I've known about Monoprice.com for a while. They are one of the cheapest sources for cables and adapters for computer, audio, and video equipment. Recently I bought an LCD monitor wall mount from them and was very impressed with it for the price paid. Well, my good friend Jacci from About.com Desktop Publishing just informed me that Monoprice also sells their own brand of graphics tablets. I had no idea!

They list 4 different sizes on their web site, although at the moment all are out of stock with expected time of arrival of 11/30/09 for the two larger models. The 8 by 6 inch model has 14 user reviews on Monoprice.com with a very high satisfaction rating. The tablet comes with 2 pens and extra nibs for the pens. Driver software is included for both Mac and Windows.

I have had both good and bad experiences with budget-brand graphics tablets, but the Monoprice name and Jacci's recommendation gives me some confidence that these could be a good low-cost alternative to a Wacom tablet. If you've used a Monoprice graphics tablet, please share your experience in the comments.

• Monoprice Graphics Tablets
• Top Pressure-Sensitive Graphics Tablets
• Before You Buy a Graphics Tablet

Coffee or Tea? That's the question and this week's challenge theme. We have some starting images, use both of them to create something new. So sit back and enjoy a cup of your choice--whether it's beans or leaves--and have some fun with this challenge! Read more...

If you're thinking of making your own holiday greeting cards, now is a good time to get started. This tutorial will walk you through how to create a create a greeting card with Photoshop. I have created a template to minimize the number of steps required. The template creates a landscape or portrait oriented "half-fold" card that is approximately 8 by 5 inches and will fit into an A-8 Announcement envelope.
• Greeting Card Template and Instructions for Photoshop

This week's graphics challenge theme is Free for All. We have three starting images for you to take apart and manipulate however you wish. Use elements from all three to create something new. Use your imagination and have some fun with it! Read more...

It's taken a while, but my review of Photoshop Elements 8 is finally up. If you're thinking of upgrading, especially if you use the Organizer portion of Elements, you'll definitely want to read my verdict. If you were an early adopter, I'd appreciate it if you could add your own experience with Photoshop Elements 8 by clicking the blue "Write a Review" button at the end of my review or by posting in the comments below.
• Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows Review

Next to gamers, graphics people seem to have the most tricked-out work spaces. Here's your chance to show us where the magic happens. Post a picture of your graphics workstation and tell us a little bit about the equipment and workspace you use for your graphics work. Whether your workspace is sleek, streamlined, elegant, minimalist, humble, or cluttered... we want to see it! So snap a photo or two, and share it with us.

• Submit Your Graphics Workspace

This week's graphics challenge theme is Filter Frenzy, inspired by Zaza (eager2learn). Do you have a bunch of plugins and filters just hanging around? Here's a chance to experiment with them. Use an image or start from scratch and use your filters until your heart's content, you never know what you might come up with! Experiment and have some fun with it! Read more...

Are you a Facebook user who uses a photo organizer that does not support Facebook upload directly? Facebook allows you to upload photos by email using a email address created just for you by the Facebook service. This provides a simple workaround you can use to post pictures to Facebook from your usual email program, or any photo management software that has an option to send pictures by email--which is just about all of them these days!
• Post Pictures to Facebook from any Photo Software

This week's graphics challenge theme is Trick or Treat. Ghosts and goblins, fairies and princesses, spooks and vampires, it's all part of Halloween fun. The idea is to create a Halloween image--spooky or cute--we'll leave that up to you. So have some fun, use your imagination, and see if you can give us a delight or a fright! Read more...

Adobe Lightroom development has always been heavily fueled by user feedback, and now it's your chance once again to preview and give feedback on the next version. Lightroom 3 beta Mac and Windows versions are available for download today. Read more...

This new collection of Halloween presets for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements includes 15 spooky custom shapes and 3 dozen layer style sets with Halloween colors and glow effects.

• Halloween Collection Photoshop Presets

Are you a die-hard FreeHand user still limping along with discontinued software that hasn't been updated in 3 years? Free FreeHand is a new organization attempting to gather support to keep Freehand alive. Read more...

Sorry for the short notice, but I'm going through my email backlog and noticed that Alien Skin is having a quick sale of 20% off everything in their online store. These are some of the best Photoshop-compatible plug-ins around, so if there is one you've been saving for, or if you've never experienced Alien Skin's plug-ins, have a look through my reviews below, or head straight to Alien Skin's site to get them at a discount.

Alien Skin Software Reviews:

• Snap Art
• BlowUp
• Exposure
• Eye Candy 5: Textures
• Eye Candy 5: Nature
• Eye Candy 5: Impact
• Xenofex 2
• Image Doctor
• Splat!

Readers Respond: What are your essential Photoshop-compatible plugins?

From the legend of Stingy Jack, this week's graphics challenge theme is Jack-O-Lanterns. We have three starting imaes for you to carve up, so use your imagination and have some fun without the mess! Read more...

Photoshop.com Mobile app for iPhone and iPod touch is now available in the iTunes app store for free. The Photoshop.com Mobile app allows you to edit and share photos directly from your iPod touch or iPhone. It connects to your online Photoshop.com account if you have one, or you can use it to edit the photos stored directly on your device. If you don't already have a Photoshop.com membership, the free basic plan will give you 2GB of online storage. A Plus membership is $50 per year and gives you 20GB of storage.

I don't have an iPhone, but I have been playing with the app on my iPod touch and I think Adobe did a really nice job with this app. I can access all the photos synced to Photoshop.com from Photoshop Elements, as well as the photos I have synced to the iPod's storage. You can also upload photos from your device to your Photoshop.com account--a useful feature for those who have an iPhone with built-in camera. Read more...

This week's graphics challenge theme is Autumn Harvest. Autumn marks a time for harvest in many cultures. We have given you some starting images of harvested produce, use at least two of them to create a new image. Have fun and us your imagination! Read more...

Since I wrote about people recognition in Picasa last week, I have learned that Picasa does not store its people tags in your files. They are saved in Picasa's database and will not travel with your files. Read more...

This week we present another Autumn based theme with Fallen. We have some starting images for you that may explain why Autumn is called Fall in some places. Do what you please with the images just try to use at least two of them and try to have some fun with Autumn before it falls! Read more...

People Recognition is the big thing this year with photo organizing software. I have worked with face recognition a little bit in Windows Live Photo Gallery, which can recognize faces in your pictures but does not try to play the who's who game where it matches faces to a name. It's also very slow on my system for some reason. Every time I tag a face, the program becomes unresponsive for several minutes, rendering it unusable for me.

Today I started playing with the new people recognition features in Picasa 3.5, and I am mighty impressed! Read more...

Where has the year gone? It's Autumn already! This week's graphics challenge theme is Fall into Autumn. Soon the nights will be frosty and the mornings crisp as we head into yet another season. Your task this week is to create an image of Fall. Use photos or original artwork if you like, we'll leave it to you. Most of all have some fun with it! Read more...

When we started seeing touch sensitive input areas on Wacom tablets, I wondered how long it would be before they came out with fully touch enabled pen tablets. Well, that time has come. Today Wacom introduces a new family of Bamboo tablets with pen and multi-touch input capabilities. The new Bamboo product line includes 5 redesigned Bamboo tablets, each with unique capabilities and benefits.

I've been working with the new Pen and Touch tablets for a short time and I have prepared a photo-tour with detailed information and commentary on the new tablets.

• Bamboo Pen & Touch Visual Review

This week, Google released Picasa 3.5, a new version of the popular free digital photo organizing and sharing software. Picasa 3.5 is available for both Windows and Mac, bringing several new features and finally dropping "beta" label. Read more...

Today, Adobe announces Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows and Macintosh, as well as Premiere Elements 8 for Windows. This brings the Mac version in sync with the Windows version for features in the photo editor portion of the program. (Photoshop Elements for Macintosh still uses Adobe Bridge in place of the Organizer component of Photoshop Elements for Windows.)

I was not able to work with Photoshop Elements 8 prior to this announcement, but I was privy to an online demonstration of the new features. What follows is a summary of what's new, and I expect to have a hands-on review for you soon. Read more...

If you own Alien Skin's Blow Up 2 plug-in, you're going to want to get the free update to Blow Up 2.0.3, particularly if you're using it in Photoshop CS4. For an overview of Blow Up, see my review. Read on for upgrade instructions and to learn more about the new features in Blow Up 2.0.3. Read more...

Painter has many tools that can serve to enhance your creative process. One of the most interesting ways to add a dramatic effect to a portrait is to experiment with layers. Layers are a powerful way of communicating just the right message you want to convey. Reflecting a mood or atmosphere in a painting serves to hold the viewers interest and creates that emotional response that we so admire in fine works of art.
• Creating Atmosphere with Layers in Corel Painter

This week's graphics challenge theme is Tool Time. We have some images for you to fix up anyway you like into a new image. You can hammer, cut, or nail them into something new however you like. The only rule is to use at least three of the starting images, and be sure to have some fun with it! Read more...

These Photoshop patterns are all wood textures in paneling and parquet patterns with a variety of wood stain colors such as oak, pine, cherry, maple, and birch. Download the free pattern fill sets for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.
• Free Wood Texture Pattern Set

With Arizona Kate's 'Creative Lettering' tutorial you'll learn to draw your own letters instead of using a font. The 'bubble letter' shapes are all pretty simple to create using the vector tools in Paint Shop Pro. There are many fun uses for these fat, stylized letter shapes and it's also very good node editing practice! You'll also learn how to use the bubble letters as a photo-collage or frame.
• Draw Bubble Letters with Paint Shop Pro

This week's graphics challenge theme is Random Band Names. We have a link for a random name generator; go there and get a band name using a keyword, acronym or just randomly. Now the fun begins when you create an image for your band name. Use your imagination and have some fun with it! Read more...

DonnaK of Elegant Scraps was kind enough to contribute some presets for you to download. The layer style collection includes ten styles of checkered textile with gold trim. She has also provided 5 "Bling" accents in PNG format for you to use as you wish. Thanks, DonnaK, for these contributions!
• Free Layer Styles: Checkered Textiles with Gold Trim
• Bling Transparent PNG Files
• How Can I Submit Presets to About Graphics Software?

This week's graphics challenge theme is Happy Birthday Pierre Bézier. We couldn't let Pierre Bézier's birthday pass without celebrating! Pierre was a mathematician who developed the type of computer drawing named after him -- Bézier curves. If you're not familiar with vector drawing or you're an old hand it, why not break out that pen tool and give it try! Read more...

Most of you probably know someone who takes a lot of pictures and videos, but rarely does anything with them once they come off the camera--if they even make it that far. That's the type of point and shooter Corel had in mind when they created Digital Studio 2010, a suite of four all-new products designed to make it easier for family photographers do more with their photos and video clips. Read more...

Today is the birthday of Pierre Bézier, the French mathematician and engineer who developed the Bézier curves method of computer drawing in the late 1960s while working for the car manufacturer Renault. Today, most graphics software includes a pen tool for drawing paths with Bézier curves.
• More About Bezier Curves and Pierre Bézier
• Vector Drawing Terms: The Language of Curves
• Paint Shop Pro Vector Basics and Path Anatomy Tutorial
• Bezier Curves and Paths in Illustration Software

The Adesso CyberTablet 6400 is a small, low-cost, pressure-sensitive graphics tablet for home users, students and educators. The CyberTablet is intended to help you draw and paint more comfortably by allowing you to use a pen rather than a mouse. In most graphics software, it allows you to use pressure to vary your brush strokes and lines--if you can get it to work, that is.

• Adesso CyberTablet 6400 Review

This week's graphics challenge theme is Say What? We are going to revisit a theme we've had some fun with in the past. "Say What?" is all about taking a band's name literally and creating an image to depict it. It may be your favorite group or not, but get imaginative and have fun with it! Read more...