Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/298092
44 ■ CGW M a r ch / A p r i l 2 014 r e v i e w vertical view angle is much shallower at only 89 degrees. You may experience this limitation due to the nature of how you work with the screen. In typical use, you will notice the progressive darkening of the screen. This darkening is normal, but it certainly does tricks to your eyes. I eventually realized that I was sitting too low. Once I raised my desk chair, my viewing angle improved and everything was great. The actual screen is 21.5-inch diago- nal, but the overall unit size is much bigger due to the broad strip surround- ing the monitor that houses all sorts of buttons and controls. In total, there are 18 buttons, nine on either side of the screen. Each of these comes preset with certain functions, but savvy users can change them with the supplied driver software. Out of the box, the setup for Adobe Photoshop works quite well, and I could use Ctrl, Alt, and Shift to modify my draw routines. I only had to drag the keyboard over for certain menu operations that demanded key input. Even still, I began to use the on-screen keyboard more. In Use When drawing on the Cintiq, there is a connection being made, a level of intimacy that an artist can have with their artwork that regular tablets just can't deliver. Since this Cintiq is actually both a Wacom drawing tablet and a touch- screen monitor, it paired nicely with my Windows 8.1 installation. I enjoyed navigating the windows Metro UI with the monitor raised all the way up. Touch control was instant, and playing games and reading news in this way was simply a joy. Microsoft's Fresh Paint app does a great job of mimicking paint on canvas. For the most part, touch was immedi- ate and silky smooth. However, there were moments when swiping in from the right edge of the screen – to reveal the Microsoft charm icons – required more than one swipe. I also tried the touch control with Google Earth Desktop. Unfortunately, the application doesn't accept touch-control gestures, so all I could do with it was rotate around the Earth with one finger. The Cintiq comes paired with the Grip Pen, sporting 2,048 levels of pres- sure sensitivity along with tilt control. It also comes with 10 replacement nibs housed inside the pen holder. Anyone familiar with Intuos devices will feel at home with this pen. Having both touch and pen input creates improved effi- ciency as you switch between applica- tions that support such features. Autodesk SketchBook Pro had one of the best UIs capable of supporting both pen and touch input. The entire screen is used as the drawing canvas. What re- ally brought this to a new level was the ability to move, rotate, and zoom with my hand and then bring the pen down to continue drawing without slowing down my momentum. Photoshop CC was a bit clunky, and I had to use the touch strip to zoom in and out of the canvas. I also wasn't able to rotate the canvas with touch. I certainly did feel a bit "fumbly" as I attempted to "re- learn" Photoshop on this device. With the advent of Windows 8.1, I am beginning to feel that Photoshop is being held back by a legacy interface that works better with a mouse than it does a pen. Corel Painter X3 faired a bit better, and I was able to use two-finger touch to move the canvas around, but it didn't have pinch-zoom capability. So, of all the paint programs I tested, Sketch- Book was my favorite. In Autodesk's Maya and Softimage, I could not see how I would even start to model using touch. I could interact with the menus and interface, but once I cre- ated a cube in the scene, I would need a keyboard or a mouse to continue work- ing. As expected, Autodesk's Mudbox worked well with the pen input. It would be ideal to offer touch to do this. On occasion, I would bring my arm up over the display to start drawing with the pen, but then I'd accidentally trip the touch control with my arm. All of a sudden, other programs would begin launching accidentally. This was because I had not brought the pen close enough to the display. When the pen is active, the monitor shuts down touch control. There is a button preset that allows you to manually turn off touch control. Spared No Expense My time with the Cintiq 22HD Touch was as blissful as I imagined it would be. What Wacom has done is create the standard, "spare-no-expense," decisively well featured and incredibly drool-worthy hardware for drawing that anyone has ever been able to use. Adding touch to an already great monitor was like adding a cup holder to a Bugatti Veyron. It's already amazing, but that cup holder really does make it that much better. With a few nagging issues aside, the only one bummer of a point I have to make is the price. At $2,499, this moni- tor is out of reach for all but the John Hammonds of this world. By sparing no expense to make the most awesome technology, Wacom practically made it too awesome. Unless you are gifted by a corporation with deep pockets, chances are, you won't be sitting in front of one of these for a long time to come. ■ CGW Carey Chico is a freelance writer as well as an 18-year veteran of the games industry. He can be reached through LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/careychico/. PROS: ■ Touch + pen on one device = awesome ■ Works great with the new Windows 8.1 GUI ■ Incredibly connected experience between drawing and pen control CONS: ■ !@#$ Pricey! ■ Not all programs support touch yet ■ Did I mention pricey?