Review on Wacom Digital Graphic Drawing PTH660P by Ricky Cruise

Professionally retouching photos for 18 years, full time. I've been using a Wacom tablet (without a display) for a long time. The equipment is excellent. I just replaced a rugged old tablet that wasn't state of the art. My issue is with Wacom software and customer support. I bought this version of Intuos Pro Paper last week. The device works great with Photoshop for retouching, but I went with the paper version because I wanted to try it. If you use your tablet outside of the office and draw a few things, save a few sketches digitally without scanning them. First, the ink pen writes well on physical paper, but I'm not impressed with the digital representation of the sketch that the publication offers, so I prefer to scan my drawings, but I'm not even deducting a star for that. I would like to point out that my Galaxy Note seems to produce the same line quality and I have more flexibility when drawing than with this paper tablet. So to me the Wacom Paper feature is meaningless. If my end result is a digital drawing, I can use another device for that. My mobile devices have screens that I could use in the dark, same line quality, color, vector and layer file creation, etc. But anyway, I'm not comparing their characteristics to shoot stars with a Wacom tablet, so why. I emphasize the uselessness of what I hadn't thought of before for me and other people who have mobile devices that they can already draw with. My first star of five to remove is because the Inkspace software doesn't work with my Mac. I've downloaded and tried to install it several times over the last week but it doesn't work. The program won't run, my Mac throws an error saying it's not a valid program and even shows a pop-up with a "Move to Trash" error message because it's a not working program acts. So I'm flexible and installed the app on my phone. I was able to see my drawings in Inkspace Mobile. However, I'm using the browser version of Inkspace on my Mac to see if I can download these images from there. I do not understand. You are not visible. For me, Inkspace is supposed to be a kind of cloud, right? But it doesn't work as a whole because the images don't show up in the browser version of Inkspace. Where are the pictures? I have no idea. So what I can do is export the vector file to my phone's internal storage, then upload it to dropbox, disk or another cloud, then upload from there. There are many workarounds where I could just draw on my sketchbook and quickly scan it or draw on my mobile device. I took off a second star for customer service. I have contacted Wacom twice for another download link or help to resolve this issue and have not received any replies. If I were to buy a paperless tablet I might give it 5 stars because I wouldn't. I had a negative experience researching how to get my tablet to easily upload an image to a computer. Thumbs down for this one. The paper ended up costing me about $422 after taxes. I don't think it's worth the extra $50. *** UPDATE 5/8/17 I do not recommend this tablet. There are many, many disruptions that affect my work. I make a living retouching in Photoshop every day, glitches cause tools to get stuck instead of switching back and forth with keyboard shortcuts. It's really funny. It's crazy, my work productivity slows down a lot when I press the toggle tool shortcut key multiple times. Other glitches are not being able to click certain buttons in web browsers and not being able to click through the song position slider in Spotify when using it with a trackpad on a laptop. I may have to go back to my old tablet and make it unusable. And yes, they fixed another problem with Inkspace, but it's more of a novelty, the basic functionality of a tablet is just terrible. ***UPDATE 7/21/17 The tablet has received driver updates which have fixed most of the initial issues I had with it. I believe it's finally safe to buy this device if you use it for work. I don't recommend the paper version unless you really intend to use it. Line quality is something you can no longer achieve with a regular mobile tablet or phone. My Samsung Galaxy Note 4 output digital files better than this one and you have more control over line quality with other devices. This is normal when drawing. I'm still not happy with the download process as it requires using the Wacom app, but at least it's finally working. If I bought this tablet today, paperless and with all driver updates, I could give it 5 stars. It's just that I bought it before and it had so many problems. I've been waiting for the updates for a long time and before that it was tedious to use them professionally. So it leaves a bland aftertaste, but I've upgraded my rating from 1 to 3 stars. ***UPDATE 8/28/17 It doesn't matter. There are also various glitches with the tablet. When watching videos on the web or using Spotify, you will experience intermittent crashes because the position slider cannot be skipped. Sometimes you cannot click buttons on browser pages. It's just a sloppy mess at the moment. The functionality seems acceptable for using Photoshop, although that's the most important thing for me. *** UPDATE 4/1/18 My tablet is now (mostly) working correctly. The biggest issue with this tablet right now is that the original finish kills my pens very quickly. I am running out of springs and will order replacement of the smooth surface with new springs, maybe the smooth surface will allow the springs to last longer. I will update later. My old Intuos, pens and nibs have lasted, but not this one. I'm increasing my rating for functionality to a 4 but can't give a 5 as the springs disappear quickly. *** UPDATE 08/14/18 Yo yo yo I'm back and I think this is my last update on this. Now I can recommend this tablet (no paper addon please). As far as I can tell, everything works for me. I'm not a 3D artist so I have no idea how they do this, but for retouching and general use this works great. There's one annoying little thing that could be a Mac issue, but when I wake my laptop from sleep, Wacom isn't connected and I click the Wacom icon at the top of the screen, wait about 30 seconds, then it comes back . Oddly enough, the original matte-textured sheet has been rubbed down to a luster in some places where it comes in most contact with the quill, and now the quill lasts much longer. That means if you plan on throwing it out and replacing it with a slick one, try steel wool or something similar first! Or something that could be polished to a shine. Hmm mr clean magic eraser? lol Not sure. Anyway if you are going to use this thing forever you will need a backup reed in about 5-10 years and I recommend getting a smooth textured reed - they may not offer this reed then ask me How do I know, so somehow fill them up next 2-3 years and store in a drawer somewhere they sell for $30. I'm attaching a photo of an old tablet that I've used for 10-12 years "forever" or so that the sheet got so bad I turned it over and taped it in place. I'm showing how durable these things are, so grab a backup sheet. For real. I've also used several other Wacom tablets at work and this old Intuos 2 was the champion. They are all very good once the glitches are fixed if you are wondering what to buy. Budget model, pro model, all Wacom tablets (without screen) are practical. I haven't used the Cintiq or the MobileStudio Pro and can't speak for them, they look like a headache on their own. I would use the cheap ones every day and I have. I hope to try Huion for comparison one day, but nobody at work has ever used either one and it's really hard to continue when you've been using this brand for 20 years. As the competition is getting closer, I'd like to try it. I was hoping Apple would step in and allow the full version of Photoshop on my iPad Pro so I could get on with it. Also in the next 2-3 years. Yes do that. The clicker will die off in about 4-5 years, fall off. This happened to my beloved old Wacom. Nothing helps but tape. I put in a new clicker but it fell off. :) I've been using duct tape for years. I am ashamed that I am a professional retoucher. May be. I had the money to buy a new one, but put it off sending it to the landfill. All of these spare parts deals are for those who are determined to extend the life of that one product for as long as possible. Unfortunately after a few years they stop supporting it and the company tries to get you to stop using it, but I stuck with it for as long as I could use outdated drivers. lol sounds so awful. I would like to apologize if I do not contact you if you ask me a question that I did not receive from here. What a long review.