9 Replies Latest reply: Aug 30, 2009 4:55 PM by wintersoldier11 RSS

    Wacom Tablet and Dual Monitors

    David C Johnson Community Member
      I read something about a fellow who uses the 6x8 Wacom on his wide screen monitor, but had to adjust the position of his image so he could access the whole image with the Wacom. (I think he was lamenting about not springing for the 6x11 Wide Format Wacom instead of 6x8, which would have covered his whole screen surface.)

      My concern is that neither the 6x8 nor 6x11 will work "well" for me on dual monitors. I usually have the main Ps window with editing image on one monitor, and the palettes on the second monitor. (I do this with Illustrator and Fireworks as well.) I'm concerned that I'll be stuck with "use the mouse to access palettes" / "use the Wacom to draw", wasting my time switching between the two, and benefiting little from either.

      Does anyone have any experience with the Wacom tablet on dual monitors setup?

      regards
        • 1. Re: Wacom Tablet and Dual Monitors
          Community Member
          I have a Wacom 6x11 and a 6x8 and have no problem using it across two monitors. You just need to specify the area to cover in the control panel for the tablet. I can't tell you how to access this on a PC as I use a Mac.
          • 2. Re: Wacom Tablet and Dual Monitors
            Bart Cross Community Member
            Sergei: I do not have the WACOM installed on this machine, but you can access the WACOM from the Control Panel I think (or at least it should be in the program list). You can set the space for the wide screen there and you can also tell the WACOM to use different setting for different apps.

            Go to the WACOM site, I'm sure they have a tut on it.
            • 3. Re: Wacom Tablet and Dual Monitors
              Farrellart Community Member
              Wacom tablets will span over two screens no probs, although I prefer to limit it to my main screen.
              • 4. Re: Wacom Tablet and Dual Monitors
                Ronald Keller Community Member
                3 screens, no problem at all

                Ronald
                • 5. Re: Wacom Tablet and Dual Monitors
                  Paulo Skylar Community Member
                  I use the 6x8 Wacom tablet and use dual monitors. The tablet can be set to cover one or more monitors. Initially I used it to cover both monitors, but I now use it only for the monitor containing the image being worked. There is a personal preference issue relating to the # of display pixels per cm travel of the stylus that is noticeably different between the two setups. Work can be done with either, but I prefer one display mapped to the 6x8 tablet.
                  • 6. Re: Wacom Tablet and Dual Monitors
                    Community Member
                    Please excuse my ignorance. I would like to use multiple monitors with CS2. One for palettes,options bar and tool box, the other for the active image area. Based on what I read in this forum it's possible but I have not found direction in the manual or help screen. So how do I do this?
                    • 7. Re: Wacom Tablet and Dual Monitors
                      Bart Cross Community Member
                      John: Go into your video setup by right-clicking a blank part of your desktop, go to preferences, display settings and you can set up the dual monitor setup from there.
                      • 8. Re: Wacom Tablet and Dual Monitors
                        Ronald Keller Community Member
                        John,

                        Once Windows sees both monitors (display settings - as Bart rightly pointed out) Windows handles your 2 screens as one big screen. This means you can place your programs (or anything else) wherever you like.
                        For instance you could run one program on the left monitor and another on the right monitor. Or - like you already mentioned put palettes and stuff on either monitor.
                        Or drag stuff from either monitor... The possibilities are endless.
                        However some older programs don't allow to place tools or windows outside their program window but most modern programs do.
                        The wacom control pallet (go for Wacom!) let you fine tune several settings, even on a program by program basis but even without using it, using 2 (or more) screens is really very comfortable. The only drawback is that you never will go back to using 1 screen :-)

                        If you don't already own a tablet you should think about the size you will buy. Larger tablets are not only much more expensive they also have a very large footprint and they require big movement of the arms while smaller tablets require movement of the wrist. (English is not my native language so I hope you will understand what I am trying to say)
                        Most people are comfortable with a A5 size but that is of course very personal. Bigger is not always better. Oh well ....

                        Anyway, go for it, you will not regret it that's for sure.

                        Regards,

                        Ronald
                        • 9. Re: Wacom Tablet and Dual Monitors
                          wintersoldier11 Community Member

                          When I go to the preference settings for the tablet, it says I have the tablet scaled across both screens, but the mouse won't scroll over to the next screen. Can anyone tell me why?