Understanding Wacom Nibs for Intuos and Cintiq

Wacom Nibs
For the Wacom Intuos 4 and Wacom Cintiq 21UX there are 4 main types of nibs available. Each has a different feel and style of handling. I will briefly go over the nibs that are available and what they would be most suited for. The new Wacom graphics tablets come with 11 nibs in total as follows.

6 Standard
3 Felt
1 Flex
1 Stroke

Standard Nib
You get 6 of these in total. They are black and plastic and have an intermediate feel on the tablet surface. I find these slightly awkward to sketch with, but for coloring, dodging burning etc. they are incredibly capable and are the most versatile of all the nibs. They also last quite a while. These are my favourite for colouring artwork and general photoshop work.

Felt Nibs
These felt nibs give much more resistance than other nibs and are more suitable for sketching straight into the computer. The problem with these though is they start to wear down and look nasty REALLY QUICKLY. This is exasperated by the fact that Wacom only includes three in each tablet. Overall these are my favourite as the feel is halfway between a Sanford Sharpie and an ordinary pencil. I tend to use these for sketching stuff into the computer.

Flex Nib
This nib tends to move smoothly across the surface but tends to feel a bit mushy in my opinion and quite a lot of pressure needs to be put on to get heavy lines. More so than other nibs. Also when drawing it tends to carry a lot of momentum making sketching hard. The feel is quite similar to that of pastels. My least favourite nib. I have no idea how hard wearing these are but they look like they would have a short lifespan.

Stroke Nib
Out of all the Wacom nibs, this one carry’s the most momentum. It is very soft but makes more noise than the flex nib when in use. It is ideal for inking lines or for emulating the look of quick brushwork. However cause it is absolutely appalling at small sketching work I find myself staying away from it due to the inconvenience of changing it round. They are also more expensive to buy individually.
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