Wacom launches Graphire3 range – a ‘must have’ for digital photography and video enthusiasts

Wacom Europe GmbH, the technology leader in pen based digital imaging, announces Graphire3 – a range of pen tablets for consumers and prosumers interested in digital photo, video and graphics applications who want to achieve high quality results easily and quickly.

Building on the success of Graphire2, the Graphire3 range consists of three high quality configurations, the Graphire Classic, the Graphire Studio and the Graphire Studio XL – all with new features, stylish elements and a wider variety of software to meet the increasing demand for digital photo and video editing and DVD authoring. In a new sapphire blue metallic colour, the tablets, pen and mouse have been redesigned combining ergonomic functionality with high quality product design to reflect new style trends.

The Graphire tablets are rectangular in shape and include a detachable, transparent photo frame so users can trace over their favourite photos or drawings easily with the pen. The Graphire tablets now have a pen compartment for safe storage when travelling and a separate translucent pen stand. All of the tablets have been ergonomically produced for better hand support.

The growth of the digital camera market and the growing awareness of imaging information have led to the Graphire3 product suite being developed with a resolution of 2,000dpi – double its predecessor’s for enhanced precision in photo editing, video editing and graphics applications.

The Graphire Pen has 512 levels of pressure sensitivity and offers pinpoint accuracy when working in photo and graphics applications. The pen also has a pressure-sensitive eraser for quick corrections and a double side switch, which can be programmed e.g. to create shortcut keys for all standard functions. The pen enables absolute positioning (where the position of the pen tip on the tablet corresponds exactly to the position of the cursor on the screen). This facilitates an easy click and drag function and quicker navigation than using a traditional mouse.

The ball-free Graphire Mouse has been improved and is now smaller and offers more hand support than its predecessor. It includes two buttons and a scroll wheel that functions as a button.

Both input devices (pen, mouse) use the patented electromagnetic resonance ‘Penabled technology’ and do not require any batteries or cables, making them both maintenance-free and reliable.

Additionally Wacom has developed an easy to use and intuitive driver control panel. Functions for customisation include the tip and eraser feel, the double-click, the buttons of the pen’s double side switch, the mouse buttons and the tablet/monitor mapping.

Wacom offers three different configurations to provide each user a solution depending on what equipment they may already have and whether their interest is graphics or photography/DVD related.

Graphire Classic – for design oriented and artistic computer fans
The Graphire Classic comprises an A6 tablet, a pen and a mouse as well as procreate Painter Classic* by Corel (PC/Mac) – a painting and drawing programme, which offers more than a hundred pressure sensitive painting tools such as brushes, chalk, pens, oil or water colours. Using the Graphire Pen, all strokes can be created as if using these traditional tools. The harder the pen is pressed down, the thicker the line and darker the colour becomes on the computer. The Graphire Classic is aimed at customers who already own and regularly use image-editing software and/or are looking for a stylish, high quality input device that offers more possibilities than a traditional computer mouse.

Graphire Studio/Graphire Studio XL – complete hardware/software solution
The Graphire Studio and Graphire Studio XL are the ideal complete solutions for digital photo and video editing as well as DVD authoring. Both models come with four pieces of advanced software which match these applications, including:
- the photo editing programme, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (PC/Mac), to edit digital pictures for printing, sending via e-mail or for publishing on the Internet
- the photographic filter set penPalette LE (PC/Mac), from nik multimedia for enhancing digital images
- the video editing software Pinnacle Studio 8 SE (PC), for editing video material and DVD authoring
- the digital image management software, ACDSee 5.0 (PC) and 1.65 (Mac) for quick and easy viewing of pictures and videos in more than 50 media formats

While Graphire Studio comes in the common A6 size, the Graphire Studio XL is a larger A5 tablet. In particular this size enables semi-professional digital photographers and video film makers to work more comfortably and precisely. The Graphire Studio comprises a pen as input device, and the Graphire Studio XL the Graphire Pen and ball-free Graphire Mouse.
* see additional software overview sheet

Availability and pricing
The new Graphire3 range of tablets will be available from 15th September 2003 from Computers Unlimited. The tablets have a USB connection and run on Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP or later and Mac OS 9 or Mac OS 10.1.5 or later and require a CD-ROM drive. The Graphire Classic is priced at £69.99, the Graphire Studio at £99.99 and the Studio XL at £179.99 including VAT.

Further information on Wacom Europe’s range of products and services can be found on the Web at: www.wacom.com

About Wacom:
Wacom is a global company with its parent company, Wacom Company Ltd, based in Japan and subsidiaries in Europe (Wacom Europe GmbH) and Northern America (Wacom Technology Corporation) among others.

Founded in 1983, Wacom has established itself as the market leader for pen tablets and is a pioneer in the development of the pen as an input device for computers. The company’s aim is to make working with the computer more ergonomic and natural, therefore making it easier to open a broader field of applications. The ethos behind this vision is to create the most harmonious environment possible for the user and his technical equipment.

In Europe, Wacom supplies four product lines under its own brand name: Volito, Graphire, Intuos and Cintiq. The cord- and battery-less input devices of these products are based on Wacom’s patented electromagnetic resonance technology, called ‘penabled’. For years now ‘Penabled’ technology has proven itself for use in graphics tablets and LCD-tablets. The company also offers its products as OEM business to all manufacturers of PCs and Macintosh computers.

Wacom is the leader in the field of pen and sensor technology – most Tablet PCs based on Microsoft work using this technology. In the future, ‘Penabled’ technology will play a leading role in the development of mobile devices such as smart phones and PDAs.

Related articles:
Wacom announces update to Volito2
Wacom Graphire Bluetooth graphics tablet pen and mouse review

Software bundles with the Graphire3 Line

The following software programmes are bundled with Graphire Studio / Graphire Studio XL:

 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (PC/Mac)
 penPalette LE from nik multimedia (PC/Mac)
 Pinnacle Studio 8 SE (PC)
 ACDSee 5.0 (PC), 1.65 (Mac)

The highly recommended software Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 offers hobby photographers an easy-to-use, digital imaging programme with semi-professional features to edit their digital pictures for printing, sending via e-mail or for publishing on the Internet. With the Graphire Pen, imported images from a digital camera, scanned photos or single frames from videos can be edited easily and precisely. Small defects like red eyes, spots or scratches can be removed with pinpoint accuracy. Numerous tools in Photoshop Elements 2.0 support the pressure sensitivity of the Graphire Pen, so that retouching can be done with varying intensity, creating realistic results.

In a few steps, badly exposed photos can be corrected with blurs and contortions repaired. Even photo montages are quick and easy to create by selecting the freehand tool with one click of the pen from the tool palette, then drawing precisely around the selected part of the picture, cutting it out and copying into another image to compose a new motif.

The photographic filter tools penPalette LE (PC/Mac*) from nik multimedia enable users to optimise digital photos. penPalette LE is installed in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements in the ‘Automate’ menu and incorporates its own pop-up window. With the Graphire Pen and Tablet, the filters can be applied with varying levels of pressure on certain parts of a photo. The result is a very natural looking picture. Included in the penPalette LE set are four filters: ‘Warm tone’, ‘Cool Tone’, ‘Contrast’ and ‘Colorize’. For example, when the ‘Cool Tone’ filter is applied with the pressure sensitive pen on a selected area of a picture – without the need to first choose a mask – it gives the photo a bluer hue. The blue colour of sky or sea can be enhanced to a more intense tone.
*penPalette LE is compatible with Mac OS 10.1.5 or higher

The award winning video editing software Pinnacle Studio 8 SE is ideal for editing videos from different origins such as digital camcorders, video recorders, web cams or TV tuners. The clear interface with the familiar drag-and-drop functions, offers the user access to professional features such as automatic scene recognition, real time preview, viewing of storyboard, text and timeline, a smart sound music generator and more than a hundred fadings with impressive 2D-/3D-effects with numerous functions to create titles.

Sequences can be quickly rearranged by choosing the clips out of an album with the Graphire Pen on the tablet and precisely moving them in to the desired position in the storyboard with the Easy Click & Drag function. The positioning of the pen on the tablet mirrors exactly the position of the cursor on the monitor (Wacom’s term for this is absolute positioning). Working with the pen is intuitive and fluid. An individual menu including chapters, own backgrounds and sound can be put together for DVDs. The ready-made film can be put back on DV tape, sent via e-mail, published on the Internet or burned on a DVD, VCD or SVCD.

The digital image management software ACDSee 5.0 (PC) and 1.65 (Mac) allows quick and easy viewing of pictures and videos in more than 50 media formats. It is ideal to import, view, organise, archive and print out digital photos; in particular by using the included batch processing facility. The user is able to easily keep an overview of the master file on his desktop. With its integrated picture database, people who take lots of digital images can create archives with thumbnails, which can be previewed and tagged for easy searching. ACDSee particularly makes sense for ambitious digital photographers, because photos can be optimised, converted into different formats, exported and printed out.

The following bundled software comes with The Graphire Classic
 procreate Painter Classic by Corel (PC / Mac)

procreate Painter Classic by Corel (PC/Mac) is a painting and drawing programme which can be used intuitively and easily. It offers more than a hundred pressure sensitive painting tools such as brushes, chalk, pens, oil or water colours. With the Graphire Pen, natural-looking strokes in any mixture of colours can be drawn. The harder the pen tip is pressed down on the tablet, the thicker the lines or stronger the colours or effects will become.

The ‘cloning’ function enables users to reproduce digital photos quickly and easily with the pen in any given drawing technique. Using the pressure sensitive Graphire Pen, a digital portrait picture can be turned into a realistic-looking oil painting – or a landscape shot can be transformed into a water colour painting.
The Tracing Paper function in procreate Painter Classic makes it possible to trace digital photos by placing a transparent layer over a photo. The contours of the original can be traced using the pressure-sensitive Graphire Pen to produce a duplicate of the picture, which can then be used as a template for drawing.