Not only does Wacom provide lots of included software to use your tablet and pen on, but once you have a tablet you can take advantage of Apple's new Inkwell technology built into Mac OS X (10.4 Tiger). Configuring these settings turns Inkwell into a vital part of the operating system experience. You can allow yourself to "ink" in any application and this means that any type of app -- from Dreamweaver to Mail -- will convert your handwriting into text automatically.

Learning Inkwell is easy enough. A Gestures tab in the preference panel (see image 03 previous page) shows you how to gesture to do things like Cut, Copy and Paste.

04 - Inkwell integration with Mail

I tested out Inkwell with the Wacom Graphire4 460 tablet using Apple's Mail application. (see image 04 above). A digital sheet of "ruled" yellow paper automatically appears where you write, relative to the pen's position on the tablet (which maps to screen), and at least for me, it helped with my horrible penmanship.

If writing is not your thing, a choice in Inkwell's "Ink Window", will let you convert the space to a grid for doing sketches and drawings. You can then send these sketches (and this includes converted text) to other applications. (see image 05)

05 - Ink Window for Inkwell

Recommendations and Final Comments

Wacom's Graphire4 tablet range provides a great value with its included software and starting at just $99.00 USD for the 4x5 unit one can experiment with using a pen and tablet for many design and drawing tasks that were previously done with just a mouse. Our larger 6x8 unit goes for $199.00 USD. Bear in mind that Adobe's Photoshop Elements software -- included -- costs $80.00 USD by itself, and that says nothing about the other software included.

If you have been wanting to try out a tablet and pen, Wacom's Graphire4 product range is an excellent starting point. We found absolutely nothing major to complain about in this product -- and a whole lot to like -- and hence the Wacom Graphire4 460 tablet deserved our highest rating: a perfect 5. --- Anthony Frausto-Robledo, Editor in Chief. Published 5 June 2006.

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