Using it with Vista, and it has worked perfectly. Took a bit to find and enable all the Features of Vista that can use a tablet, but everything works extremely well.
I was also very pleasantly surprised to find it included Photoshop Elements 6.0 -- was not expecting the latest version! And this tablet is absolutely awesome for photo editing (the primary reason I bought it in the first place). I find myself doing significantly more complex corrections now, and enhancing more photos in general too, just because it is now so easy to do!
Highly recommended, very accurate and capable, and the bundled software is remarkably high quality too; definitely a value add unless you already have Photoshop CS3 and/or the full strength Corel Painter X. And if you don't have those, but want them, it includes savings coupons for both Photoshop CS3 and Painter X - with savings totalling more than what you pay for the tablet!

Haha, just kidding mom. ;)

On a serious note the wacome is an essential addition to any photo, graphic, or video professional. I do all three and this tablet has expanded my capabilities greatly. Using a pen is so much more natural than a mouse, thus you will be getting retouching done faster than before. It also has the pressure sensitivity which allows you to dynamically resize your brush even within a stroke.

The 6x11 size is defiantly sufficient for my needs, but make sure you get wide screen tablet if you have a widescreen monitor. Works together all the better.

You cant go wrong here... The only decision is if you would want the bluetooth version, and unless you want to burn through batteries get the corded.. It comes with a verry long usb cable so ive never had any problems.

It was everything we were hoping that it would be. It's not too big, not too small, and my wife loves it.

Great product for professionals and amateurs alike. Easy to adapt and use. Natural feel. I'm an excellent pencil sketcher but have never had much experience with paints. In a manner of days, I was able to adapt to painting over my black n white sketches! A must for any art enthusiast.

The tablet will constantly stop working while I am using it. It eventually be responsive again for a little while and then promptly stop working again. It has been a very long time since any bugs have been fixed. With a bug as large as this it needs to be fix right away.

It works excellent with my 24" iMac. It feels similar to w drawing on paper. If you are an artist you owe it to yourself to get one of these.

This is the second tablet I've ever owned, the first being an old Pablo tablet. The Pablo left me with a bad taste in my mouth for tablets in general, but I decided to give this a chance since Wacom has been around forever and Pablo has gone the way of the Dodo.

I just finished my first drawing class in college and wanted to translate those skills to the pc. It was a very natural transition for me, although there was an issue at first. This is a 'wide' tablet and my screen is a widescreen, the pixel ratio between the two weren't exactly the same, so circles drawn on the tablet turned into slight ovals on screen. This is an easy fix in the wacom settings app. After making the change, there is now about a 0.5" vertical strip on the left of the tablet that is unusable now (it's 'off screen'). This seems like a problem, but it really isn't and you won't notice it if you need to do this (you could always use it as an excuse to get a better monitor).

I was worried that the 6x11 size would be too small to work with, but it really is more than enough to work with, even with the unusable zone on the left. The size of the whole tablet is about as wide as a standard keyboard and a little taller.

A note for Vista users, when you install the tablet, Vista recognizes it and tries to use it as an input device for everything using handwriting recognition (it works impressively well), which is both cool and annoying. I finally turned it off as it just bugged me.

There was also a coupon for Photoshop CS3 in the packaging. I ended up getting both the tablet and Photoshop CS3 for the price of what Photoshop CS3 would have cost alone, a HUGE plus.

I really have nothing bad to say about this tablet, it simply rocks. Even though it's connected via a USB cable, the cable is roughly six feet long so I have all the freedom I could want.

This tablet is as good as other Wacom products (very good) but the 6x11 size matches no screen resolution I can find. And also doesn't match any two screen side-by-side resolution. The closest resolution to it's proportions would be 1920x1080, the resolution for 1080 HD video (the tablet's proportions would scale to 1920x1047) but monitors don't come in that size. Using my 1920x1200 monitor I have to portion off 1.4 inches of the tablets live area to work at 1:1. So I'm really using the tablet at 6x9.6 inches. a screen resolution of 1440x900 or 1680x1050 would have the same issue. I'm puzzled at the choice.

There is only one problem with this tablet so far. I now want to have just about every available drawing, painting or illustration software on the market. This Tablet is truly amazing. I have no complaints at all about this tablet. Of course, I have rarely had any complaints about Wacom tablets.

I'm so glad I brought this item and waited to get it. I love it so much!!! It makes it so much easier to work on photoshop, drawing on the computer or just other uses. It's pretty amazing what it can do. I really didn't expect the drawing tablet would be so big; I loved it even more when I saw it. So recommend everyone to get this brand and have one.

I bought this tablet for my sister who loves to draw. Now, neither of us is a designer or an expert in this things, but we are delighted with it. It is easy to use, very precise, and easy t oinstall. We thought it owuld be difficult to get used to it and learn to use it. But we found that it was really easy to use and the software it includes is amazing.
At least for us, beginners, it was much more than we bargained for. Definitely worth it.

This thing is too big to be practical. I exchanged it for a 6x8 and is just the right size. This 6x11 widescreen version makes it impossible to fit most laptop bags (I have a WIDESCREEN 15" laptop); the tablet is designed in a way that it extends far beyond 6x11" of workable tablet area, and it is not so portable because of it.

Someone mentioned that these things are better bigger, I don't think it's true unless you plan to trace large images directly on the tablet (I think it's better to scan the image and than trace on screen but..). Most computer graphics designers and artist don't use exaggerated arm motions to draw or make illustrations. Also if you observe skilled artists, you'll see fine finger movements limited to a few cm or mm. If you don't have that kind of finger coordination, you just keep your mouse and not tell others to waste money on an enormous tablet. If you're working in computer graphics, you're probably not going to make some spray paint grafitti art kind of motion with this thing or splash paint all over as if it were a giant canvas. Your finger movements are limited to about 2 inches. Beyond that it's wrist motion, and beyond that it's elbows and shoulders and the line accuracy drops very quickly.

thank you amazon

I could not be happier with this, i use it for photoshop, painter and illustrator. it does things people with mouses only dream of

I've played with all sizes and types of Wacom tablets and an off-brand or two. There's no doubt that Wacom has the competitive edge when it comes to graphic tablets and now I certainly have no doubt that the newest wave of intuos3 tablets, especially this new 6x11, are -the- best you can get... aside from a Cintiq.


- Graphire vs. Intuos -

When it comes to choosing between Wacom's less expensive line of tablets versus the intuos, there is simply no comparison. Once you use the intuos, you'll never step down to Graphire again.
If you're serious in the business of illustration, graphic design, 3D animation, or anywhere in digital art, even for retouching traditional paintings, intuos is the only way to go.


- Intuos 4x6, 6x8, 6x11...? -

If you're thinking about going smaller, don't.
If you're thinking about going bigger, think twice.

You really need to base the tablet you're going to get on the monitor you have. As I previously stated, I used to have a 6x8. Problems slightly ensued when I got a wide screen 24' monitor and instead of circles, I got ovals. I'm not sure if this problem still persists in newer 6x8s, but the 6x11 has entirely eradicated this issue and STILL works with my normal size work monitor perfectly. However, bigger can often times prove detrimental to you cause being that to make the stroke you want you have to wave your arm as if wielding a magic wand. 6x8 is a very good size, but you won't go wrong with a 6x11. It all depends on your preference.


- Downsides...? -

I used to have an issue with the mouse that came with intuos being that it, like the pen, only corresponded to points on the screen. Wacom has seemed to fix that problem in this new wave of tablets (I had a 6x8 with the old logo before I recently had to replace it due to doggy misdemeanors..) and the mouse works just like a mouse would, dragging and going upon movement and the pen corresponds to the screen flawlessly.

The size of this tablet is going to take some getting used to. Nearly a foot of space is almost too abundant, but a super luxury nonetheless. It takes up a lot of desk room, so be sure you have the room BEFORE you buy it! If you have a small desk and a smaller wide screen, a 4x6 might be a better option.

The express buttons, albeit useful, sometimes can get in your way if you accidentally press them and have them assigned to a new program or function you don't want activated. It's a lot harder to mess up like that with the 6x11 versus the smaller sizes, but it'll still happen.

Support, as previously mentioned, via Wacom really, really, really lags. I've sent them three questions via e-mail and only three weeks later when I called them did I get "Oh yeah, I have it right here." If you're expecting them to help you via e-mail, forget it.

But all in all the product they produce is an invaluable asset to any artist or digital designer, especially when monitor sizes and customization to it is taken into account.

Mine came with a major blemish --
blemish in that thus far this is not a functional impairment
-- the clear plastic casing was split open for two inches along the top of the tablet. I immediately contacted Wacom
who then claimed that this was a design flaw since the inception of the
product, and they would not replace my tablet.

The 6x11 Wacom tablet is great, recommended to those who have newer displays (eg MacBook/MacBook Pro). Note that the size is the drawing size and that the actual width is about 17". My only complaint is that I had trouble finding a bag that was big enough for a 17" laptop and I wanted to bring this around everywhere. Eventually I decided to leave it in the studio and I find myself wishing I had two; this one for most of the time and a small travel one.

The Amazon entry gets into the specs, I am here to say only that the Intuos3 graphics tablets from Wacom are hands-down phenomenal. If you, like me, had considered going the less expensive Graphire series route - don't. You will not regret owning the Intuos3, and once you use it for a few minutes you will never think about the price again. And after suing for a few months, you'll be relying on it so much that you'll be glad you sprung for the high-end series.

Once you tweak your Photoshop and/or Illustrator settings for the brush & pencil tools, you will slowly but surely as you gain mastery over the tablet use it more and more and more and more. And not just for graphics either.

I have an extensive review of the Intuos3 tablets specifically for cartoonists & illustrators on my blog. Visit my profile and follow the links.

These things are great. The build quality is amazing and the control these bring to drawing on the computer is unparalleled. We bought the 6" X 11" model and it is huge. Expect to sacrifice some desktop to it. It is worth it though.

I love my Wacom pen tablet and prefer using the stylus over a regular mouse any day. I use the tablet combined with a double monitor system in order to analyze biological digital images. The stylus has variable pressure settings (which is easily set-up with a tutorial CD that walks you through the process) that allow for excellent control over various types of tracings. It is perfect for my application and would be excellent for any graphical analyses or digital imaging needs. The 6 x 11 inch tablet is ideal for doing large morphometric measurements/analyses and allows you to cover the real estate of two monitors with ease and accuracy. When tracing biological specimens I have had no problems with the sensitivity or the accuracy of the stylus.

This application works wonderfully with software such as Image-Pro Plus, PhotoShop and InDesign. It also makes working with Excel, Word, and Adobe Acrobat a breeze.

As a heavy user of this piece of equipment I have found two downfalls. One, the touch strips on the tablet seem to get 'stuck' ocassionally even when I am not using them. This has required me to shut down the computer and re-start it (I have found no other way around the problem).
The second issue is that the mouse that comes with the tablet is slow to respond; there is quite a lag time and thus I never use the mouse.

Even with these two negative aspects of the Wacom tablet I would recommend it to anyone who is going to be digitally analyzing images (or even if you want to splurge and get it for the house).

The only thing that this marvel should improve will be the drivers... the last ones are quite better than previous version, but it could be better.

I should have had one of these a long time ago. Great in photoshop, makes it more natural editing photographs, very smooth.

Very nice construction, looks like it will last a long time, I am thinking in several years as in 10 or more. I talked with Wacom tech support before purchasing, nice people and they appear to be based in the United States, hopefully supporting the US economy and they spoke well and were very friendly. I have not yet called back with an after sale tech support question. I called a couple different of times several months apart and the tech support person (s) suggested this size (6x11) would serve me well now and into the future, not to large nor to small and it's in the new 9x16 screen format so it will match and work well even when I purchase a new wide screen monitor. From my conversations with Wacom tech support and what they described as past company performance, the tablet will most likely be supported as Microsoft upgrades future operating system. $300 is way too much to spend for a non professional user, if it's out dated and useless in the change of an operating system as they described how older tablets are still supported by newer operating systems. This tablet's design may be physically a little larger than it needs to be as it takes up a lot of desk space with some redundant controls on the left and right of the tablet. I did purchase one of the larger tablets but the smallest of the new format. The mouse works OK but occasionally looses sync with the computer. I have not called tech support yet as I still have the Microsoft USB mouse connected and just grab it and continue on. With my computer skills, I can really make Windows XP jump through windows, unfortunately I am now using Windows Vista, an extremely difficult to use operating system. I would not be surprised if Vista is contributing to the mouse problem, if not by code, by the way Vista has shuffled all the operating commands and options to different locations or maybe just eliminate or hid their access. I have played with the pen part of the Wacom, it's not straight forward in its operation and there is going to be a learning curve. I have a friend that's a professional photographer and he uses his Wacom (older model) tablet and pin to do all his work. He uses his pen as the mouse, skills that I hope to acquire.
Bottom Line --- I am sure the mouse sync thing will disappear; actually I have not seen it today and I am happy with my purchase along with Amazon's pricing including free shipping was great.

An intern at our company uses these tablets at graphics arts school, so we picked one up for use at work. At no point were we disappointed or over promised by this tablet. Having no experience with lesser quality, I cannot compare, but this is a very nice tablet and I will purchase the same one if we need more.

Finally decided to write a review about my Wacom. This is the second Wacom tablet I have owned, a massive upgrade from a 4x5 graphire 2. The only thing I would want over this tablet is the cintiq, but economically speaking this is the best money I have ever spent.

Okay so onto the review. With its added sensitivity and large drawing area, the cramped wrist flicks of my old tablet have turned into graceful, gestural lines. Painting on my tablet is much easier and I don't need to scan in sketches as often as I feel much more confident drawing with my tablet now. The biggest improvement beside the widescreen scaling are the buttons on either side of the drawing area... considered useless to some I have found them to be invaluable. I have been using photoshop long enough to have many keyboard shortcuts down, the ability to change these buttons to any combination of shortcuts is amazing. I have the touchstrip on the left set to zoom in and out, the touchstrip on the right increases or decreases the size of my brushes. Step backwards(undo), eyedropper, free-transform, new layer, merge layer, hand tool, constrain, etc... are just some of the other shortcuts I have programmed into the hotkeys. The only time I have to touch the keyboard is to switch between fullscreen mode and standard mode, oh and adding type.

The extra software may be nice if you use it, I have yet to find any use though. The nibs might be helpful as well but I stick with the basic platic nib... I still occasionally tape down a piece of paper on top of the drawing area to get a more natural feel, plastic on plastic feels strange to draw with in my opinion. If you are looking to get a new tablet or get into graphic design I would recommend this hands down. I watched prices on amazon for a few months, (the lowest price anywhere I could find this product sold) and managed to get it at about 300$. It fluctuates between 300$ and 370$ so be smart about it and you can save yourself some cash by being patient.

Now onto the complaints.
The reason I still give this 5 stars is because I am unsure if this is a problem for everyone or just my setup. This works PERFECT on my desktop computer running windows xp, however with vista on my laptop I am having constant and consistent problems. The tablet worked on occasion with the drivers sent with my tablet, the updated drivers from the wacom site fixed 95% of the problems where vista and its tablet drivers would argue with my wacom drivers. However, I still get loss of pen pressure, tracking, and hotkey problems when certain things happen in photoshop... basically my computer drops my wacom drivers and I have to restart to get them back. Considering I use the tablet almost every day this can be very annoying. However if you learn to work around these problems, ie: be careful about starting any media program like mediaplayer or itunes while using your tablet with photoshop. This is why I feel it is a vista issue, as long as you start windows, plug in your tablet, start your music programs, then start photoshop/illustrator/etc... in that order I can use my tablet for days without an issue. Plugging in your tablet after starting photoshop will cause plenty of problems like loss of layer opacity and whatnot.

The product itself is flawless in my opinion, the drivers and software you will have to deal with will be your biggest problem, but if you don't mind them or stick with xp or maybe a Mac you should be fine like wine.

The wacom tablet is a useful tool. I enjoy working with it since it helps reduce the wrist movements I get from the mouse.

There is only one problem with it is that sometimes it fights with the programs, such as adobe Photoshop. The tablet will start zooming in and out all on its own. I don't think the tablet is broken because the situation is easily fixed once I unplug and re plug the tablet back in.

The good thing about the tablet is that it's easy to draw with. There is a slight learning curve so don't give up. It takes time to judge the strength of the pressure points.

If you enjoy illustrating this is a useful tool. Also the size is helpful. When I draw on a peace of paper and then place the drawing on the tablet I can trace over the top of the drawing and it looks identical. It's really a time saver, when it comes to drawing. For normal office work it's nice but not necessary, unless you spend vast amounts of time on the computer I highly recommend buying one.

The wacom tablet has helped slow down my carpal tunnel in my wrists. It is a great alternative for a graphic designer to use instead of a mouse for that reason as well as more precise actions in drawing vector art.
I have noticed that the tablet itself can be scratched fairly easily, but other than that, it is a good buy.

I have been thinking of purchasing this for a long time and finally got around to it. Being a designer and having a girlfriend who is a fashion designer, this has been the biggest boost to our productivity in a long time. Its easy to use and very natural in terms of feel and abilities.

I recommend this for anyone who is artistically inclined, its not a replacement for traditional media but opens a whole new world when it comes to design and art. My only issue with the tablet is that I do most of my work on a 15" Powerbook, and this tablet is definitely made for large screens like a 24" or larger LCD monitor.

In all this is an amazing buy. Well worth the money and then some. I highly recommend it.

I'm taking a raster painting class, which uses tiny 4x5 Graphire3 tablets. Now, I have really bad wrists, from doing so much computer work. I took one look at that tiny tablet the school had provided and I thought to myself, "No way". So, I brought in my trusty 6x8 Graphire4 to use, which I'd been playing with for about half a year or so.

Halfway through my class, my roommate's cat snuck into my room and chewed through the cord to my beloved Graphire4, forcing it into early retirement. Anger at the cat aside, I decided to treat this as a blessing in disguise and went all-out when it came to getting a replacement.

My laptop, which is my primary graphics computer, has a widescreen, so I went with a 6x11 this time. I don't honestly feel like the ratio makes much of a difference, but the more space, the better. I eagerly awaited its arrival.

It finally arrived a few days after I ordered it, and it was love at first sight. It's huge! I know I could've gone up a couple of steps size-wise, but this seemed like the best combination of size and reasonable price.

The feel of the tablet is so much smoother and more responsive than the dinky little Graphire3s at school, or even my loyal Graphire4, may he rest in peace. The buttons on the sides have been immensely useful, and I find myself using them constantly. The switch on the side of the pen (which is itself much more comfortable than the graphire pens) are MUCH easier to press.

It came with three different nibs, a plain one, a 'stroke' nib, and a felt nib, but I find myself using the stroke nib almost exclusively. It doesn't really have the feel of a brush, like Wacom tries to assert, however, it DOES have a spring built into it so you get more feedback on how hard you're pressing down, which really helps me a lot. The felt nib is... interesting, but it feels a lot like you're drawing with a felt-tipped marker that has run completely out of ink.

There are, however, a few small problems with this. The main one being - the size of it, which is a double-edged sword. On one hand, having so much tablet real estate to work with can be wonderful (especially if you have bad wrists like mine which make tiny hand movements difficult), but it can be hard to make desk space to accomodate it, and good luck fitting it into a laptop bag. I had to order a special bag for my tablet, although I don't mind that much. Also, due to the aforementioned difficulty with getting desk space to set my tablet on, I can't make use of the mouse, which has been languishing away inside the tablet box ever since it arrived.

The only other problem that I have with this tablet is the fact that the pen isn't comfortable enough. I don't know, maybe I'm holding it wrong, but I notice that it gives me pains in my hands after a while. It's more comfortable than the graphire3/4 pens by far, but still not quite comfortable enough.

The last problem, which others have mentioned, I'm sure, is the fact that the top isn't clear. I really liked that feature of my Graphire4, however, I can learn to live without it.

All in all, this is a wonderful product, and I'm very glad to have purchased it. 5 stars.

The product is well designed and quality production.
If you considering anything less.... dont.
Buy this unit.

Takes very little time to get used to. Pen is very comfortable and the mouse is okay. Software bundle is surprisingly complete but a bit basic. Doesn't come with much in the way of storage sleeve or cases though. You can use it with Mac Inkwell to use your computer entirely with the stylus instead of a mouse. It's a good size for designing and sketching. I love it except I have no way of keeping it safely protected and stored so 4 stars instead of 5.

I've had my tablet for a month now, and I do use it for Photoshop, but as a grpahic designer, I find it a hindrance for InDesign and Illustrator. It is also less easy to use for simple Windows navigation. Lastly, the software magically stopped working three different times, and required a reboot in two instances, and a full re-install of the software in the third instance.

If you use mostly Photoshop, this is the device for you.

Excellent State of the art. Read the adds, they are all true.

I purchased the Wacom for photo retouching mostly, it is working beautifully, saved me hours of retouching time, it is accurate, fast and most of all fun to use.

From Wacom's own website it is listed at $369.95. The difference buying it on Amazon brings you down $19.96 saving you roughly 5%.

I purchased this product for my husband's birthday. He has enjoyed it very much. It takes time to learn how to use, but with time it gets better and better. He uses it for editing pictures with his adobe program.