Hi!

I'm a male techno geek that's usually on the bleeding edge of technology when I can afford the time and money. I was interested in the Tablet PC technology when I saw it first introduced at Comdex by Mr. Gates himself, but wanted to wait for the bug fixes in the next gen.

This last generation of Tablets looks promising enough for me to bite the bullet and get one. The #1 tablet so far seems to be the Toshiba m2xx series - also one of the most expensive. The cheapest, most value combination seems to be the new one by Averatec which I got a chance to see at my local costco. $1299 with 80 GB hard drive!

I don't own a Tablet PC right now, but am interested in one for use on the field and for photo touchups in photoshop, among other things. (Photography is my 2nd job, you can see my digital captures here: http://lookuppictures.smugmug.com.)

I currently lug around a centrino x1000 laptop and a Wacom Tablet with me. I do a lot of my photo uploads in Starbucks and Borders, so its getting a little bit much lugging everything around plus i like the idea of physically being able to draw, touchup, etc on a tablet at a client's location with just the convertible or tablet PC.

Does anybody have any feedback/experience using photoshop extensively on a tablet pc - especially in regards to photo touchups on a tablet. I'd be very interested to hear your experiences.

Thank you!
Mike

Hi there,

Welcome to the site !

Yes, Toshiba and Averatec are the popular models for convertibles. Motion and Electrovaya are popular slates. The HP is a great hybrid.

Now, I'm not in any way shape or form an expert on Photoshop; however, I do use it several times a day on this Tablet PC. The only nagging problem is docking the TIP (Tablet Input Panel) at the top, in slate mode, after photoshop has been launched. The TIP covers the menus for Photoshop (SP2 loaded). Another annoying problem is adding text to an image in slate mode. I can't seem to figure out how to do that with pen only and TIP except to open notepad and then copy/paste it into the layer.

Maybe someone else has more experience.

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Thanks for the reply!

Is TIP required to be docked up at the top, or can I say dock it somewhere else or make it free floating or just disappear in slate mode?

The beauty of the TIP in service pack 2 is that it doesn't need to be docked but can float.

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OK Layne, you totally confused me. I let the TIP float and don't dock it, even in Photoshop. What weird setting do you have? lol When I go to write text, just select the tool and keep going. Maybe I am doing something to compensate and just can't remember?? Will have to go look now :-)

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hi,
Have to admit that I've very limited experience with Photoshop. All I've needed to use it for is substituting english text with localized text. So cant help you there.
I'm an amateur photographer too and my tool of choice is MS Digital Image 9 Suite. (10 is available and I've tested it a couple of times this week and it is an even better version)
Worth taking a look at. I find it's easier to edit photos on slate tablet than on standard desktop.

Hmm.. I missed this post of yours. :noexpress

I prefer to have the TIP float too; however, I've played with having it docked in different positions. You'll notice the TIP overlaps photoshop when the TIP is docked to the top.

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Layne P. Heiny / Administrator for Tux Reports Network

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I thought I'd answer my own question in case there are other people curious.

The added flexibility of being able to touch the screen directly with my pen is better than a regular mouse, but it still is not as precise for me as my separate WACOM Intuos tablet. I think the reason is the physical point which I tap on is a few millimeters away from the actual display below the digitizer. Maybe I haven't gotten used to it.

With the tablet, and no external Wacom tablet, I have the flexibility of both a mouse and physically tapping the screen so its definitely better as far as that is concerned. And more portable than my previous laptop and wacom tablet combo.

Cons for me as it relates to photography editing are:
Speed of the machine, small screen, very limited bright outside light visibility compared to other models (I forget the brand name right now), and only 2 USB ports. I never realized how the addition of just 1 more USB port affects the way I can work!

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to keep this thing yet.

Here are pictures in case anybody wants to see the toshiba closeup.
http://lookuppictures.smugmug.com/gallery/203487

Thanks for all the feedback!
Mike