Pen Friends
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday October 25, 2003
Wacom is drawing harmony from its mass-market digital art tool.
There was a time in our culture when names meant something but today most of us no longer know the original meaning of Fred,
Mervyn or Mavis.
The Japanese, however, have the charming idea that a name should convey something of the individual's spirit, so you have monikers such as "ray of morning sunshine" and "beautiful mist over the reeds".
They name their companies and products similarly. Epson, for example, means "son of electronic printer". Not romantic but meaningful.
Much more into hearts and flowers is Wacom, makers of those amazing pen-operated, touch-sensitive tablets used by artists, designers, lighting technicians and even the engineers who ride the explosions of sound at rock concerts.
Thus, the name is pronounced "Wah-com", not "Way-com". "Wa" means harmony and "com" is short for computer, so, as Wacom's Australian business rep David Spencer says, a Wacom tablet is in harmony with its computer.
Wacom began in 1983 and was there to embrace the first Macintosh in 1984. But the big move came in 1987 with the introduction of the world's first cordless, battery-less, pressure-sensitive pen. Not only could you draw lines on your Mac, you could make the line wider or darker just by pushing down.
Today, power is drawn from the USB port. Tiny coils under the tablet's face not only note stylus movements but, being transmitters, also pass power to the pen, a transponder.
Most of Wacom's customers are Mac users and graphics professionals but now, in the Digital Lifestyle age, Wacom is going for the mass market, extending the harmony to us of modest talent who want to edit pictures, create digital paintings, use Apple's Inkwell handwriting technology and get astonishing effects at the swipe of a pen.
I drew an eagle, which looked like a twisted omelette, and then, by clicking on a patterns palette, spread an array of pine trees below it. Another click, another pen-swipe, and rows of roses arose in the foreground. Fascinating!
Wacom has produced consumer-level tablets for three years but the new Graphire3 represents a push for consumers, with three pretty colours, including a soft Japanese pink, and sales through Harvey Norman, OfficeWorks and Myer Grace Brothers.
It will not turn you into a latter-day Monet, though some of my stuff looks Picasso-esque (I never could get eyes straight) but getting acceptable effects is easy.
Help is plentiful online and, from a tutorial as well as an animated website called Tabletopia (pronounced "Tablet-opia"), lots of fun, if a bit twee, with audio from the cartoon helpers (American and Japanese accents).
The Graphire3 is compatible with most Mac graphics and text applications, such as Word and Photoshop, and comes with painting, editing and handwriting software. You can put your real signature on an email, stretch your brother's ears, donkey-like, in a photo, make drawings for the web, create jazzy postcards and email or print them and generally have a happy, productive time.
Inkwell, the new Apple handwriting system derived from the Newton, which is part of Mac OS X 10.2.x, is great on Wacom, allowing you to turn your scrawl into neat typing in Word, Photoshop, Illustrator or any other text-capable program. (It also works in Windows but you may need to buy extra software.)
The biggest human problem is in changing the way your brain directs your hand. With a mouse, you drag across the desk; with the Wacom you point, not drag, to the part of the palette that relates to the screen. Drag to draw a line. Point and press to change from a pen to a brush to a bucket of colour.
The standard Graphire3 has a 4-inch by 5-inch drawing area and sells for $130. A 6-inch by 8-inch model costs $264.
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald
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