Summary: Dr. Dirk Terrell looks at a digitizer tablet that - surprise - has native drivers for OS/2

One of my too numerous hats is Vice President of the International Association of Astronomical Artists. I enjoy working with traditional media such as acrylics but finding time to set everything up, paint, and then clean up makes working in the digital realm much more attractive. The mouse, however, is not a very good tool for drawing. A graphics tablet is a necessity. When I installed ACECAD's ACECAT III 5"x5" tablet on my machine, I was looking forward to using it primarily for graphics work while continuing to use the mouse for navigating menus and controlling windows. But I discovered that I really liked using the pen for most everything.

In this day when hardware companies give little or no thought to OS/2 drivers, ACECAD stands out by providing drivers and control software for the ACECAT III right in the box. Installation is about as simple as it gets. A Rexx script installs the drivers and creates a desktop object for the controller software. You can install the tablet as a replacement for the mouse or you can use both. The tablet plugs into a serial port and also the keyboard port (with the keyboard connected to the cable as well). After a reboot, the tablet is ready to go.

The ACECAT III has a 3-button pen, one in the tip and two on the barrel. The control panel software allows you to customize the tablet's functions to your liking. Each button can be set to respond as either a click or double click of mouse buttons one, two, or three. The active area of the tablet is five inches by five inches and you can use the control panel to reduce the area, requiring less motion to move the cursor around the whole screen. Those of you who find the motion of the mouse uncomfortable might like the feel of the pen much better.

A mouse or trackball is a relative pointing device. When you pick a mouse up and move it to another place, the cursor stays where you left it. A pen is an absolute pointing device. When you place the pen in the upper left corner of the tablet, the cursor moves to the upper left corner of the screen. This takes some getting used to, but quickly becomes quite comfortable.

The ACECAT III has a clear plastic overlay that makes it easy to trace an existing drawing. It also comes with an inking stylus so that you can make a drawing and digitize it at the same time.

While I have no major complaints about this product, it isn't perfect for my needs. I suspect that it was designed more as a mouse replacement or with CAD users in mind since it doesn't have a pressure-sensitive tip. This makes it a bit awkward for artwork, but it is still a great improvement over a mouse.

The ACECAT III is an inexpensive (MSRP $99.95) and very capable graphics tablet that worked flawlessly on both my desktop and laptop machines. Unlike many companies that make at best token efforts to produce OS/ drivers for their hardware, ACECAD provides OS/2 drivers and software on par with the Windows ones. They are obviously trying very hard to provide a good product for OS/2 users and they have succeeded. ACECAD, Inc. www.acecad.com