An Artist's Tool That's Not Just for Artists
The Graphire digital pen and tablet have long been essential for graphic designers and artists. With the help of Corel Painter Essential 2, which is included with the Graphire4, the Wacom pen can give you the control you need to create just about any type of graphics you want. You simply draw your design against the tablet just as you would with a canvas or piece of blank paper. And if photography is your art of choice, the included Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, along with the included nik Color Efex Pro2 GE filter collection, will let you quickly edit and enhance your digital photos for stunning professional results. And Macintosh users can use the Graphire pen to enjoy all the digital-inking capabilities of Apple Inkwell.
Because all of Wacom's tablets are pressure sensitive--they literally feel the full range of pressure from the pen on the tablet--you get unparalleled control with your creations. Press hard, and you get a more opaque clone, a fatter paintbrush, or a darker stroke. Press lightly, and you have a transparent clone, a thin brush, or a gentle stroke of color. The tablet can even sense the tilt of your pen, giving you the ability to tilt your brush for cool effects.
Microsoft Office OneNote is specially designed for note taking. With the Graphire4, OneNote lets you capture information in several ways. For instance, you can move the cursor to any place on the screen and start writing. You can also add handwritten diagrams and pictures. If you're working with the English language version of Microsoft XP, you can also write directly in a Word document, Explorer search bar, or e-mail, and with the help of Microsoft's handwriting-recognition capabilities, your writing will be converted to text just as if you were using the keyboard.
If you've ever been in the position of reviewing documents, you know how inefficient it can be to print out your document, mark it up, and then forward your comments. With Graphire4, you can convert any of your documents to Adobe PDF, digitally sign it, and mark up the documents using your pen and tablet just as you would with pen. You simply select the pen tool from your PDF toolbar and add your comments and revisions. When you're done, you can just forward the document via e-mail, saving several time-consuming steps.
If you are a teacher or need to make presentations to a business audience, you can even use Graphire4 to turn your PowerPoint presentation into a "whiteboard." With PowerPoint's pen tool, you can add your handwritten marks onto a blank slide or straight onto your slides. This gives you all the flexibility of the old-fashioned overhead projector, but without the mess to clean up.
Advanced Tools That Know Few Boundaries
At the heart of the Graphire4 is a wireless, battery-free digital pen that offers 512 levels of pressure sensitivity for maximum control, two programmable side buttons for convenience, and a pressure-sensitive eraser for easy fixes. Pressure sensitivity makes it possible to control the amount of a software tool's effect simply by varying how firmly the pen tip is pressed to the tablet, just as you would with a mechanical pen or pencil. Using a Graphire4 pen is easy because every point on the tablet has a matching point on the screen. When the pen is moved over the tablet, the cursor moves in precisely the same way on the screen.
The cordless, battery-free mouse offers smooth and highly accurate tracking with up to four times the resolution of an optical mouse. It features a rubberized grip for comfort, and the scrolling finger wheel also serves as a third programmable button for convenience. By alternately using the pen and mouse, you can significantly reduce the repetitive motion that contributes to stress injuries.
The Graphire4 also profits from years of research into how people use pens and tablets. Everything from the elegant shape and feel of the pen--with its tapered waist and finger flare--to the exact texture of the drawing surface is designed to minimize strain and maximize comfort.