Wacom that has been sitting in a box collecting dust for way too long. Time to dig it out and make it my slave again.

  39. ed Says:

    Great tips… no pun intended :)

    A quick question I’m hoping SOMEONE can answer:

    I love my Graphire3, but the pen “sticks” sometimes. It doesn’t “let go” of things on the desktop, or in whatever program I’m working in. For instance, if I’m doing brush work in PS, sometimes it doesn’t life the brush of the image, even though I lift the pen of the tablet. Clicking the buttons doesn’t “drop” the item (or whatever), and I have to lift the pen WAY off the tablet to “reset” things.

    This is super annoying, and I dont’ want to buy a whole new pad. Argh.

    Help!?

  40. Adam Wagner Says:

    Hi Ed,

    I’ve had symptoms like the ones you describe, but it’s usually when my whole computer is sticking because I have too many programs / processes running. So I would ask: How up-to-date is your PC / Mac? It might be struggling with drawing all those pixels?

    Just a thought. Hope you find some other answers too.

  41. sad Says:

    seems that tablet settings window is only available to people who have an intuos or better.

  42. George Coghill Says:

    @sad Yeah, the settings for the Bamboo are not as customizable as the Intuos3 line.

  43. Wilhelm Behr Says:

    Hi, got a small question .. in my drawing flow i often get to change the Angle of my Brush. Is there any way to adjust that on a cintq 12 Wx ? maybe with one of those Express Keys ?

    Regards

    William

  44. Rodney Says:

    I would advise anyone new to the tablet world to stay away from the Adesso tablets and go right to the good stuff…the Wacoms. My first tablet purchase was the Adesso, because it (or I, one) was cheap. It nearly turned me off on tablets. It marked even when the pen was not touching the tablet. Then it would jump. Aaarghh…the memories! I have a Wacom now, and everything is right with the world again!

14 Trackbacks For This Post

  1. Heads Up SevenUp Blogroll for August 25 | GrandmasterB dot com Says:

    [...] of the Olympics Outlaw Design Blog - 40 Free Photoshop Brushes (Spatters, Strokes and Watercolor) Go Media - How to Setup Your Wacom Smashing Magazine - 30 Free High Quality Wordpress Themes BuzzPirates - [...]

  2. Kaip nustatyti savo Wacom planšetę … | Fuzz.lt Says:

    [...] aprašytu paaiškinimu, kaip nustatyti Wacom planšetę, kad išgaut gerus rezultatus piešiant. http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/set-wacom-awesome-results/ Posted in Pamokos | Leave a [...]

  3. Best of the Web - August - PSDTUTS Says:

    [...] Visit Article [...]

  4. More links « Brian’s blog Says:

    [...] http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/set-wacom-awesome-results/ [...]

  5. 14 Free Scatter Brushes & How-to | GoMediaZine Says:

    [...] have to settle for Random settings for variety. (Also, get your Wacom set-up properly by following this guide) Otherwise, check out all these ways to get some more expression out of your Scatter Brushes: 2. [...]

  6. How to Set Up Your Wacom for Awesome Results | DesignM.ag Says:

    [...] Visit Source. [...]

  7. PhotoShop » Blog Archive » Best of the Web - August Says:

    [...] Visit Article [...]

  8. Best of the Web - August | The Human Network (HCI IDC Alumni Blog) Says:

    [...] Visit Article [...]

  9. Free Exclusive resource from Jimiyo: Skull Reference Photos | GoMediaZine Says:

    [...] there are 15 high res skulls at different angles and cut out from the background. So get your Wacom tablet set up and spend an evening drawing over these reference photos. It’s fun and really great [...]

  10. Index.html » Blog Archive » Tablet i co dalej? Says:

    [...] zamieściło na swoim blogu krótki kurs na temat konfiguracji tabletów firmy Wacom. W trzech punktach dowiecie się, jak ustawić sprzęt [...]

  11. How to Set Up your Wacom Tablet for Awesome Results via GoMediaZine « Cloud9 Design Says:

    [...] {photo & article via GoMediaZine} [...]

  12. Visual Static » Blog Archive » Wacom: Bamboo Says:

    [...] version which is perfect for what i need it for. plugged it in, installed drivers, and followed Go Media’s setup tutorial, and started sketching away. Heres my first attempt at a skull after the break. Pretty good [...]

  13. Best of the Web - August Says:

    [...] Visit Article [...]

  14. How to make a vector pattern brush | GoMediaZine Says:

    [...] this seam is really the only subjective part of this whole guide. It really helps if you have a Wacom set up. Hit “B” to activate the brush tool. Set it to 100% hardness. Now just use the [...]

Leave a Reply

Do you have a Gravatar yet? It's that cool icon next to your name. Stop looking like everyone else and upload your own Gravatar for free. If you do, you'll see it by every comment you post on the GOMEDIAZINE and every other blog that supports Gravatars!