Having a drawing tablet for the computer is one of the convenient utilities to have in the art industry. One can get by with just using a mouse to navigate through their projects, but a good drawing tablet makes life a whole lot easier and productive for most. Not all tablets are created equally and the one I’ll be reviewing is the Bamboo Fun by Wacom. (Size Small, active drawing area 5.8” x 3.7”) courtesy Tablet from Cory O'Brien, at Wacom.

What is so alluring about a drawing tablet for an artist is that the Wacom tablet is very much like pad of paper and pen. Those who are artistically inclined will feel right at home just using it for a few days. Line work and painted strokes come naturally from the wacom pen, rather than bulky a mouse. Though the Bamboo Fun is smaller than my computer screen, the tablet has no problems directly corresponding with my movements of my pen cursor. With 512 levels of pressure sensitivity on the tablet, it’s able to keep up with even some of the most agile hands. The pen uses no batteries, which is great for the environment and your budget.

Corel Painter Essentials and Adobe Photoshop Elements are the software that is included with the tablet. This is where the pen’s sensitivity really comes to play and greatly surpasses a mouse in painting or photo editing. By pressing hard or lightly with pen in a paint program, one can achieve crisp or bold strokes on the fly. Using a mouse to achieve the same line quality becomes labored because there is no levels of pressure sensitivity built into it. The tablet also comes with an workable mouse, altho I prefer to use my own.

I previous owned Wacom Graphire 2 and I’m pleasantly surprised by the improvements on the Bamboo Fun.

-The tablet now has customizable buttons and a touch pad for scrolling(Though it can be sluggish at times)
-The usb cord can now be separated from tablet, which makes it easier to travel with.
-The clear tracing film on the tablet pad has been removed. Some may found that film useful, but I’m glad it was remove since there’s not a whole lot you can trace with an active drawing area 5.8” x 3.7.” It’s just more practical to use a scanner rather than trace.
-Tablet comes in a nice new sleek design, drawing surfaces feels close to paper texture.

Users who only web browsing or word processing, many not get the most out of the Bamboo Fun. I recommend the Bamboo Fun to anybody who is a graphic designer, artist or anyone who wishes to get the most out of their artistic software. The active drawing area is small, which may leave you hunger for the larger wacom tablets. But for under $100 you don’t have to be a serious artist to enjoy an industrial strength tool to have a blast.

...4.3 out of 5

Here is a quick painting demo done with the Wacom Bamboo Fun, in Adobe Photoshop.