Is it time for touchscreen to replace pen tablet?

[tompenpark]

I've read this forum and didn't find this topic so I might ask here.

I just ordered Medium Intuos 4 online.
After talking with my friend who is Adobe rep in Thailand, I'm quite concern.

He told me that touch screen technology will come to replace pen tablet anyway. HP, Asus got touchscreen already, Apple coming soon with tablet too. Why do I buy the Wacom for $300 now?

Then I watch this VDO

I love retouching and I always use my mouse. I'm new to pen tablet, tried once on Bamboo but hate it. But all my friends told me to get one.

What is your advise? keep it or get the tablet?
Thank you,
Tom

[skiwolf9]

Unless the touch screen is sitting straight in front of you just like a pen and tablet, I'm staying with my Wacom tablet. I've been using the 3 ever since it came out and that 4 is on my list. I just watched that video link you posted, doesn't do a thing for me. I don't see a selling point. Why would one want to work on a screen with hand movement going all over the place, wasting time and energy. When you can have a large monitor with a 6x8 tablet in front of you that covers the entire screen without all the hand movement? G

[cricket1961]

Stick with your new Wacom Tom.

Touchscreen is great for maneuvering around a screen etc. But your fingers are much to thick to do any kind of retouching except for finger painting.
The tablet might disappear in a decade or so but the pen will always be there.

Chris

[Littlecoo]

I can see that a touchscreen with 'pen mode' capability(such as autoswitching to pen only when it senses one near the screen) would be a mighty useful thing. But without the ability to switch to using a pen/stylus with the pressure/tilt/flow sensitivity pro pen tablets have, most artists/retouchers etc would consider the touchscreen a significant downgrade- sketching/drawing with any kind of control and precision with your fingers is a nightmare. I can't do it, can you? I would find a typical touchscreen almost useless for graphics work.

[Kraellin]

He told me that touch screen technology will come to replace pen tablet anyway.

i dont think that's going to happen. touchscreen is cute, but clumsy. us folks with big, old, fat fingers are never going to be comfortable with touchscreens for fine work. it just wont happen. touchscreen, to me, is more of a fad or novelty or gadget than the coming wave. stick with your mouse or tablet. you'll be fine.

as for not liking the tablet, every person i've ever heard comment on their first use of a tablet said pretty much the same thing, but that once they got used to it they swore they'd never go back. not trying to talk you into using one or getting one, but maybe you just didnt give it a long enought trial?

[Quantum3]

I don't find the touch screen precise or accurate. There is too much delay in the movements, hand must be over the screen and that will stain it and the color accuraccy of that screen may be is bad. I don't know, but I guess that an screen that's hurt by a finger or pen isn't sooo good.

[dvbear]

Tablets will always be in existence but as the hardware improves they may be bundled in with touchscreens.
Although I don't see any particular use in their iPad, I feel Apple always makes great products. The technology is getting there but for now the Intuos 4 is a BEAST.

[Paul Mayes]

I think it will eventually but it is a way off yet.

I'd love to have a large screen area to work on, losing the clutter of a pad, mouse and perhaps even the keyboard. Now call me old fashioned, but when I used to work on a drawing board I didn't have all the physical ailments assocoiated with sitting at a computer for 10 hours a day. I've suffered from RSI and back problems from my profession, luckily for me my wife is an Osteopath and that has made me fully aware of the problems with holding a pen or using a mouse all day, hunched in front of a computer screen.

My vision of the future is large drawing board sized desktops where you can use a pen as well as your fingers and have the choice to stand up (radical but better for you than sitting all day) or sit down. You'd have a large enough screen to have at least an A3 working space in front of you, and plenty more around that for your desktop and to put all your virtual tools. You probably wouldn't even need a desk as the screen would be free standing, that would be cool!

I suppose the nearest we have to date that I lust after is this Cintiq from Wacom. We can dream.

[doctorontop]

I have a Cintiq 21" and think it's fantastic, very intuitive to use. Using it for detail work is absolutely no problem. I find the screen tablet easier and faster to work with than the Intuos