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What Input Devices Do You Use?


Markie Jordan-Madden

Markie Jordan-Madden

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My laptop is, unfortunately, not a touch screen, though I imagine it would make doing some things in PS a little easier. I'm currently using a roller ball mouse rather than the built in. What do you use and how do you like it?
 
Touch screens are not at all helpful with Photoshop in my opinion, but I use my Wacom Intuos tablet almost exclusively.

EDIT: Corrected my statement in post #5.
 
That's interesting, I would have thought a touch screen and precision stylus would work better than a mouse. What kind of mouse do you use, if not the built-in? I've found my track ball gives me more precision than a desktop mouse, and as I'm usually in my recliner rather than a desk anyway, this works fine for me when I'm writing or working on other things. Is there a USB "pen" device that works like a mouse, but that you could use on a hard surface to "draw" in PS?
 
Markie Jordan-Madden said:
That's interesting, I would have thought a touch screen and precision stylus would work better than a mouse. What kind of mouse do you use, if not the built-in? I've found my track ball gives me more precision than a desktop mouse, and as I'm usually in my recliner rather than a desk anyway, this works fine for me when I'm writing or working on other things. Is there a USB "pen" device that works like a mouse, but that you could use on a hard surface to "draw" in PS?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I need to make a correction, I was reading screen and thinking TOUCH PAD. Touch screens with a stylus would be great.

I only use my mouse for one function in Photoshop and that's with the Pen Tool, everything else I do with the tablet.
 
I tried the Wacom tablet from my nephew for about a week, it almost ended as a frisbee
:bangdesk:

Now I'm still using my lasermouse...
 
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I agree with Sam, been using the Wacom Intuos Pro Small for some time now and couldn't live without it, the mouse I feed once a week and it's kept in it's cage until I have to use the Pen Tool, having said that I do occasionally use the Tablet with the Pen Tool.
I use the Tablet nearly 80% of the time outside of PS for general Windows operations, the Pen and Touch Pad are just amazing you can do almost anything you need to do without mouse input. Takes some time to get the hang of but once you do you'll never look back.
 
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Eggy said:
I tried the Wacom tablet from my nephew for about a week, it almost ended as a frisbee
:bangdesk:

Now I'm still using my lasermouse...
Click to expand...

Trust me Eggy I was the same when I got my first Wacom Tablet a cheap Bamboo at the time but I stuck with and have loved them ever since. Upgraded to the Wacom Intuos Pro Small
 
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Me too Eggy! It took me quite awhile before I got used to my tablet. Now I would not know what to do without it!!

Not true............I would go straight to Best Buy and get another one immediately!
 
I use a medium WACOM and use the Wacom Mouse as much, or more, than the Wacom pen on the tablet..

I do have Win 10 and a touch screen but use the Wacom.
 
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My editor has a "touch pad" he uses with his laptop, and when the built in mouse pad on my old tablet was giving me issues, he suggested I get one. But I couldn't really afford it at the time and just ended up with a wireless mouse for a while. Then I graduated to the track ball and forgot about the touch pad.

Unfortunately, my tablet was a cheapie and only has 4GB of RAM in it. I was given this laptop for Christmas and have since upgraded the RAM, so there's not much of a budget at the moment for something new. Maybe around the first of the year. I was thinking of a 2 in 1 thing; since I'm an author and I write a lot I need to have an actual keyboard, so I'd like to get the best of both worlds. Maybe.
 
Well a touchscreen is not as good as you think unless your talking about specific models ie microsoft surface pro/ wacom companion. A stylus is ok but opt for a better than standard 1 such as a bluetooth 1 which will allow for pen pressure and tilt.

A normal touchscreen only allows for approx 600 pressure points. the surface pro allows 1024 pressure points which is the same as many standard wacom tablets, With the surface pro I believe you can buy wacom touch stylus which will give you 2048 pressure points the same as companion which natively supports that.

Hence you get far more accuracy. THe next thing to consider is the power behind whatever device your using to launch photoshop. you will get severe brush lag and very inacurate lines with a lot of feathering if your device is struggling with the power.

I have an Ipad Pro and apple pen which works like a wacom cintiq where you draw on the ipad which mirrors display your desktop very good and works out a lot cheaper than a cintique.

My main tablet is an intuos pro but medium which is perfect as I do not like drawing on a screen, guess I am to use to drawing using a tablet.

I also use a logitech G13 Device which gives me programmable macro keys so it removes the need for a keyboard.
 
Thanks for the answer Hoogle, though most of that seems to be Greek to me! I'm not sure what all you guys use Photoshop for. In my case, I'm an author, so my main software is my writing program, Scrivener, which is also a RAM hog (why is it all the good stuff seems to be?). It's one of the reasons I upgraded my RAM to 12GB, even though it wasn't really giving me an issue (yet). My tablet with the 4GB RAM really lagged when using Scrivener, especially if something else happened to be open at the same time. And I really need a physical keyboard; writing on a touch screen is a bit problematic! LOL

My Photoshop use is for making book covers and promotional pieces, so it's not AS important as my other software, though it's very close. So it seems like maybe a Surface Pro would be my next better upgrade? I was actually looking at them late last year because I was planning on purchasing a new unit with my income tax return this spring. I didn't expect to get a laptop for Christmas, it was a nice surprise, and the Asus is working very well for me. But I think I would have an easier time doing certain things in PS if I had a touch screen.
 
Hello all.
Reading this thread I am a newbie and have little if any talent with using PS. I am using it as a hobby so to speak but my learning curve is straight up. I did some fooling around with a photo of my bike and I want to learn how to morph a picture into another pic (basically put DarthVader head/helmet on the front end of my bike). So anyways I made some real beginner attempts and oh boy using a mouse is a joke, so therefore I am going to buy a tablet looking at the following pen tablet and noticed that this is the way to go.

[h=1]Wacom Intuos Pro PTH651 8.8" x 5.5" Active Area USB Pen and Touch Medium[/h]
 
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