I love creative tech. I've been using drawing tablets for a long time and wanted share what I learn.

• My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thesevenpens

• My notes on drawing tablets: https://docs.thesevenpens.com/drawtab/

• I tweet occasionally: https://twitter.com/TheSevenPens

• I moderate Reddit's /r/drawingtablet and /r/huion

• I keep my code on GitHub: https://github.com/TheSevenPens

Why "TheSevenPens"?

When I started my YouTube channel I had seven pens from my drawing tablets.

Now I have more than seven pens.

Tablets I own

You can see a complete list of the tablets I currently own.

My tablet setups

I have multiple desks with a combination of PCs and laptops for trying out different tablets. More here: My tablet setups

Key resources

• My general take on Drawing tablet brands

• Buying guide

• Drawing tablet recommendations

Relationship to tablet manufacturers

• I don't have any relationship with tablet manufacturers such as Wacom, Huion, XP-Pen, etc. I'm just an enthusiast.

• I do not receive tablets from manufacturers. Every tablet I have is a personal purchase.

• I do attend public demo events either online or in person if I can.

Overview

Drawing tablets allow us to intuitively use a digital pen. On this site, I collected all my notes about drawing tablets over the years. If you are looking to buy a tablet, wanting to get help with a problem with your tablet, or just want to understand the technology, then I think you'll find the information you need here.

Popular topics

• Beginner's guide - If you are not sure really sure what a drawing tablet is, this is a great place to start.

• Buying a drawing tablet - a comprehensive guide about the topics you should consider when purchasing a tablet.

• Recommendations - Because I've used so many tablets, I have recommendations about which ones I think will work well.

• Troubleshooting guides - for when you need help

• Getting started - If you just got your drawing tablet, learn how to set it up and start drawing

• Product info - here you can find collected links, revies, information for many tablets and devices.

Contact

If you have questions or comments contact me at [email protected].

Chat

Consider joining the drawing tablet discord: Drawing Tablet discord server.

I run a small discord server for drawing tablets. This is where I can sometimes be found chatting about drawing tablets.

Invite link:

• Oct 4, 2022

• Sep 11, 2022

Overview

You need about 2000 levels of pressure could probably get by with a lot less.

These days it's very fashionable for drawing tablets to advertise that they have 8000 levels of pressure or 16,000 levels of pressure. In my analysis the vast majority of users only need about 2000 levels of pressure and could get by with far less.

Reasoning

The quick summary is that the number of pressure levels has to be quantized or reduced into certain visible aspects of your artwork.

For example if your pen supports 8000 levels of pressure but your brush size is 100 pixels - then there are only 100 different possible Brush sizes. In other words many of those 8000 levels of pressure map to the same brush size.

By extension the same logic applies to transparency. Most people are using 8 bit transparency which results in 256 possible transparency values. So many of those 8000 pressure levels mapped to the same exact transparency value.

There are some very specific conditions where someone might need more than 2000. But based on what I've observed those cases are incredibly rare and very specialized.

I have several setups ready for testing and trying out drawing tablets. It varies over time and what I am doing. Below is my latest setup as of 2023/08/03.

#1 Primary desktop

• Computer: Minisforum Neptune HX99G

• My notes on the Minisforum HX99G

• RAM: 64GB

• Storage: 1TB

• Tablets

  • Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860)

  • Wacom Cintiq Pro 22 (DTH227)

  • Both tablets are connected at the same time

#2 Drawing desktop

• Computer: Microsoft Surface Pro 8

• RAM: 32GB

• Storage: 1TB

• XP-Pen Deco Pro XLW 2nd Gen (MT1592B)

• XP-Pen Artist Pro 16 2nd Gen (MD160QH)

#3 Testing desktop

• Computers:

  • Microsoft Surface Pro 8 - Primarily for testing with Open Tablet Driver

  • M3 MacBook pro - for testing manufacturer drivers

• Tablets: various

Pen displays

Pen displays are drawing tablets that have an embedded display panel. They are also called: "screen tablets", "display tablets".

Key attributes:

• They DO have an embedded display

• They REQUIRE A COMPUTER to be used.

A pen display may look like a laptop or an iPad which are standalone devices. However unlike those devices:

• A pen display will always have to have at least one cord coming from it that is connected to a computer.

• A pen display does not contain a battery. It must always get power through a cable attached to a power supply or from the computer directly.

Pen displays cost between $300 to $3500.

Pen enabled 2-in-1 laptops

These are laptops that have some support for pens to enable drawing. They may or may not have an attached keyboard.

Examples:

• Microsoft Surface Pro

• Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro 360

Overview

Instead of pen computers, I recommend looking at the other kinds of standalone devices: pen-enabled mobile devices or pen-enabled laptops.

• To understand why I don't recommend pen computers: The case against pen computers

ALTERNATIVE #1: pen-enabled mobile devices

• Apple iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil

• Samsung Galaxy Tab S series tablets that use the Samsung S pen

ALTERNATIVE #2: pen-enabled laptops

• Microsoft Surface Pro

• Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro

More here: Standalone drawing tablet recommendations

ALTERNATIVE #3: Laptops/MiniPCs + pen display

Another alternative is to use a normal drawing tablet that is connected to a small mini-pc or laptop. This will allow you to draw in different locations even though dealing with the additional cabling may be cumbersome.

Overview

If you already have a pen tablet (a screenless tablet) and are considering getting a pen display (a screen tablet). There are a few considerations you should take into account.

A pen tablet is not necessarily an "upgrade"

Many people mistakenly believe that a pen display is always better than a pen tablet. They often thinking of moving to moving to a pen display as an "upgrade". If that's is your starting point, I ask your to take step back and consider that each has its own merits. And many people PREFER pen tablets to pen displays - even professional artists. More here: pen tablets vs pen displays.

If it feels "weird" to draw on your pen tablet

One thing that I often hear is that people find that it feels weird or strange to draw on a pen tablet like their hand isn't drawing what they expect it to draw.

Many times what I found is that people have not configured their pen tablet correctly for their monitor's aspect ratio. More here: matching aspect ratios.

So if your tablet is feeling weird, try matching the aspect ratios and give it a few more days. You might find that after this change you enjoy using your pen tablet much more.

Pen tablets are the simplest and least expensive kind of drawing tablet. They are often called: "screenless tablets" or "non-screen tablets".

• They DO NOT have an embedded display

• They REQUIRE A COMPUTER to be used.

• They REQUIRE A MONITOR attached the the computer or that the computer is a laptop.

The key skill required to use a pen tablet is that you must adjust to your hand drawing on one surface (the tablet) while you are looking at another surface (your monitor). Most people can adjust to this immediately or within a few days, but some people find this weird and for them one of the other device options may be a better choice.

Pen tablets cost between $50 to $500.

These are NOT drawing tablets, but because they are very very similar to pen computers in that they are standalone and you can use a pen to draw with them - we can talk about them as an viable alternative to a pen computer.

But the key difference is a pen computer is intended for drawing, whereas a mobile computer with pen support is meant for general purpose use, but also you can use a pen do draw.

Sometimes the drawing experience with a mobile computers can really rival that of a pen computer. Sometimes they even use the same pen technology. But other times, they use a different technology and the drawing experience is not as good or may be missing features. So you have to carefully choose which devices you pick here.

In this category I think the Apple iPad provides the most compelling experience, followed closely by a Samsung Galaxy Tab S9.

More here: Using an iPad as a drawing tablet

Summary

Once the tablet drivers are installed, All applications are compatible with drawing tablets. Pen-aware apps (such as Krita) can make use of features such as pressure and tilt.

All apps

All applications - even an app that is not "pen-aware" that app easily be used with a drawing tablet. These kinds of apps simply treat the drawing tablet as mouse. In fact they don't even know that a drawing tablet is being used.

• Changing position - instead of moving the mouse -> you move the pen

• Clicking - instead of pressing a mouse button -> you tap the pen on the tablet

• Double clicking - instead of pressing a mouse button -> you tap the pen on the tablet in the same location rapidly

• Dragging - instead of pressing a mouse button and then moving the mouse -> press down on the tablet with the pen (do not lift up) and then move the pen

• Right-clicking - instead of clicking the right mouse button -> You press a button on the mouse

Apps that are pen-aware

Some apps are pen aware. These apps are designed with the possibility (or even expectation) that a drawing tablet may be used. Typical examples are creative apps Krita, Clip Studio Paint, Photoshop, etc.

These apps can take advantage of additional features of the drawing tablet such as pressure sensitivity and tilt sensitivity.

Overview

Wacom has existed for over 40 years. In that time they've released many different drawing tablets.

In this document I'll point you to different lists of tablets depending on what you're interested in.

Wacom's official current tablet models

You can see a list of all the tablets Wacom currently sells on their website (https://www.wacom.com). However, this information does not cover the tablets they historically sold.

Kuuube's Wacom tablet mastersheet

Tablet expert Kuuube maintains a Kuuube's Wacom tablet mastersheet which as far as I know lists every Wacom drawing tablet ever made.

Pen computers are essentially laptops with an embedded pen tablet. You don't need them to be connected up to a separate computer to work. Because pen computers have a CPU, they are running an operating system and all current pen computers use Microsoft Windows. Some people love using pen computers but I don't recommend pen computers. Instead, I recommend you choose a mobile computer with pen support.

Pen computers cost between $1000 to $3500.

This content has been replaced by: Large pen display recommendations

Overview

Active area mapping is a surprisingly complex topic, because it has to work in a number of different situations (single monitor, multiple monitors, etc.) AND is highly configurable AND and can even change dynamically at the press of a button.

For pen tablets (screenless tablets) mapping is the most complex, since the digitizer and the display are separate devices.

Performing the toggle

In the tablet driver you can assign display toggle to a button on the pen or on the tablet.

My recommendation

For pen tablets I always suggest mapping to a single monitor AND enabling display toggle if you need to use both monitors.

I don't use these devices myself. Here are some popular ones.

• Onyx Boox Note Air3

• Remarkable 2

• Amazon Kindle Scribe

Pen tablets

Consumer vs Professional

The first letter to indicates if the tablet is a consumer of professional model. C means consumer. P means professional

• C -> Consumer (example: CTL-472)

• P -> Professional (example: PTH-660)

Active area size

The first digit of the number Indicates the active area size of the tablet

• 4 -> small (example: CTL-472)

• 6 -> medium (example: CTL-6100WL)

• 8 -> large (example: PTH-860)

If you are new to Wacom, you should understand this issue because it is a constant source of confusion for people looking to buy a Wacom tablet, get help with a Wacom tablet, or buy a replacement pen for their Wacom tablet.

The problem: Wacom makes two sweveraldifferent devices with confusingly similar names:

"One by Wacom" refers to any of 2 pen tablets

• One by Wacom Small (CTL-472) released in 2018

• One by Wacom medium (CTL-672) released in 2018

"Wacom One" can refer to any of 5 drawing tablets in two generations

• Wacom One GEN1 (DTC-133) - a pen display released in 2019

• Wacom One 12 GEN2 (DTC-121) - a pen display released in 2023

• Wacom One 13 touch GEN2 (DTH-134) - a pen display released in 2023

• Wacom One S GEN2 (CTC-4110WL) - a pen tablet released in 2023

• Wacom One M GEN2 (CTC-6110WL) - a pen tablet released in 2023

Overview

I have a LOT of drawing tablets. As of June 27, 2025 I have 106 drawing tablets.

Here is my current inventory: https://1drv.ms/x/c/c2cae95d828b7c69/EWl8i4Jd6coggMK3CAAAAAAB-HGFQ_jOG9_uDCGPt2US5g?e=Zi2dci

Quick tour

Sometimes people doubt that I have as many drawing tablets as I claim. As evidence, below is a quick tour of MOST of the tablets I have. Although not every tablet is shown, the video at least gives you a sense of how many I have.

Notes on my collection

• To see a full list of my tablets: https://1drv.ms/x/s!Aml8i4Jd6crCginxzCU7kvh4NB4w?e=Mkq7sx

  • This list is out-of-date - I'llb e revising it in summer of 2025 to make it accurate.

• In that spreadsheet, you can see

  • The tablet name, model number, and brand

  • When I purchased the tablet

  • Which store I purchased from

  • The year the tablet model was released

  • Whether the tablet was bought new or used

• Some of these tablets are quite old - 10 years, 20+ years. Even though they work perfectly their age does make it more complex to use them. More here: Using older drawing tablets

Where I buy drawing tablets

• Most often I buy new tablets on Amazon or occasionally B&H Photo. If Amazon does not stock the tablet, I purchase it from the manufacturer's online store.

• If it is an older tablet i buy them on eBay.

Non-standalone drawing tablets

• Pen tablets (also called "screenless tablets") - Don't have a screen and you have to use them with a computer or laptop. More here: Overview of pen tablets

• Pen displays (also called "screen tablets") - Have a screen and you have to use them with a computer or laptop. More here: Overview of pen displays

Standalone drawing tablets

• Pen-enabled mobile devices - These are devices like iPads and Samsung Galaxy Tab S devices that support being used with a pen. They aren't strictly-speaking drawing tablets, but they use the same/similar tech and can work as a standalone drawing tablet. More here: Overview of pen-enabled mobile devices

• Pen computers - Drawing tablets that are essentially laptops. I do not recommend getting these. more here:

  • Overview of pen computers

  • The case against pen computers

• Pen-enabled 2-in-1 laptops - These are devices like the Microsoft Surface Pro or Samsung Galaxy Book 5 360 that can be used with a pen. More here: Overview of pen enabled 2-in-1 laptops

Steps

• Find the dimensions of the device and the active area then

  • The dimensions will be published online

• Cut out a piece of cardboard to the size of the tablet dimensions

• Draw a rectangle to represent the active area

• Then try drawing on it

Example

Things to test

• In the active area, do you find enough space to draw

• How will you place it relative to your keyboard

• Does it fit your desk

• Especially for pen displays, keep it about half an arms length away. How much does this prevent you from reacing other items on the desk

Disambiguation: Wacom One vs One by Wacom

See: Wacom One vs One by Wacom

Evolution of Wacom consumer line of pen tablets

This diagram is my summary how their consumer line of tablets is evolving

This is an updated tier list from the original livestream: https://youtube.com/live/CKki6AEzdzA

To see the next year's tier list: 2025 Drawing tablet tier list

The updated tier has a couple of changes I implemented after talking to some tablet enthusiasts:

• Added Huion Kamvas 16 GEN3 to A tier

• XP-Pen Deco Pro GEN2 moved from S tier to A tier

• Wacom One M and Wacom One S moved to new F tier

• Some cards in the same tier merged for a brand

Overview

Pen tilt information is always sent from the tablet to the tablet driver and from there to the operating system and then to pen-aware applications.

Sometimes when drawing it can be useful to turn off tilt. There are options

OPTION 1 Use brush settings

Drawing apps that use brushes may let you control how tilt affects the brush. So, you can configure specific brushes to ignore tilt. Examples of applications that support this are Clip Studio Paint and Krita.

OPTION 2 Turn tilt off in the driver

Turn off tilt in the driver - SOME tablet drivers let you simply turn off tilt so that it isn't reported to your operating system or applications.

XP-Pen drivers have this feature.

In order to correctly represent the position of the pen. The tablet has to perform something called tilt compensation. This means adjusting the pointer position, depending on how much the pen is tilted.

This is very important for EMR tablets because the digitizer is sensing an inductor inside the pen. And that inductor is not close to the tip of the pen. It's deeper inside the pen.

Some other pen technologies. For example, the apple pencil don't have as big a separation as EMR tablets have.

Now no tablet does tilt compensation perfectly. I have seen some very old habits to do this very badly almost as if they don't compensate for tilt at all. But these days, a modern EMR drawing tablet does a decent job compensating for tilt. And so the pointer doesn't really shift too far away from where the tip of the pen is. But there is some variation. Some tablets are better at this than others.

Overview

Most people buy drawing tablet to create digital art. I've collected some links below to help them get started on this journey.

The role of drawing tablets

I do recommend you get a drawing tablet for digital art, but remember you don't have to force yourself to use a tablet for everything.

Many people use tablets in addition to other techniques. For example, some people draw on paper and then photograph or scan the drawing to get it into their computer. From there, they just finish up their work with a drawing tablet.

Videos

• Digital art

  • Nadiaxel - 2022/07/04

  • Brad Colbow - 2020/02/24

  • Trent Kaniuga - 2022/03/02

  • Marc Brunet - 2020/12/12

  • David Revoy - 2022/08/15

• Learning to draw and paint

  • 2023/05/21

  • Drawabox () - Drawabox is a set of free exercise-based lessons that focus on the fundamentals

Social

• Kawaii Sensei () - There's lots of practical tips every day.

• EtheringtonBrothers () - More frequent practical tips. And they publish useful printed guidebooks.

Equipment

Wacom

-

Wacom community forums:

To file a support ticket: You can file a support ticket with Wacom at this link:

Huion

-

Go to the bottom of the page to find links to contact Huion support

XP-Pen

Support page:

Gaomon

[email protected]

Overview

Almost certainly you've used a mouse with a computer, and this this document will help you understand how using a drawing tablet with its pen differs from using a mouse.

Positioning strategy

Mice and drawing tablets have very different positioning strategies. Mice use relative positioning. Drawing tablets use absolute positioning. Learn more here: . Drawing tablets can simulate relative positioning if needed with . However, I don't recommend using mouse mode.

Stroke smoothness in drawing apps

With a drawing applications you'll notice that the strokes drawn with a mouse have a rougher stair-step effect and in general are not as smooth.

There are many techniques and features to help you draw smooth strokes. Some will work for both mouse and tablet, and some are specific to drawing tablets. More here: .

Position smoothing (aka "stabilization") is one of these techniques. However, Some apps may allow position smoothing with drawing tablets but not with mice.

Here's what Krita currently does:

• Basic smoothing: applies ONLY to drawing tablets

• Weighted smoothing: applies BOTH to drawing tablets and mice

Here's what Clip Studio Paint does:

• Stabilization: applies ONLY to drawing tablets

Clicking and moving the pointer

With a mouse, you move the pointer and clicks only happen when you take a very conscious effort to click a mouse button.

A drawing tablet feels very different. To move the pointer and avoid clicking you hover the pen over the drawing tablet (up to about 10mm) and this will move the pointer without clicking. If you touch the pen to the tablet however, this will count as a click.

So with a drawing tablet you have to get used to hovering and only pressing down when you want to click.

Keep the pointer on a single pixel (without clicking)

With a mouse it's usually pretty easy to put the pointer on a single pixel and keep it there. You can just move the mouse and once the pointer is where you want it, it's easy to hold the mouse in that position. Or you can even let go of the mouse and the pointer will stay there.

Drawing tablets feel very different in this regard. First, you can't touch the tablet with the pen you have to hover the pen over that spot. While it is very easy to hover in a general location (a couple of pixels wide) its much harder to keep the pen over a specific pixel while hovering because you hand will move around a bit. Also most drawing tablet pens are sensitive to the tilt of the pen, and so if you tilt the pen it may cause some movement in the mouse pointer.

Keep the pointer on a single pixel (while clicking)

Mice are really good at this. Once the pointer is where you want it, you can click the buttons and this can be done without changing the pointer location.

This is much harder with a pen. First there is the general difficulty of keeping the pointer on a specific pixel. And then, if you press the buttons on the pen, this will almost always change the position of the pen and thus the pointer.

Application considerations

if you are drawing strokes or painting in an app like Clip Studio Paint or Krita, then a drawing tablet will feel MUCH more natural.

If you are layout out shapes and creating vector shapes in applications like Illustrator, a mouse might actually be better because they are easier to keep in a specific pixel location. For example, I normally just use a mouse when I use illustrator.

Ergonomics > Wrist Pain

Using a mouse can place strain on your wrist. Drawing tablets are generally less stressful on your wrist. However, they also can place strain.

Power

Mice get their power from either a cable or they use batteries.

Modern drawing tablets all support wired connection through USB. Some tablets also support wireless connection through bluetooth.

The pens for a modern drawing tablet neither use a cable nor do they have batteries. Instead they get power simply from being near the drawing tablet.

ProTip: Match aspect ratios when using a pen tablet

Make sure you match aspect ratios when you are using a pen tablet so that drawing feels natural and your strokes are not distorted. More here:

Overview

Just as they are installed, tablet drivers can also be uninstalled.

Normally, you would only be interested in uninstalling a tablet driver if you don't plan to to use your drawing tablet again. However, uninstalling/re-installing is a common troubleshooting technique so it is useful to be familiar with the process.

Windows uninstall process

Windows

• Steps

  • Go to Start > Apps > Installed apps

    • On earlier version of Windowss, search for "Add Remove Programs" and then uninstall apps

  • Locate the applivation for your tablet brand

  • Click on it and select to uninstall

  • The uninstall process may ask you to restart your computer, do that.

  • If you are not asked to restart your compute, after the uninstall process is finished, restart your computer anyway.

• About the needed to restart the computer

  • Uninstalling a driver may require a restart of your system. So, get this out of the way before you proceed with the next steps. Even if a driver uninstalled without asking you to restart. I highly recommend you restart your computer after you uninstall a tablet driver.

Extended uninstall process

Some tablet drivers leave bits of themselves installed, even after an uninstallation process. To ensure nothing remains, use the .

Starting the uninstall process from the driver

Even though I normally use the standard operating system methods to start the uninstall process, for some tablet brands, you can launch the uninstall process from the driver app itself.

MacOS uninstall process

Wacom

• Search for Wacom Tablet Utility 

• Under Tablet Software click Uninstall

Resources

Resources

Overview

Pen computers are standalone drawing tablets with screens that you can use without being attached to a computer. Essentially they are laptops that work with an EMR pen that are specifically designed for drawing and are made by drawing tablet brands such as Wacom. Examples of pen computers are: Wacom Mobile Studio Pro and Huion Kamvas Studio

Even though some people love using pen computers, I do not in general recommend buying one.

In this document I will evaluate pen computers on several dimensions such as cost, upgradability, etc and show you why I think they are not a great choice.

I suggest you seek alternatives

I think there are better options for you:

Cost

Pen computers are incredibly expensive.

For example the Wacom Mobile Studio 16 (2019) cost $3500 at time of release.

I certainly do not recommend pen computers for people who are just getting started with drawing tablets. I will always recommend that you go with cheaper alternatives. And the reason for this is simple: You may find that the wrong experience doesn't live up to your expectations.

Upgradability

Pen computers typically have very limited upgradability compared to using a normal drawing tablet that requires a PC.

Typically once you buy pen computer you'll be stuck with those specifications in terms of memory processor speed and GPU for the entire lifetime of the device. If you are going to purchase a pen computer please verify how upgradable it is before you make the purchase.

if you use a non-standalone drawing tablet attached to a PC or laptop, you can either upgrade the PC or get a new laptop with significantly upgraded specs.

Customer support

Companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Dell sell a lot of laptops and all-in-one systems. These companies have built world-class customer support organizations and support systems to ensure that their customers are getting the help they need when a customer has a question or something goes wrong with these complicated devices.

The truth is that drawing tablet manufacturers aren't as big as these companies. They handle a much smaller volume of products and users and you may find that their customer support may not be as helpful as these larger companies.

Repairs

As with most laptops and all-in-one systems a pen display is typically not intended to be user-serviceable. If something goes wrong it's going to be difficult to fix by yourself. Not only are these computers often not designed to be opened. Even if you are successful in opening the case and fixing whatever problem there is it will most certainly void your warranty.

If you need to have the pen computer repaired by the manufacturer. You are going to find that both the process is difficult and the cost is extraordinarily high.

You cannot take these devices into a local retail store for the tablet manufacturer to take a look at. You'll have to send the pen computer back to the manufacturer and you will have to pay for the cost of shipping. And the repair cost can be as expensive as getting another laptop.

Many people use drawing tablets to play osu. More here:

If you are interested in playing osu with a drawing tablet, then do not rely on recommendations from drawing tablet reviewers. They focus on the needs of the creative users. Don't rely on my recommendations for the same reason.

Instead, the definitive resource to consult is .

If you do want a quick answer now though, these two tablets are excellent for osu.

• One by Wacom Small (CTL-472)

• One by Wacom Medium (CTL-672)

You could also buy one of these tablets below, which are also great for osu, but they are very expensive and are not any better for osu than the ones listed above.

• Wacom Intuos Pro Small (PTH-460)

• Wacom Intuos Pro Medium (PTH-660)

• Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860)

Wacom guidance (with caution)

Wacom lists recommended tablets for osu here: . However, they list some tablets that are NOT recombed for osu. So, I recommend you disregard their list andpick from the models listed above or the one Kuuube recommends.

Overview

I don't do 3D work myself, so this document is based on feedback I've been given by others and what I have observed in online forums. Please share any .

It seems that the 3D workflow tends has some special needs, ans for that reason we need to look at this use case specifically.

There are three considerations for 3D workflows

• Whether to get a pen display or pen tablet (the most common answer is pen display)

• What display resolution to get for the pen display

• What size for the pen display

Pen display vs pen tablet

Based on on my observation, most people doing 3D work use a pen display (screen tablet) instead of a pen tablet (screenless tablet).

However, what will work for you takes some consideration. See:

Display resolution of pen display

• 4K+ is RECOMMENDED

• 2.5K to 3K is OKAY

• 2K, 1080p, and lower - NOT RECOMMENDED

Display size of pen display

• 19" to 32" recommended

  • I have personally noted a lot of 3D artists looking for a 24" display.

• 16" is OKAY

• 14 and lower - NOT RECOMMENDED

For general guidance on picking size:

Prioritizing resolution and size

It seems that the 3D workflow typically involves having many UI elements on screen at once - for example when using node editors. Higher resolutions will make it easier to read the smaller text in these scenarios.

For example here is an example of what might need to be on screen

For this reason, some suggest prioritizing resolution first before size.

Notes

Thanks to tablet enthusiast KoyoD for providing the guidance that this document is based on.

Overview

The easiest way to understand what it feels like to draw on a drawing tablet is to compare it to drawing with pen and paper.

A pen display works just like pen and paper in the sense that you can exactly see what you're drawing. More specifically your eyes are looking at what you're drawing.

With a pen tablet things are very different - your hand is drawing in one place but you're looking somewhere else to see what's being drawn. So fundamentally using a pen tablet works differently than pen and paper.

Getting strokes right the first time

Because it is more clear what the pen is doing with the pen display many people who use append display say that they “get the stroke right the first time”.

With a pen tablet people often feel like they have to make the stroke multiple times to get it right and have to press undo to erase Any errant strokes.

I would generally agree with this feeling. When I want to get a drawing done faster especially if I have a general sense of what it is I want to draw then I do work faster with the pen display and I find that I have to press undo far less often.

Dealing with your hands

With a pen display, things are natural. You see the pen in the same place the stroke is being drawn - just like when you use pen and paper.

And just like pen-and-paper, your own hand and the pen will block your eyes from seeing the display. The easy solution to this is to reposition your eyes or take advantage of the canvas zoom and rotation features of your drawing app.

With a pen tablet, you are looking at a monitor but drawing somewhere else with your hand. Fundamentally this is no different than using a mouse. So this is kind of a convenience actually since you never have to worry about the positions of your hands. They can be anywhere and they will never block what you see.

Adjustment period

Because a pen display works like pen and paper almost everyone can immediately start using a pen display. It's just kind of obvious how it works. And especially these days with so many people having used devices like iPads. They know how to deal with the screen that they can interact with.

For pen tablets things get a little more complicated. I would say that 80% of people can immediately or at least in a few minutes get comfortable using a pen tablet. Another 10% of people will take anywhere from a couple of days to maybe a couple of weeks to adjust to a pen tablet. And the remaining 10% of people will never be able to adjust to a pen tablet. For them it will never feel natural to use. And they are better off getting a pen display.

Unfortunately without trying a pen tablet it's really difficult to tell if you would fall into the 10% of people who just can't use pen tablets..

Matching aspect ratios

With a pen display, the active are and the screen have the same size. This means the pen will draw exactly where you see it draw.

With a pen tablet, the active area where you raw is separate from the monitor where you see the your strokes. Unless specifically configured in the driver, this will cause your strokes to be distorted. For example if you draw a circle on the tablet it will show up as an oval on the screen. It is easy to fix this problem in the driver. More here: .

Type of drawing tablet

Any type of drawing tablet works for whiteboarding.

However those drawing tablets with screens (pen displays and standalone devices) do work better in my experience. This is because it just feels more natural to see what your whiteboarding on the screen as you draw.

Applications

• Visio -

• Excalidraw -

• Draw.io -

• Microsoft whiteboard (windows, iOS, web) -

• Miro -

• Lovable -

• Built-in whiteboarding features in communication apps such as Microsoft teams and zoom.

• Microsoft Powerpoint - Some people use Microsoft PowerPoint as a whiteboarding app. This allows the whiteboard to have a collection of pages - with each page being a slide in the PowerPoint presentation. And then they can take advantage of PowerPoint drawing tools.

• Google Keep - Supports taking visual notes where you can draw.

Overview

All drawing tablets have multiple components, but the primary component is the EMR sensor - which also called the digitizer.

And despite all the many brands of drawing tablets you see, there are only a couple of manufacturers of digitizers. These are: Wacom, Hanvon Ugee, Huion.

Which digitizers go into which brands

• Wacom digitizers are used in their own products.

• Hanvon Ugee supplies digitizers to Xencelabs and XP-pen tablets

• Huion supplies supplies digitizers for: Gaomon, Huion, Veikk tablets. And Huion supplies digitizers for Artisul tablets through their acquisition of UCLogic.

Acquisitions

• Huion acquired UCLogic in 2019 ()

Overview

Pen computers are slate form-factor laptops that provide the full drawing tablet experience.

Pen computers are true drawing tablets because:

• They use the most popular digital pen technology (EMR) for their digitizers and pens

• They provide the classic drawing tablet experience.

"Pen computers" terminology

Pen computers is what Wacom calls this category of devices in relation to drawing tablets.

Common traits

• Operating system: Windows

• Intended usage scenario: Drawing, painting, sketching

• Pen tech: EMR (electromagnetic resonance)

My position on pen computers

As a policy, I do NOT recommend pen computers. The reasons are many and documented here: .

I recognize that some people LOVE the experience of using a pen computer. But overall because of the cost of purchase, support, repair, lack of upgradability, etc. I cannot cannot in good conscience recommend them.

I suggest you look at alternatives: .

Current models

• Huion Kamvas Studio 16 ($1700)

• Huion Kamvas Studio 24 ($2400)

• Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13 ($2500)

• Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16 ($3500)

Pressure levels

Conceptually, a drawing tablet takes the pressure range and divides the range up into segments - each segment is a pressure level.

The number of pressure levels NOT decided by the pen. It is ultimately determined by the tablet itself. It can be the case that a tablet decides to have 4K pressure levels with one pen model but 8K pressure levels with another pen model.

How many pressure levels do you need?

These days tablet brands say that they can handle 8K (8192) levels of pressure. Some tablets even claim to support 16K pressure levels.

Don't get caught up in hype about pressure levels.

I claim you only need 2048 levels of pressure (and probably even less than that). As a quick example watch this 35 second video:

The bezel of a drawing tablet is essentially all the area on the surface of the drawing tablet that is not the .

For many devices such a phones and TVs, people make a big deal about having the smallest bezels possible. For drawing tablets, it is good to have a wide bezel.

Ergonomic benefits

• Avoids your pen uncomfortably "dropping off" if you are making strokes near the edge of the active area

• Provides a place for you rest your wrist or forearm so that the edge of the tablet is not digging into them.

Drawing benefits

The EMR sensor (digitizer) needs to be a bit wider than the active area so that it is still accurate at the edges. A wider bezel provides that extra space for the digitizer.

Reddit threads

Overview

Ideally when you're drawing with an EMR pen, smooth changes to physical pressure are translated to smooth changes in the pressure data the computer is getting from the tablet.

In reality at low pressure near the IAF, you can experience some instability where pressure readings might do certain strange things. And this will produce odd artifacts in your strokes.

Often this instability is present in your strokes but may not be noticeable at all especially if your brush size is small (for example 10px). But if you are using very large brush sizes like 100 pixels or 500 pixels that it may be much more obvious.

Prevalence

All drawing tablet pens have some pressure instability near their initial activation force. The amount of this instability and the way it manifests itself does vary a bit between different pen models. However even the best drawing tablet pen on the market (Wacom Pro Pen 2) can be made to exhibit these issues.

Examples

All of the example below were created with the Wacom Intuos Pro 2017 M (PTH-660) with the Wacom Pro Pen 2 (KP-504E).

• Application: Krita

• Brush: Ink3 Gpen, null pressure curve, 500px brush

Causes

• The pressure detection mechanism in an EMR pen is almost always hypersensitive as pressure gets close to the IAF.

• The texture of the tablet surface as the pen is traveling over it can get picked up by the pressure sensor.

• The movement of your wrist or elbow on the tablet or the desk as your hand moves or rotates can get picked up by the pressure sensor.

• It's very hard for a human to hold a consistent physical pressure.

• Pens are more sensitive to pressure as they come closer to a vertical position.

• Depending on the direction of pen travel the direction of the physical tilt of the pen can create odd interactions between the nib of the pen and the surface of the pen tablet.

Addressing these problems

See:

Overview

These aren't really drawing tablets. They're laptops that you can use for drawing also. The drawing experience with these devices is not as good as a dedicated drawing tablet but they may be enough for what you need.

• Operating system: currently all run Windows

• Scenario: General purpose

• Pen tech: varies. MPP, EMR

These kinds of devices are really for general purpose use. So if what you want is a full operating system where you can use things like Microsoft Office, or the full version of Photoshop, etcetera. Then these suitable choices for a standalone tablet.

Samsung Galaxy Book 4/5 360

This is a 2-in-1 laptop that folds over. The drawing experience is good - not super great but good.

Pen information:

• Tech: Wacom EMR (specifically UD EMR)

• Comes with this pen: ()

• Pen compatibility: These devices also works with the the Wacom CP-913 pen. And many people choose to use the Wacom CP-913 instead of the S Pen.

Recent models:

• Samsung Galaxy Book5 360

• Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360

Microsoft Surface Pro

This is a 2-in-1 laptop that can be used with detachable keyboard. This drawing experience is OK. It's better suited in my opinion for notetaking or whiteboarding rather than drawing.

Pen information

• Tech: MPP (similar to AES)

• Comes with pen: NO. You have to buy The Surface Slim Pen 2 separately.

• (starting at $900)

• (starting at $900)

Overview

At any point in the market for drawing tablets you'll see tablets designated as “pro”. Often these are paired with non pro versions that are being sold at the same time.

You cannot rely on the Pro designation to mean anything significant.

You cannot rely on the Pro designation to mean “better”.

“Pro” has no standard meaning either across the different drawing tablet brands, or within the models within a drawing tablet brand.

If confronted with a choice between 2 tablets with the same name if one has pro in its name and one doesn't - then do not automatically assume that the pro version is better. Instead take a look at other aspects of the drawing tablets that you're considering.

Example: Huion Kamvas 13

Consider these two tablets from Huion:

• Huion Kanvas 13 GEN3 (GS1333)

• Huion Kamvas Pro 13 (GT-133)

I highly recommend between these two choices that you go with the Huion Kamvas 13 GEN33 and not the Kamvas 13 Pro version. This is because when you look deeply at the tablets you will discover that the Kamvas 13 GEN 3 is superior in some important ways.

Specifically, the Kamvas 13 GEN3 is a much more recent tablet and has a better screen and uses a much pen that has much better pressure handling.

Technology evolution over the years

One of the challenges in picking tablets is retail sites like Amazon list both tablets side by side but these tablets can be made in different years and as a result they belong to different generations of technology. For example over the years the pens have gotten better and so have the displays. So modern pen displays might work much better in some ways than pro tablets from a few years ago.

For example, laminated displays used to be something that only pro tablets had. And now we're starting to see that in non pro tablets.

In addition pen technology has evolved quite a bit for some tablets.

A great example is the Huion PW600L pen. This is a pen that rivals some of the professional pens from Wacom based on my testing. And that same testing reveals that these older pens aren't bad but really are not as good as the PW600L pen is at handling pressure.

Practical tips

• pay attention to when the tablet was released into the market

• pay attention to the included pen - some tablets released very recently might still be pens with older tech

• pay attention to the tablet's model number. Some tablets have very similar names but are veyr different. For example: Huion Kamvas 13 GEN3 (GS1333) vs Huion Kamvas 13 (GS1331).

Introduction

If you want to buy a drawing tablet as a gift, it can be challenging if you yourself have never used one and don't have a background. This guide is to help you make find a good choice.

Understand the kind of drawing tablets available

The first thing you need to understand is the type of drawing tablet you want to give as a gift. This is very important because it determines how they will use the tablet and the cost. So, read this document first before you continue: Types of drawing tablets.

Understand the basics

Beginner's guide to drawing tablets

Does the giftee already have some experience with a drawing tablet?

This is important because:

• You should understand what they like and don't like about that experience

• They also have a set of expectations.

• It might even be that they don't need a drawing tablet because they already have a device that serves that role.

For example, if they already have an Apple iPad:

• The may want to continue iPad apps

• You can buy an Apple Pencil model that is compatible with their iPad

If you are looking an easy answer for your budget

See this list of recommendations

They are separated by type and size of tablet, and options are available at multiple budget options.

When ready look through the full buying guide

The full buying guide: Buying a drawing tablet

These tips will be useful: Video: Practical tips for buying a drawing tablet

Make sure the tablet will physically connect with their computer

For a pen tablet and pen display, they have to connect to a computer. For a pen tablet, this is easy because the computer needs just one USB port to be available. But for a pen display this can get complicated. See this: Connecting a pen display to a computer

Do they need to use certain apps?

Sometimes, the apps they need dictates what will work for them.

Examples:

• If they want to use the Procreate app -> the only option is to get an Apple iPad because procreate only works on iPads.

• If they need to use the full version of Photoshop (as opposed to the mobile version) -> then they can't use an Android device or an iPad

Join the discord for more help

Go here for the invite link: Drawing Tablet discord server

Scenario

When I "whiteboarding" i include any scenario where you are drawing something for the sake of communicating visually.

Example:

• Online teaching

• Zoom call

• Recording Khan-Academy style videos

Good news

You don't need a fancy tablet for white boarding

• For pen tablets (screenless tablets) - Any medium size beginner pen tablet will work. See: See: Beginner pen tablets

• For pen displays (screen tablets) - Beginner pen displays

Pen tablet vs Pen display

Both work, but if you are drawing things live for these scenarios, I do encourage you to look into a pen display (screen tablet).

For his Khan Academy videos, the last time I checked, Sal Khan used an Intuos Pro Medium (PTH-660).

EXCELLENT

• Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTK-870) [$500, my notes]

• Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860) [$500, my notes]

VERY GOOD

• XP-Pen Deco Pro XLW GEN2 (MT1592B) [$200, my notes]

GOOD

• Huion Inspiroy Giano (G930L) [$200, my notes]

• Huion Inspiroy 2 L [my notes]

Overview

The undisputed leading brand is Wacom (https://www.wacom.com). They have a variety of products and different price points that should fit everyone's needs. If you don't want to weigh the pros and cons of different brands and want an easy answer then choose Wacom.

My experience: I currently own 39 Wacom tablets (6 pen displays and 33 pen tablets). I have extensively used every tablet in their professional series.

Some basic summaries of their leading series of tablets

• Intuos Pro - professional pen tablets. continue to be the best pen tablets ever made

• Cintiq Pro - professional pen displays - continue to be the best pen displays ever made

• One by Wacom - consumer pen tablets - are terrific beginner tablets

• Wacom One - consumer pen tablets and pen displays - mixed bag of results here.

What Wacom does well

• Best EMR tech. This may not be obvious just by comparing specs, but their EMR tablet technology is ahead.

• Long-term reliability. Their older tablets (20+ years old) still work today if you use the appropriate driver.

• They have products for beginners, intermediate users, and professionals - but even their beginner products are very high quality.

• They have good support.

• They monitor and respond to questions on https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom

Feature availability

One thing you'll notice about Wacom is that they tend to keep certain features in their professional line of products. In fact over time they have tended to remove features from their consumer tablets and move them only to the pro line. Other manufacturers tend to have those features consumer and professional lines.

Overview

13" is a good way to get introduced to pen displays. Though I do think ultimately 16" is a better size longer term.

If I had to pick one

Huion Kamvas 13 GEN3 (GS1333) [$260, my notes]

Other good options

SMALL 13"

• Huion Kamvas 13 GEN3 (GS1333) [$260, my notes] ★★★

• XP-Pen Artist 13 GEN2 (CD130FH) [$300, my notes]

• XP-Pen Artist 12 GEN3 (CD121FH) [$220, my notes]

MEDIUM 16"

• Huion Kamvas 16 GEN3 (GS1563) ★★★ [$500, my notes]

Decent options

• Kamvas 16 V2 (GT-156 V2) [$400, my notes]

• Wacom One 14 (DTC-141) [my notes]

EXCELLENT

• Wacom Intuos Pro Small (PTK-470) [$200, my notes]

• Wacom Intuos Pro Small (PTH-460) [$200, my notes]

VERY GOOD

• Huion Frego S (L320) [$70, my notes on the Medium-sized model ]

  • FEATURE LIMITATION: NO TILT

GOOD

• One by Wacom Small (CTL-472) [$40, my notes]

  • FEATURE LIMITATION: NO TILT

• Wacom Intuos Small (CTL-4100) [$75, links]

  • FEATURE LIMITATION: NO TILT

• XP-Pen Deco

  • XP-Pen Deco M (IT850) [no wireless] [$50, links]

  • XP-Pen Deco MW (IT850B) [$70, links]

AVOID

• Wacom One S 2023 (CTC-4110WL) [$100, links ]

  • SUB-STANDARD PRESSURE HANDLING

Overview

Xencelabs (https://www.xencelabs.com/) positions itself as a direct competitor to Wacom for the professional creative audience

They are a very new brand and have a small product line as of Jan 2024:

• Pen displays

  • Xencelabs Pen Display 24: my notes on this tablet

  • Xencelabs Pen Display 16: my notes on this tablet

• Pen tablets

  • Xencelabs Pen Tablet Medium SE

  • Xencelabs Pen Tablet Medium: my notes on this tablet (very minimal notes)

  • Xencelabs Pen Tablet Small

What Xencelabs does well

• They are very thoughtful about the design of their products. You can see small touches that make a difference. For example:

  • Their pen tablets are exactly 16x9 aspect ratio

  • The front edge of their pen tablets are slightly slopped so there's less of a hard edge hitting your wrist

  • Their driver UX is well the most thought-out, user-friendly and attractive of any tablet brand.

  • Their tablets come with 2 pens.

• I don't have any direct experience with their support. I haven't needed to contact them for any issue. But from what I have seen Xencelabs support is extremely good.

How Xencelabs could do better

• Core Pen tech

  • MAX pressure of their pens as I have measured is GOOD but not yet as high as Wacom's Pro Pens which have an EXCELLENT high max pressure.

  • Their stated IAF is 3gf - which matches my measurements - is GOOD. But Wacom's Pro pens have an even lower IAF.

• There aren't that many Xencelabs users out there - so if you need community help there are very few people in the community who can help and you'll need to rely Xencelab's customer support.

• As of September 2025 their product portfolio does not include

  • A large pen tablet

  • A mobile device

Overview

No brand's products are consistently perfect.

All brands will eventually ship a product that has defective units or that will have sporadic problems with their drivers, etc. So, at some point you will need help.

This is why you MUST choose a brand that:

• Supports its customers well:

  • Is publishing driver updates

  • Had good documentation

  • Has active customer support

• Has enough other people using their tablets, so that you can get help from online communities.

Brands I generally suggest

I generally steer people toward:

• Wacom

• Huion

• XP-Pen

• Xencelabs

More here: brands

You'll find people who've had good and bad experience with each brand. Though generally I do think Wacom has a better experience for customers overall.

Brands vs specific tablets

Within a brand, they will have good tablets and bad tablets. Even Wacom, which is the market leader has some tablets I will not recommend.

Instead of only thinking of the brand, consider specific tablet models.

Online communities

Communities are where a people can learn and get help with drawing tablets. Depending on the brand there are different options. More here: Drawing tablet communities

Discussions

• https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/zt9c2p/debating_on_what_to_do_with_these_two_tablets/

• https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/y8n9yp/how_much_of_a_difference_between_wacom_xp_pen_and/ - brands compared

Overview

Mapping is how the tablet driver translated the position of the pen on the EMR sensor (AKA “the digitizer”) to a position on display.

Mapping for pen displays

For pen displays, mapping is relatively straightforward because essentially the digitizer and the display are embedded in the same device.

Mapping for pen tablets

Active area mapping is a surprisingly complex topic, because it has to work in a number of different situations (single monitor, multiple monitors, etc.) AND is highly configurable AND and can even change dynamically at the press of a button.

For pen tablets (screenless tablets) mapping is the most complex, since the digitizer and the display are separate devices.

Dealing with mismatched aspect ratios

Because the tablet's active area and the display may have different aspect ratios, distortion can be introduced unless you enable Force Proportions: Match aspect ratios with Force proportions

Display Toggle for pen tablets and multiple monitors

When multiple monitors are being used, you can have the tablet switch between mapping to each monitor at the click of a button. See: Display toggle

If I had to pick one

If I had to pick one item on this list, I would recommend the One by Wacom CTL-672 for sure. It's reliable and has a good drawing experience though it does not have tilt support. The Huion Frego M (L610) is a new tablet (released in 2024) that is also a terrific beginner choice and it does have tilt.

Other good options

• One by Wacom Medium (CTL-672) [no tilt, no wireless] [$60, my notes] ★★★

• Huion Inspiroy Frego M (L610) [$90,my notes ] ★★★

• XP-Pen Deco series ★★★

  • XP-Pen Deco M (IT850) [no wireless] [$50, links]

  • XP-Pen Deco MW (IT850B) [$70, links]

  • XP-Pen Deco L (IT1060) [no wireless] [$70, links]

  • XP-Pen Deco LW (IT1060B) [$90, my notes]

• Wacom Intuos series

  • Wacom Intuos Medium (CTL-6100) [no tilt, no wireless] [$200, links]

  • Wacom Intuos Medium Bluetooth (CTL-6100WL) [no tilt] [$200, links]

Introduction

There are many tablet brands and picking the brand of the tablet is one of the most important decisions you will need to make when selecting a tablet to purchase

Tier 1: Wacom

Wacom was founded in 1983 continues to make the highest quality and most reliable tablets. In general, Wacom has the best drawing experience. Their products are the most expensive. I consider Wacom to be the "safe choice".

• More here: my notes on Wacom

• Wacom - https://www.wacom.com

Tier 2: Huion, XP-Pen, & Xencelabs

Huion and XP-pen since about 2021 have been releasing decent devices and size 2023/2024 a couple very good ones that compete strongly with Wacom. In many ways they deliver 90% of what a typical person needs for about half the cost. They do trail Wacom in reliability and in customer support however. If you carefully research a tablet from these brands, you can find one that works for you.

• More here: My notes on Huion and XP-pen

• Huion - https://huion.com

• XP-Pen - https://xp-pen.com

Xencelabs (founded 2019) is a new brand focused only on professional tablets for professionally users. Xencelabs has a very strong focus on customer support.

• More here: my notes on Xencelabs

• Xencelabs - https://xencelabs.com

Tier 3: Smaller brands

After Wacom, Huion, XP-Pen, there are many other brands that focus on budget or consumer tablets. All these brands the same technology as the Tier 2 brands. In fact they are even owned by the same companies. These brands have smaller portfolios, less responsive customer support, and smaller online communities.

• Artisul - https://artisul.com/

• Gaomon - https://www.gaomon.net/

• Ugee - https://www.ugee.com/

• Veikk - https://www.veikk.com/

• Parblo - https://www.parblo.com/

Tier 4: Everyone else

Avoid.

How to choose the right brand for you

More here: Choosing a drawing tablet brand

To see the previous tier list: 2024 Drawing tablet tier list

Notes

On November 12, 2025, during a livestream as a community we created a new drawing tablet tier list.

Unlike last year

• In addition to pen tablets and pen displays, we also ranked standalone tablets, and pens

• Instead of 1 single tier list, we created one for each category

• Instead of using a pre-built tier maker, we used a vibe coded one built in 3 hours using Google AI Studio.

Livestream

Livestream vs this page

As always, as I learn more and get feedback I update the tier lists shown on this page.

Tiering strategy

• COST does not affect the tier

• TIERING and RECOMMENDATIONS are based on overall DRAWING EXPERIENCE

• Some tablets might be not recommended (for drawing), but they might work well for note-taking, whiteboarding, etc. - tasks that are not about creative drawing/painting.

• Pens are the primary determinant of how pressure works for a tablet (IAF, MAX PRESSURE, PRESSURE RANGE). So it is always important to understand the included pen for tablet.

• UD-EMR pens offer OK performance. So tablets with UD EMR pens TEND to be the C tier.

Tier definitions

Pen tablets

Pen displays

Standalone

Pens

Overview

These are highly-curated recommendations for people who are just beginning to get into drawing tablets.

• All these tablets deliver the basic experiences and a reasonable price

• Some of these tablets are missing so-called "pro" features.

Which kind of drawing tablet

The first thing you need to understand is the type of drawing tablet you want to buy. So, read this document first before you continue: Types of drawing tablets.

Some thoughts

• Get a pen tablet (no screen) unless you are absolutely sure that you MUST have a pen display (has a screen). More here: Pen tablets vs pen displays

• If you really need a standalone, get an iPad or Wacom MovinkPad, or a Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablet.

I'm collecting information about the last drivers available for discontinued products. This list is incomplete and may be merged with other docs in the future.

Overview

Besides drawing, pens have varying support for specifically erasing things. Typically this is done either with an eraser on the pen or using the pen buttons to perform the erasing.

Erasers

Below you can see the nib and the eraser for the Wacom Pro Pen 2 (KP-504E). As you can see the nib is quite a bit larger than the nib.

The eraser is also pressure sensitive and retracts into the pen. The eraser has a much bigger retraction distance than the nib.

Pens that have erasers

Erasers are relatively uncommon for EMR pens.

App support for erasers

Drawing apps have to add deliberate support for erasers. Some do have support. Some do not.

Usage of erasers

Lots of people do use the eraser and find it critical, but then lots of people never use the eraser. I'm one of the "never use" category.

For me flipping the pen around to use the eraser feels like it disrupts my flow and sometimes I simply am too clumsy and I have dropped the pen while I was rotating it. Also I just think it is faster to use a keyboard shortcut or to use my tourbox device.

Pen compatibility with tablets

Using the side buttons to erase

Another option is to map the side buttons to switch to the eraser tool in the app you are using. You can do this in the tablet driver app.

Introduction

As a rectangular region, we can discuss the size of the active area in different ways

• Width & Height

• Diagonal length

• Area

But most often we will talk about active area sizes using the diagonal length.

If you need help picking the right size for your tablet, consult choosing the right tablet size.

Size in tablet names

You can often see the diagonal length in the names of pen displays. For example:

• Wacom Cintiq Pro 27

• Huion Kamvas Pro 16 Plus 4K

For pen tablets, manufacturers often use descriptive names such as "small", "large" instead of numbers.

• Wacom Intuos Pro Medium

• Wacom Intuos Pro Large

Standard sizes

By looking at the Wacom's product line and naming, we can establish a decent framework understanding how descriptive words like "small" and "large" map to numbers. Note that the size names are different for pen displays and pen tablets.

Distribution of active area sizes

If we look at how drawing tablet models are distributed along this scale we'll see that there is a lot of variation.

Diagonal vs Area

Is it reasonable to use the active area's Diagonal length vs the Active area's area measurement.

I think it is, because the diagonal is reasonably well correlated with area for drawing tablets.

Let's see how diagonal and compare buy plotting the values for 180 different tablets.

For pen tablets:

And for pen displays:

Overall, I think using the diagonal is reasonable.

Top choices

• Wacom MovinkPad 11 (my notes) - Best drawing experience. Optimized for getting your sketches captured when the inspiration strikes. Performance is mid.

• Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE (My notes ) - this has a decent drawing experience, and also works well as an iPad-like device. Good all around Android tablet with decent performance for its cost.

• Apple iPad - Any Apple iPad that works with the Apple Pencil 2 (My notes) . You will have the buy the Apple Pencil 2 separately. It does NOT come with the iPad.

Super Low Budget Option

• Samsung S6 LITE 2024 edition - not powerful but decent drawing experience. Good starter tablet for a child.

Resources

Avoid

• Huion Kamvas Slate 13 - Poor drawing experience

• Huion Kamvas Slate 11 - Poor drawing experience

Introduction

The aspect ratio of your drawing tablet's active area, can have a big impact on how good it feels to draw on them.

Basics

Any rectangular area has an aspect ratio. Which is the relationship between the width and height. Usually we will express the AR as a ratio like 16:9 or 16x9.

Displays (monitors) tend to have aspect ratios like 16x9 and 16x10. 16x9 is the most common aspect ratio.

Aspect ratio mismatches with pen tablets (IMPORTANT)

If you are using a pen tablet, it mostly likely does not match the aspect ratio of your monitor and you will see some distortion when you draw.

This will make give you a weird and unpleasant feeling while drawing. You can fix this by forcing the aspect ratios to match. More here: Matching aspect ratios.

Pen displays and aspect ratios

The active area of a pen display and their display panel inside the pen display are equivalent. So they always match.

Reference

A survey of aspect ratios of Wacom pen tablets

As of 2023, NONE of Wacom's pen tablets have an exact 16:9 aspect ratio.

Overview

The pressure dead zone is an area of a pressure curve that is deliberately designed to ignore a bit of the lower end of the pressure range. The pressure dead zone effectively increases the IAF of the pen.

Visualization

Visually the pressure dead zone can be seen whenever the lower left corner of the pressure curve is displaced to the right

Uses

We often prize having extremely low initial activation force with our EMR pens because it makes them more sensitive to lighter strokes.

But that sensitivity comes at a cost. It can introduce several kinds of problems. And a pressure dead zone can address these problems

examples of problems that pressure dead zone could be applied to:

• drawing while hovering

• strokes having tails

Default dead zones in tablet drivers

When you look at the default pressure curve and a tablet driver for most of the EMR pens you will encounter, you will notice that they almost always do not have a dead zone predefined.

There are a couple of notable exceptions (as of 2025/03/18).

• The default pressure curve for the Wacom pro pen 2 (KP-504E) has a pressure dead zone

• The default pressure curve for the Huion PW600 pens also has a small pressure dead zone.

Testing results

I've tested 4 Wacom pro pen 2 units by using them without the default pressure dead zone. Of the four two did not have any drawing while hover problems. The other two did in fact draw while hovering. It appears that the Wacom pro pen 2 is a bit oversensitive and some units by default do draw on hover. So this explains why Wacom defaults to a small pressure dead zone for these pens. Note that the Wacom pro pen 3 does not have a default pressure dead zone.

For the Huion PW600 series of pens, without the pressure dead zone I did not encounter any drawing while hovering problems.

Recommendation

the pressure dead zone is intended to solve a problem. But not all pens have that problem. I would suggest that when you get a new tablet or a new pen you take a look at the tablet driver and verify whether a pressure dead zone is set by default.

If it is try using the pen without the pressure dead zone. And if you don't notice any problems then leave it that way. Because that will give you a more sensitive pen with a lower initial activation force.

Links

• Tablet_P - Tablet Pressure Deadzones 2025/03/18

he pressure response of a pen describes the behavior of a pen with regard to pressure.

The pen measures of physical force at its tip. Information about the physical force is sent to the tablet and then translated into a logical pressure value. The pressure response is the relationship between that physical pressure and the logical press.

In numerical terms it can be expressed as a simple set of data points. And if we graph those data points with the physical pressure on the X axis and the logical pressure on the Y axis - then we get a chart that visualizes the pressure response.

All pens come out-of-the-box with a specific pressure response. And keep in mind the response is unique to each pen. The response even for pens of the same model will differ a little bit at the very least.

One thing that is generally found among EMR - is that the shape of the pressure response is bowed up quite a bit.

If we need to change the pressure response of a pen. We have to apply a pressure curve.

A pressure curve modifies a pressure response. You could think of it as creating a new pressure response. In the example above the pressure curve that we apply to the original pressure response has created a new pressure response which is much more linear.

I like to think pressure responses and pressure curves as a game of resource allocation - where we are trying to the physical pressure range in useful ways across the logical pressure range.

The reasons we want to think about this allocation intentionally is because it can give us three potential things:

• a better drawing experience

• we might be able to solve problems while we're drawing or even address or mitigate some hardware problems

• and also it's a way of getting some creative effects four our brush strokes

This pressure response is similar to that of a Wacom pro pen 2 (KP-504E). It has that typical bowed up shape. The one thing that separates it from many other pens pressure responses it goes extremely far on the X axis because it has an extremely wide pressure range.

There are two interesting things about how physical pressure is allocated in this specific pressure response.

For the purposes of this discussion I'm going to only talk about how pressure affects the width of a stroke. Simply because it's easiest for me to visualize that in this document. But for everything I'm saying it equally applies when for example pressure is mapped to opacity or even to color.

The first is the shape of the response indicates an under allocation at lower physical pressure. About only 10% of the physical pressure range is allocated to about 50% of the logical pressure range.

This means that small changes in physical pressure result in big changes in logical pressure. In turn this means that there are big changes in the width of a stroke.

This can make it feel like it's hard to control the width of your stroke when you're drawing very lightly.

At the higher end of this pressure response we encounter an over allocation of physical pressure to logical pressure. About 50% of the physical pressure range is allocated to only about 10% of the logical pressure range.

This means that big changes in physical pressure produce small changes in lot pressure which produce small changes in the width of a stroke.

This can make it seem like you're pressing very hard but you aren't seeing your stroke size increase or decrease by much.

In general I think we would want a more even allocation of physical pressure range into the logical pressure range. The visualization of such a more evenly allocated pressure response is one that is much more linear.

To be clear I am not saying that linear is the best shape for a pressure response. I'm just saying it's a good starting point. Ultimately you'll have to use pressure curves to change your pressure response into something that works for you.

Here you can see how a specific pressure curve takes the original pressure response and shifts it to a more linear shape. I'll show you this example just to help illustrate how much you might have to bend the pressure curve to get a linear response.

And keep in mind again that the pressure response shown is for specific pen. This pressure curve may not have the same effect on different pens.

EXCELLENT

• Wacom Movink 13 (DTH-135) [$750, my notes]

VERY GOOD

• Huion Kamvas 13 GEN3 (GS1333) [$260, my notes]

• XP-Pen Artist Pro 14 GEN2 (MD140FH) [$420, links]

GOOD

• XP-Pen Artist 12 GEN3 (CD121FH) [$220, my notes)]

• XP-Pen Artist 12 GEN2 (CD120FH) [$220, links]

• XP-Pen Artist 13 GEN2 (CD130FH) [$300, links]

DECENT

• Huion Kamvas 13 (GS1331) [$240, my notes]

• Wacom One 14 (DTC-141) [$300, my notes]

• Wacom One 2019 GEN1 (DTC-133) [$400, my notes]

  • NOTE: Expensive for what it is and how dated it is, but is a decent tablet. A good candidate for buying used.

AVOID

• Wacom One 12 GEN2 (DTC-121) [$400, links]

• Wacom One 13 touch GEN2 (DTH-134) [$600, links]

Videos

Additional resources

• 13" pen displays compared (2023)

Introduction

The active area of a drawing tablet is the rectangle region of the tablet's surface that detects the EMR pen. Some drawing tablet manufacturers (Wacom & XP-pen) use the term active area while others (Huion) use the term working area.

When we talk about the "size" of the drawing tablet, we are referring to the active area.

Active area of pen tablets

The active area is usually marked in some way on the surface. Sometimes it is marked at its four corners. Some tablets show a grid of of dots.

Active area of pen displays

The active area of a pen display is very easy to detect because it is the exact the same area of the display panel.

Size

Usually when we discuss the size of an active area, we talk about its diagonal length. Drawing tablets vary quite a bit in their active area size. More here: Active area size.

Aspect ratio

The relationship between the width and height of the active area is its aspect ratio. More here: Active area aspect ratio.

EXCELLENT

• Huion Kamvas Pro 27 (GT2701) ★★★★ [$2000, ]

• Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 [$3500, ]

• Wacom Cintiq 24 / 24 touch (2025) ★★★★ [$1600, ]

• Wacom Cintiq Pro 22 [$3000, ]

VERY GOOD

• XP-Pen Artist Pro 22 GEN2 (MD220QH) ★★★★

• LARGE (LPH2412U-A) [$1800, ]

GOOD

• XP-Pen Artist 22 Plus (MD220FH) [$470, ]

• (GT2401) [$1300, ]

• [$900, ]

DECENT

• Huion Kamvas 22 Plus (GS2202) []

• Huion Kamvas 22 (GS2201) [$450, ]

OTHER

Older but worth investigating

• Wacom Cintiq 22 (DTK-2260). []

Videos

Resources

EXCELLENT

• Wacom Intuos Pro Medium (PTK-670) [$300, ]

• Wacom Intuos Pro Medium (PTH-660) [$300, ]

VERY GOOD

• Huion Inspiroy Frego M (L610) [$90, ]

• XP-Pen Deco Pro

  • XP-Pen Deco Pro MW GEN2 (MT0962B) [$140, ]

  • XP-Pen Deco Pro LW GEN2 (MT1172B) [$170, ]

GOOD

• One by Wacom Medium (CTL-672) [no tilt, no wireless] [ $60, ]

• XP-Pen Deco

  • XP-Pen Deco M (IT850) [no wireless] [$50, ]

    • XP-Pen Deco MW (IT850B) [$70, ]

    • XP-Pen Deco L (IT1060) [no wireless] [$70, ]

    • XP-Pen Deco LW (IT1060B) [$90, ]

• Huion Inspiroy 2 M (H951P) [$70, see notes for Inspiroy 2 L ]

• Huion Inspiroy 2 L (H1061P) [$90, ]

• Wacom Intuos Medium (CTL-6100) [no tilt, no wireless] [$200, ]

AVOID

• Wacom One M (CTC-6110WL)

• Wacom One S (CTC-4110WL) [$150, ]

OTHER

Older but works well

• Huion Inspiroy HS611 [$80, ]

  • Little bit of an older Huion tablet with older tech. But it does work fine.

Seems OK but haven't spent much time with it

• Huion Inspiroy RTP-700 [$93, ]

EXCELLENT

• Wacom Cintiq 16 2025 (DTK-168) ★★★ [$700]

• Wacom Cintiq Pro 17 (DTH-172) [$2500, ]

• Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 (DTH-167) [$1500, ]

• Huion Kamvas Pro 19 (GT1902) ★★★ [$1100, ]

VERY GOOD

• Huion Kamvas 16 GEN3 (GS1563) ★★★ [$500, ]

• XP-Pen Artist Pro 19 GEN2 (MD180UH) [$900, ]

• XP-Pen Artist Ultra 16

• XP-Pen Artist Pro 16 GEN2 (MD160QH) ★★★ [$600, ]

GOOD

• Huion Kamvas Pro 16 V2

• Xencelabs Pen DIsplay 16

DECENT

• Huion Kamvas 16 (2021) (GS1562) [$400, ]

AVOID

Huion Kamvas Pro 16 Plus 4K (GT1562) [$900, ]

• LOTS OF AG SPARKLE

OTHER

• Wacom Cintiq 16 (DTK-1660) [$650, ]

• XP-Pen Artist 16 GEN2 (CD160FH) [$400, ]

  • EXCESSIVE DIAGONAL WOBBLE

Videos

Overview

If you're primarily interested in drawing or notetaking I think pen-enabled mobile computers are your best options.

Top picks for drawing

These are for when you want a GREAT drawing experience. Especially if you are already used to drawing tablets or Wacom professional tablets and pens.

• Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 -

  • This tablet has the best drawing experience on the market out of any current standalone tablet of any kind and from any brand.

• Wacom MovinkPad 11 -

Top picks for general usage

This is when you want a general-purpose mobile device, but also want decent pen support for things like sketching, notetaking, whiteboarding, etc.

• Apple iPads + the Apple Pencil -

  • Apple iPads can play the role of a drawing tablet very well. Do keep in mind, the Apple Pencil does not come with an iPad so you will have to purchase the pencil separately.

• Samsung Galaxy Tab S devices -

  • As an alternative to the Apple ecosystem, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S series of tablets is compelling. One great advantage of the Galaxy Tab S series is that they come with the Samsung S pen. So that keeps the cost down.

  • There are lots of models. Here are the

Some compromises

• XP-Pen Magic Drawing Pad 2024 - I don't have any experience with this tablet.

• XP-Pen Magic Drawing Pad 2025 (MDP1221) -

Tablets to avoid

Samsung Galaxy Tab A Series

I do not recommend this series of tablets. More here:

Huion Slate

• NOT RECOMMENDED

Resources

• 2025/03/12

Videos

Overview

HUION () and XP-PEN () are the next big tablet brands. Their recent (2021 and later) models have been pretty good - but still trail Wacom a bit in quality and reliability. In general I think they offer 90% of what you get with a WACOM but at a substantial price reduction.

Their best tablets

In 2023 and 2024 Huion and XP have released models with upgraded tech that are challenging Wacom's professional line.

• Huion Kamvas Pro 19

• Huion Kamvas Pro 27

• XP-Pen Deco Pro GEN2

• XP-Pen Artist Pro GEN2

A lot of their improvements with these tablets are due to their pens handling pressure better: lower IAF and much wider pressure ranges than before.

What HUION and XP-PEN do well:

• Good price vs cost

• Their latest offerings since 2021 are very usable for creative tasks.

• They introduce new models frequently - much more often than Wacom.

• Their consumer level tablets tend to have more features than Wacom's consumer models (tilt & tablet buttons, dials, knobs)

How Huion and XP-PEN could do better

• Huion pen displays - especially the high PPI ones tend to show more AG sparkle. more here: .

• Pointer lag:

  • XP-pen pen displays tend to exhibit slightly more pointer lag than Wacom or Huion. More here: .

  • XP-Pen and Huion's pen tablets seem to have the same level of pointer lag.

• Improve their Core EMR tech and specs - while on paper equivalent to Wacom are still trailing. For many artists they may not notice this, but tablet enthusiasts do certainly notice it. (Will be a topic for a future video)

• Improve customer support. Both Huion and XP-Pen struggle with customer support. They tend to take more time to respond.

• Reliability - Huion and XP-pen a little lag behind Wacom.

• Huion and XP-Pen offer too many products - with new models (with newer tech) and older models (with older tech) sitting alongside them. This makes it confusing to buyers.

• They should monitor and answer questions on and

• Long-term reliability unknown compared to Wacom. This can't be helped, they have only been around since 2011 (Huion) and 2005 (XP-Pen). And their passive EMR tablets (the ones where the pens do not have a battery) have only been around since the late 2010s.

Switching from Wacom

If you are an existing Wacom user yuou should keep in mind there are somethings that Wacom does where Huion and XP-Pen are still catching up on. In particular some of Wacom's pens (especially the Pro models) have an extremely low IAF (<1gf) . Huion latest pro pens can get to 2gf (per Huion's statements) and 3gf (per XP-Pen's statements). If you are used to a Wacom pen making marks at very tiny pressure you may find these higher IAF values hard to deal with.

If your are a creative, then it's pretty obvious why there's a benefit to using a drawing tablet instead of a mouse when you are drawing.

Some people simply want to use the drawing tablet as a mouse replacement. They can definitely serve this purpose.

My personal experience

I did this for about 10 years. Although I always had a mouse connected, 99.9% of the time I used a drawing tablet.

Size

I used a MEDIUM sized tablet - something the size of a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium.

For a few years I a SMALL sized tablet - something the size of a Wacom Intuos Pro small. When I was using the small tablet, I was in a non-artistic phase so I was not drawing with it much.

I generally recommend MEDIUM sized tablets as a mouse replacement, but SMALL can work also.

Wrist pain

One of the reasons I avoided using the mouse was that it was causing wrist pain. The pen was helpful in reducing the pain. However, if I do draw a lot over a month or so, I can develop wrist pain. So a drawing tablet might help, but it will not eliminate these kinds of problems.

Holding the pen while typing

To make it easier to switch between typing and using the pen I ALWAYS held the pen in my hand even when typing.

When drawing I held it like you would normally hold a pen, but when I switched to typing, as I extended out my fingers the pen I would rotate the pen so the tip is pointing up and to the side.

Pen pressure

The vast majority of drawing tablets support pressure sensitivity. For a mouse replacement, tilt is not important.

Pen tilt

The vast majority of drawing tablets support tilt. This is useful for art. Even then not all artists use the tilt feature. For a mouse replacement, tilt is not relevant.

Sturdiness

Modern mice are incredibly sturdy devices. They don't even have moving parts except for the buttons. You could drop them from your desk and they will still work.

Drawing tablet pens are much more sensitive. They have more delicate and sensitive parts. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you DO NOT DROP THEM. Sometimes they work perfectly after that. But they can malfunction in all sorts of ways after a drop. And keep in mind that the pens are not cheap. If you need to buy a replacement it will be anywhere from $35 USD to $90 USD.

Pointer positioning

Mice move the pointer through relative positioning while drawing tablets use absolute positioining: Absolute versus relative positioning.

However, you can configure the tablet driver to use mouse mode to provide relative positioning which will make it feel more like a mouse. more here: mouse mode.

Aspect ratios

If you are using a pen tablet (a tablet without a screen) you ABSOLUTELY SHOULD also configure the tablet to match its active area to that of your monitor. More here: Matching aspect ratios

Moving the pointer vs clicking

In a a mouse, you can independently move and click. This means you can move the pointer without accidentally clicking.

The same thing works with drawing tablet pen. But you should realize how it works.

• To move without clicking - you have to hold the pen above the tablet (within a range of about 10mm). This is called hover. more here: Pen hover.

• To click - you tap down on the tablet with the pen

• To move AND click at the same time - you press down on the tablet and move the pen. The click lasts as long as you are touching the tablet.

Holding pointer position completely still

With a mouse this is SUPER EASY you can jsut not move the mouse. And it is EASY to keep a mouse still. You can even let go of the mouse from your hand the pointer won't move.

With a drawing tablet, this is actually very hard. Because you have to HOVER the pen at the exact same spot above the tablet. That is very hard to do, because any motion of your hand will often move the pointer.

Not clicking

It's easy to avoid accidental clicks with a mouse.

With a pen you have to HOVER. And if you accidentally touch the surface it will count as a click.

Drivers

For the vast majority of mice, you can just plug them into a computer and they will "just work". This is because the computer has drivers for mice already installed.

That isn't quite the case for drawing tablets. You will need to install the tablet driver.

Compatibility with apps

Once you install the tablet driver, the tablet is compatible with all applications.

Wired vs Wireless

Mice can be:

• Wired only

• Wireless only

• Wired + Wireless

Drawing tablets can be

• Wired only

• Wired + Wireless

There are no drawing tablets that are wireless only.

Wireless issues

Latency - There is a little extra latency when using wireless. Some people don't use wireless for this reason.

Interference - Usually tablets use Bluetooth. You may find that devices liek phones when they are close to your tablet may interfere. Usually this takes the form of an unresponsive pen or stuttering of pointer position as you move.

Tablets that work well as mouse replacements

Lots of them would work. The easy choices are:

• One by Wacom Small (CTL-472)

• One by Wacom Medium (CTL-672)

• Wacom Intuos Small (CTL-4100)

• Wacom Intuos Medium (CTL-6100)

If these, my strong recommendation is the CTL-672. My notes on this tablet. You could get the CTL-6100 but all it gives you for the extra cost is some buttons on the tablet.

Other brands also have tablets that work as mouse replacements, but the safe choice is Wacom because of their track record of reliability.

Resources

• PiXimperfect - 7 Reasons Why Tablet is Better than a Mouse! Feb 24, 2020

• r/wacom - Replacing your Mouse with a Drawing Tablet/Pen "Guide" (2023/05/03)

Overview

Taking notes is a popular scenario for drawing tablets.

There are several types of drawing tablets: Types of drawing tablets

Generally I believe you will get the most natural experience taking notes if you use a standalone pen-enabled mobile computers or dedicated note taking devices. Because both these kinds of devices have screens, are portable, and don't require a computer to use. And this makes them very convenient for taking notes.

On the other hand some people enjoy taking notes with pen tablets (screenless tablets) or pen displays (screen tablets).

General considerations

Besides locating the position of the pen there are two pen features to discuss.

• pen pressure - this is somewhat useful for taking notes because it will make your notes look a bit more natural.

• pen tilt - for taking notes, I don't think this is very important at all. And many note taking apps ignore this feature entirely.

Using pen tablets (screenless tablets)

Some people can work very well with using a pen tablet for taking notes. Though I'm not one of these people. The chief difficulty in taking notes with the pen tablet is that you cannot see what you are writing and instead you have to look at the screen of your computer. Some find this difficult for taking notes . But for others it works very well.

Considerations:

• Size. Small pen tablets don't offer much space for writing and it can feel cramped. A medium pen tablet is better, but then it takes up a bit more space.

• Wireless. You might prefer to get a pen tablet that supports a wireless connection. Because it can be a little irritating to have the tablet always physically connected to the computer.

Recommended pen tablets

If you do want to use a pen tablet for taking notes here are some devices that will work well and don’t cost too much. You can even find them for less cost on eBay.

• Wacom One Medium (CTL-672) o Wacom One Small (CTL-472)- My notes on these tablets

• XP Pen Deco M & MW

• XP Pen Deco L & LW

other options here Recommendations

Using a pen display (screen tablet)

Pen displays, because they do have a screen, generally feel more natural for note taking than a pen tablet. However the chief problem with the pen display is that it requires connection with the computer.

Considerations:

• Size - a 13" or smaller pen display should work fine. In fact 13" may even be a bit large for this purpose.

• Wireless. A pen display will always have at least one wire that needs to be connected to the computer.

• Power. The pen display will draw a significant amount of power from your laptop. And this will really reduce the battery life of your laptop.

• Complex connection. Ideally you would use a single cable to connect a pen display to a computer. But for various reasons this is not always possible. As an alternative you may be required to have a more complex cabling arrangement - often using a 3-in-1 cable. More here about using one USB-C cable with a pen display.

• Pointer lag. Pen displays have a lot of pointer lag - this can be very difficult to deal with when taking notes - especially if you write fast. More here: lag

• Dropping the tablet. If you are note taking in a location where you might drop your pen display, in many cases you will either experience a cracked screen or simply break the tablet entirely.

Applications for taking notes

See the note taking section here: Applications

Resources

• Teoh on Tech - Best tablet for note taking in 2023: Xiaomi v OnePlus v Apple v Samsung Oct 7, 2023

• Teoh on Tech - Onyx Boox Note Air3 C e-Ink tablet (review) Oct 16, 2023

Below are tablets I would personally recommend separated by device type. These recommendations are centered around using the tablets for drawing. If you are new to drawing tablets, I suggest you read the beginner's guide. If you are want to learn more about how to decide what you need (type, size, specs), read the buying guide.

Tier lists

Check out the 2025 Drawing Tablet Tier List to see how these tablets and their pens rank against each other.

For beginners

If you are beginner, then consider these specific models which are great introduction to drawing tablets. Recommended drawing tablets for beginners.

Considerations

For pen displays

• Make sure you know about anti-glare sparkle before you buy a pen display.

• Pen displays are NOT inherently better than pen tablets. More here: pen tablets vs pen displays

Resources

• Buying a drawing tablet

• Drawing tablet brands

• Brad Colbow: Best Drawing Tablet By Price 2022/06/20

• Aaron Rutten: The 10 Best DRAWING TABLETS of 2022 2022/10/01

• Brad Colbow: Best Drawing Tablets for Beginners - What I Recommend 2023/05/08

• Brad Colbow: Dream Digital Art Setup on a Budget 2023/08/07

Overview

Based on my analysis of pen pressure ranges, I have developed this simple rating scale for IAF and max pressure. This represents my initial thinking and I expect to revise this in the future based on feedback.

For more general information about pen pressure go here: pen pressure

A wide pressure range is very desirable. It contributes a lot to a good pressure experience. A wider pressure range is even more important than the number of pressure levels.

Landscape

Consider this diagram to be a DRAFT. it will evolve as I learn more.

I think the pressure categories here (EXCELLENT, VERY GOOD, etc) are reasonable.

But be aware, that for a specific pen there can be significant differences for IAF and max pressure for individual units.

Pressure data and sources

• Manufacturers

• From tablet experts such as Kuuube

• And my own measurements: https://1drv.ms/x/s!Aml8i4Jd6crCkTerfXD_1zsIxg3A?e=2aCPfI

Considerations

• Pens, even of the same model, vary in how their pressure handling

• Drivers can potentially affect IAF.

Resources

• Comments on pen pressure levels and ranges for Wacom products: https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/10l0ujb/comment/j5u1v3z/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

• Comparison of minimal gram-force ("initial activation force"/"initial activation pressure") recognized by various digital pens and digitizers ( https://www.reddit.com/r/stylus/comments/opc44f/comparison_of_minimal_gramforce_initial/)

• Initial Activation Force / Initial Activation Pressure Cintiq Pro 16 2021? (https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/v9989o/initial_activation_force_initial_activation/)

My hobby concerning drawing tablets is centered largely around creatives - people who are drawing, sketching, etc. Despite using tablets for well over a decade, only in 2022 did I discover people were using drawing tablets for games. And some of these games are quite popular.

osu!

osu! is a popular rhythm game and many of its players use drawing tablets instead of a mouse. ()

<- this video is relatively well known in the osu! community.

osu! is very popular

They have about 1.7M monthly active users who play osu!

You can get the live stats from here:

How osu! players use drawing tablets

While creatives tend to use their drawing tablets in standard ways, osu! players do a number of quite surprising things:

Active area size

• Players use tablets of various sizes: Small, Medium, and Large. Small is the most popular based on the videos I've seen.

• Players often customize the active area to be surprisingly small - much smaller than even the default active area. In the video above, notice how the player moved the pen only in a tiny region of that tablet.

Drivers

• Players often do not use manufacturer drivers, but instead they use because:

  • OTD has less lag than manufacturer drivers

  • OTD is highly customizable through it's plug-in system

  • OTD works across many tablet models

  • OTD works on Windows, Mac, and Linux

Drag vs hover

• Drag players play with the pen touching the surface of the tablet.

• Hover players don't let the pen touch the tablet surface.

Clicking

There are various clicking styles used by osu! players.

• click by tapping the pen on the tablet

• click by using the keyboard

• click by alternating between the pen tapping and keyboard presses

Tablet expertise

Some osu! players - at least the ones I communicate with regularly - are remarkably knowledgeable about drawing tablets.

They know a tremendous amount about the hardware, drivers, etc. Some conduct original research and testing of tablets. Some write code for OpenTabletDriver.

I would consider them absolute experts - far beyond any drawing tablet reviewer out there and myself.

They are also incredibly sensitive to microscopic behaviors, latencies, etc. in drawing tablets - far more than someone who has typically has used tablets only for creative tasks.

Advanced customization

Players do advanced customization of osu! through OpenTabletDriver plug-ins. Some examples:

• Circular/Elliptical tablet areas

• Rotated tablet areas

• Live active area randomization

Picking a drawing tablet for osu!

More here:

FPS games

Players using drawing tablets for FPS games is less common than for Rhythm games, but this is the preferred input device for some people.

• example: ()

Overview

This is a list of some things you should check when you (a) first set up your drawing tablet or (b) have an opportunity to inspect the drawing tablet before you purchase it.

This will save you a lot of headaches and disappointment later on.

Testing before you setup the tablet

• Tablets usually have a list of things they come with. This list will include things like cables cleaning cloths, pen nibs , etc. The list might be printed on the box, or it might be on a piece of paper inside the box, or it might be a list on the website of the tablet brand.

  Verify that you have all the things you're supposed to have.

• Examine the screen carefully with your eyes. You're looking for scratches or areas where the surface is worn out. If it's a new tablet you shouldn't see anything like that.

• Sometimes it might be difficult to see scratches so you might want to shine a bright light across the surface at an angle to identify any scratches.

Getting prepared for functional testing

In order to perform test the tablet actually works you'll need to set it up. Follow this guide: .

Then install any applications you need. I strongly suggest you install Krita from Krita.org. It's free and its behavior is consistent so it makes it an ideal application to test the functionality of a drawing tablet. So even if you don't plan on using Krita it's a very useful tool for troubleshooting.

Mobile phones can interfere with the operation of a tablet. Keep them away.

Ensure there isn't anything magnetic underneath the tablet. Some stands use magnets. Don't place the tablet on top of an electronic device like a laptop.

Basic functional testing

Connectivity

• Conduct the tests with a wired connection.

• Any then verify they work with wireless connection

Drawing

• Check if the pen can draw in all locations on the active area

  • Just draw a lot of lines alll over the screen. You want to ensure that there aren't any gaps were you can't draw and that the position of the pen is accurately tracked.

• Check if the pressure going from 0% to 100%

  • First do this in the driver. They usually have some regio where you can test the pressure.

  • Then do this in an application. I suggest using Krita.

  • You want to ensure that:

    • The pen isn't "stuck" at 0% pressure or 100% pressure

  • You may notice that the pressure is "jumpy" any low pressure this is normal for EMR pens. You can use pressure curves to control this.

• Check tilt works in all directions

  • draw some strokes and tilt the pen in different directions.

  • do this in multiple locations across the active area

Pen display pen tracking accuracy

• With the pen held vertically and not moving, check that the pointer is close to the tip of the pen.

• With the pen held at a 45 degree angle and not moving, check that tilt compensation is working. As you tilt the pen check to make sure the pointer doesn't deviate too far from the tip of the pen. A little bit of drift is normal. Keeping the pen at 45 degrees, rotate the pen in a full circle.

• Check that location of pen is tracked accurately in over the entire surface of the tablet

Express keys

• Check if all the buttons, dials, work. A quick way to test this is to map the buttons to keypresses. Then you can open a notepad app and press the express keys and see it typing things

Pen display features

• Check for stuck or dead pixels

• Check for basic color and brightness

• All tablets have some pointer lag. Usually it is very obvious in pen displays. Verify if you are OK with the amount it has.

• All pen displays have some minor edge and corner inaccuracy in tracking the pen location. Check this to see how much there is and if you are OK with this.

• Verify you are OK with the anti-glare sparkle on the screen. Some people are very sensitive to this.

• Verify that the display does not have a color tint on the edges. More here: .

Surface

Take your pen and move it around the surface.

There should be no rough patches. There should be no cuts or scratches deep enough that you can feel them through the pen. More here:

Overview

The Initial Activation Force (IAF) is the smallest amount of pressure that an EMR pen will detect.

In more simple terms: IAF is how hard you have to press to draw. High IAF means you have to press harder to draw with the pen. Low IAF means you don't have to press as hard.

Generally, people want lower IAF.

IAF is measured in "gram-force" units. Though you may see it very often described in "grams".

IAF is determined by the pen hardware, not the tablet.

More info:

Video

Initial activation force (IAF)

A lower IAF is good because it allows you to draw finer details better.

• EXCELLENT IAF: <=1gf

  • Modern professional pens have an IAF of <= 1gf

• GREAT IAF: Between 1gf and 2gf

  • Only a couple of pens are in this range

• GOOD IAF: Between 2gf and 3.5gf

  • Most modern EMR pens have an IAF of around 3gf

• OK IAF: Between 3.5gf and 5gf

  • This is tolerable. Something that would be typical of a consumer-level pen.

• BAD IAD. ≥ 5gf

  • Most people would not enjoy using such a pen.

These are MY rankings. Some people have much stronger opinions about IAF. For example, some people thing any IAF greater than 2gf is BAD IAF.

IAF through the years

Very low IAF is not new. Wacom has been making pens for decades that have excellent low IAF. Their professional pen have had low IAF for a long time.

Here are some examples from Kuuube's measurements (using Open Tablet Driver) from his .

The importance of low IAF

Some people REALLY need that EXCELLENT IAF of <1gf.

Others like (myself included) work fine with a 3gf IAF. I definitely notice the difference but it doesn't effect me with the kind of art I create.

Tweaking the IAF

The IAF is a physical property of the pen, so that physical behaviors can't be lowered or raised. However by using a pressure curve with a dead zone, you can effectively increase the IAF. More here:

A higher IAF can be useful

Given that there's so much focus on having a “low IAF”, it would be natural to think that always having a low IAF is good and that it is always preferable to have a lower IAF rather than a higher one. The overall sentiment is generally true but there are some exceptions and things to keep in mind.

False pressure detection

First, as the pressure sensing mechanism in a pen gets more sensitive to enable a very low IAF, it can have unintended effects. For example those pens with super low IAF may actually say that they are detecting pressure when they are clearly not touching the tablet. Sometimes this can take the form of spurious pressure readings or it can happen more frequently and the pen can effectively draw while hovering.

Effectively increasing IAF with the pressure curve

To compensate for these kinds of effects you, You might encounter a tablet that has a pressure dead zone deliberately created by the manufacturer. This dead zone ignores a little bit of that lower pressure so that these kinds of strange artifacts are avoided.

• Note that depending on which tablet you have the pressure dead zone might be visible to you in the pressure curve that you see in the tablet driver.

• And also the dead zone might be implemented in the driver but it is not shown to you.

• And of course some tell the drivers don't implement default dead zone at all.

More here:

Wispy tails on strokes

another thing that happens when you're dealing with very low initial activation force is that it can affect the shape of your strokes at the very beginning or ends. For example it can often leave little wispy tails at the beginning or end of a stroke. So in some cases you might want to create a little bit of a dead zone in your driver to avoid those wispy tails.

In some pens I've also noticed that having an extremely low IAF can cause the pen to register pressure for just one moment longer after you lift the pen off the tablet. I suspect this is due to the mechanics of a nib that is moving the pen having to overcome some friction. And so for just a moment as you lift off the tablet the very sensitive pressure mechanism is still detecting the nib pushing into it. This can create the same wispy tail effect.

How IAF is measured

This video from XP-Pen demonstrates it

.

Overview

Pressure is the physical force being exerted on its tip.

Key concepts

• The pen senses pressure, not the tablet. The pen communicates the pressure it detects to the tablet.

• The is the smallest amount of pressure that an EMR pen will detect and report. More here:

• The is the range of physical force the pen is capable of sensing and outputting as pressure. In other words its lower bound is the IAF and its upper bound is the maximum pressure.

• A tablet splits up the pressure range into a number of segments that are called .

• The is the pen hardware's "pressure behavior" - how a specific pen maps the physical pressure (how hard you are pressing down) to a logical pressure number that is sent to your computer.

• A is a way of modifying or processing the pressure pressure response of a pen. You can do this to solve solve or mitigate some kinds of pressure problems or to achieve certain kinds of creative effects.

• A is a ways of using a a pressure curve to effectively increase the IAF.

• The vast majority of drawing tablet pens are too-sensitive to small changes in physical pressure near the IAF. This means there is some . You can address this by using or pressure smoothing.

• . The pen is more sensitive when it is held - perpendicular to the tablet surface.

"Under pressure" video series

If you'd prefer to watch, I built the "Under Pressure" video series on YouTube that goes deep into how pressure works. It explores all these concepts in great detail.

Relationship between the pen and the tablet

• The pressure sensing mechanism is in the Pen, not the tablet.

• Tablets do play a role in processing pressure. Tablets

  • Determine the number of pressure levels

  • Translate the pressure information from the pen into those levels

  • May process the pressure data before it is sent to the computer

Units

When dealing with the pressure (i.e. the force applied to the tip), the standard unit used in gram force abbreviated as gf.

You may occasionally this force described as grams and see the unit g used. This is technically incorrect, since grams are a unit of mass, not force.

Disabling pressure

Sometimes it is useful to disable pen pressure. For options on how to do so go here: .

How EMR pens measure pressure

There are two different techniques. The newer technique involved a pressure sensor in the pen. More here:

Notes

• Pens - even if they are of the same model - differ a little in their pressure sensitivity

• Pressure sensors are subject to wear. Over time, you may find that a pen is less sensitive to pressure than it used to be. Though in practice, I have never experienced this in any noticable way myself.

Overview

Large pen tablets have an active area diagonal size of about 15".

Key considerations

Using a large tablet is very different from using a medium size tablet. There are many things you have to adjust to. More here: Using large pen tablets

Large tablets in market as of May 2024

• Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860) - my notes on this tablet

• XP-Pen Deco Pro XLW (MT1592B) - my notes of this tablet

• Huion Giano (G930L) - my notes on this tablet

Ranking

In terms of drawing performance the best of the three is the Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860).

Second is the XP-Pen Deco Pro XLW GEN2 (MT1592B). The things to note about this tablet is the excellent design and vastly improved pressure handling coming from its X3 Pro pen.

Third, the Huion Giano overall is very good. It's a very close third to the XP Pen Deco Pro XLW GEN2 because the PW517 pen does not handle pressure (smaller pressure range for example) as well as the X3 Pro pen.

Basics

Product pages

• Intuos Pro Large - https://estore.wacom.com/en-us/tablets.html#wacom-intuos-pro-link-anchor

• Deco Pro XLW GEN2 - https://www.xp-pen.com/product/deco-pro-gen-2-series.html

• Huion G930L - https://www.huion.com/products/pen_tablet/InspiroyPro/inspiroy-giano.html

Active Areas

None of these tablets have an exact 16:9 (1.78) aspect ratio.

So, you should ensure you match aspect ratios with your monitor before you start drawing.

Pen pressure range info

The Wacom Pro Pen 2 is the clear winner, but the XP-Pen X3 Pro is good. The Huion PW517 is just OK.

In my experience I see that the PW517 units vary quite a bit in their maximum pressure. The average of my tests is about 200gf.

Considerations

Tablet age - don't let the fact that the Intuos Pro Large was released in 2017 dissuade you. It's still better than the most recent tablets put out by the competition

Pen replacement cost - Keep in mind the Pro Pen 2 is very expensive ay $80. It's a significant cost if you need to replace it. The PW517 is $50 and the X3 Pro is $40.

Nib wear - the Intuos Pro comes with a surface that (at least initially) has a lot of texture and can wear down nibs fast.

Wireless - All three support Bluetooth wireless connectivity

Touch - only the Intuos Pro supports touch.

Auxiliary inputs

• Intuos Pro Large - 8 total buttons

• Deco Pro XLW GEN2 - no buttons

• Giano G930L - 6 buttons

Remotes

• Intuos Pro Large - no remote

• Deco Pro XLW GEN2 - comes with remote

• Giano G930L - no remote

Diagonal wobble

• Intuos Pro Large - Low (good)

• Deco Pro XLW GEN2 - some wobble at slow speeds OK

• Giano G930L - Low (good)