Photoshop Elements 5: The Missing Manual

Chapter 19: Beyond the Basics 475

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When using the Brush tool, you’ll see Tablet Options next to the Airbrush setting

in the Options bar. Many brushes and tools are automatically pressure-sensitive

when you hook up a tablet. You can also choose whether to let the pressure con-

trol the size, opacity, roundness, hue jitter, and scatter for your brushes. (See page

307 for more about Brush settings.)

With a tablet, you can also create hand-drawn line art—even if you don’t have an

artistic bone in your body—by placing a picture of what you want to draw on the

surface of the tablet and tracing the outline. Also, if you find constant mousing

troublesome, you may have fewer hand problems when using a tablet’s pen. Most

tablets come with a wireless mouse, which you can use on the surface of the tablet,

or you can use your regular mouse the way you always do.

Tablet prices start at less than a hundred dollars these days, a big drop from what

they used to cost. There are many models available, and the features vary widely.

Sophisticated tablets offer more levels of sensitivity and respond when you change

the angle at which you hold the stylus.

Wacom, one of the big tablet manufacturers, has some pretty nifty tablet demos on

their European Web site (www.wacom-europe.com/uk/use-it/demos/index.asp). You

can’t actually simulate what it’s like to use a tablet, but the animations give ...