The Cintiq  range differs from its more affordable Intuos siblings by functioning as a display that can be drawn directly on, a boon for digital content creation professionals who prefer to see their creative efforts being rendered directly on screen as they draw, paint or edit.

 

The company explained that  the Cintiq 24HD touch closely replicates the experience of working with two hands when using traditional materials such as paints, markers and clay, while giving the artist powerful capabilities that exist in today's creative software applications.

 

 

"Increasingly, as creative software incorporates multi-touch interaction and gesture support, the Cintiq 24HD touch provides a natural input experience for all related activities including concept sketching, illustration and especially 3D activities such as sculpting, modeling and animation," explained Don Varga, professional products brand director.

 

The 24 HD boasts a display offering 1.07 billion colours and 97% of Adobe's colour gamut; which Varga continued is of particular importance for many creative workflows, where the calibration of colour for the entire project is a necessity.

 

"Given the colour gamut of the Cintiq 24HD touch, artists can be certain that the colours they see while working on the Cintiq can be calibrated to match the printing or other output phases of a project," he added.

 

True colour rendition is not the only feature that the 24 HD brings to the table. Like its more affordable (and non-screen) Intuos 5 counterpart, the new interactive pen displays offer multi-touch and gesture support. Varga pointed out that the ability to manipulate a 3D model or pan, zoom and rotate an image with one hand while simultaneously sculpting or sketching with the other “delivers a completely natural experience enabling artists to stay completely in their creative zone.”

 

“Multi-touch allows users to directly manipulate their work by spinning, pinching and moving it around, instead of searching for buttons or quick keys to perform the same actions," added Nick Davies, the executive vice president of graphics and productivity at Corel.

 

 

For its part, the Cintiq 22HD offers eight customisable, application-specific ExpressKeys located on each side of the display's bezel, a feature that was similarly found on the Intuos 5 and which we have found works to great effect.

 

Additionally the Cintiq 22HD boasts user-defined Touch Strips, which are placed on the back of each side of the display, and can be used for such functions as zoom, scroll, brush size and canvas rotation.

 

 

The only down side to the Cintiq range though, is the price. Given that it is targeted at professionals who can justify the benefit to their workflow, Wacom’s premium offerings have traditionally commanded a steep entry fee and the new additions are no exception.

 

Stateside, the Cintiq 22HD  will cost $1999 (R16 000) and will be available this month, while the  Cintiq 24HD touch  will cost $3699 (R29 600) and is expected to ship in August. Local pricing and availability however, has yet to be confirmed.