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See this page: https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/Electronics_Water_Damage
Leave the pen/tablet to draw dry for at least 48 hours. Keeping it in a dry warm (but not hot) place will help.
if your tablet is connected with any cables, disconnect the cables.
If your tablet is connected wirelessly, it may have an on/off button. Turn it off.
Remove the nib to help it dry faster
Keep the pen upright with the nib removed and pointed down to help drain water
Some pens buttons are a "rocker" type which can be removed and put back in. if you are confident you won't harm your pen this is one option.
Some people, disassemble their pens - but only try this if you find a good reference on YouTube and are confident around electronics.
https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/tcmqpz/ctl4100_wacom_intuos_pen_accident_with_water/ -
With a little care and light maintenance your tablet will keep working for a long time. Here are some basic tips.
They are surprisingly expensive to replace. They can cost from $40 USD to $120 USD for a Wacom Pro Pen 3.
Because drawing tablet pens usually have a case of black plastic they can be difficult to see under some lighting conditions, also they can be mistaken for other pens, etc. To give them some additional visibility I use gaffer tape or masking tape to add some some color to make it more visible and serve as a label.
Here is an example:
Pens are the most sensitive component because they have some small parts and some moving parts. A fall onto a floor can damage your pen:
The can completely break the internals of your pen. Your pressure may be less sensitive, stuck at a certain pressure value for example either 0% pressure or 100% pressure , have sudden changes in its pressure profile.
The nib can be broken and make it be stuck inside the pen and very hard to remove
Normal drawing is fine. But don't *mash* it or hit it on a surface. You can damage the pressure sensor or you might break the nib. Use it for drawing on your tablet and nothing else.
A pen tablet, has fewer moving parts and most of the time nothing bad will happen to it.
However, If you drop a pen display, you almost certainly will cause significant damage that cannot be repaired. For example, any of these things can happen:
The pen displays will not turn on again
The screen will crack
The display panel will break and not show a full screen or will show random color patterns
The ports can get damaged, preventing it from getting a display signal
Keep water away from your tablet and pen. If you get them wet, consult this guide on dealing with potential damage: Dealing with water damage.
Periodically, clean your tablet. Some people recommend lightly cleaning your pen displays before you start drawing. More here: Cleaning a drawing tablet.
In general store your pens so that you avoid pressure on your nibs. More here: Storing your pen.
The surface of your tablet will be in contact with your pen, that contact and the friction that comes from it will cause some wear. It's good for you to understand what this wear will look like and how you can control it. Read the two documents below.
There are options to protect the surface from damage. See: protective sheets.
If you are carrying your tablet with you or transporting it, consider some extra protection via a case. More here: Protective cases.
Monitor your nibs and replace then when they are getting too worn down. Nibs that are worn down to flat surface may be scratching up your tablet. See more here: Nib wear
To remove a nib see this guide: Removing nibs
Avoid doing any of these things:
Disassembling the tablet
Disassembling the pen
Using metal nibs with the pen
Cleaning your drawing tablet should be a regular part of how you care for it. I recommend cleaning your drawing tablet once a month - and more frequently if needed.
Depending on the brand of tablet and the kind of tablet you'll find that manufacturers provide different advice for cleaning. For example, some manufacturers say it's OK to clean the tablet with isopropyl alcohol. While other manufacturers explicitly indicate that you should not use isopropyl alcohol.
Below are a few links I found from different brands about how to clean their tablets. It may not be comprehensive but it's a start.
STEP 1 - First, I remove dust from tablets, pens, and monitors with a microfiber duster. Specifically this one: the OXO Good Grips Microfiber Hand Duster ($12) that I bought on Amazon.
STEP 2 - I gently wipe down the tablet with a damp cloth or towel
OPTION 1: If the tablet is a little greasy I may put a bit of soapy water on the damp cloth. I want to emphasize that the cloth is damp and not wet. You shouldn't have any water drops coming off the cloth.
OPTION 2: Since September 2024, for pen displays I've switched from soapy water to using WOOSH!. It works very well in my experience. I spray the WOOSH into the microfiber towel that comes with the WOOSH bottle - again I want it damp and not wet. This also works on pen tablets, but the effects aren't especially dramatic. Here's a good video showing WOOSH in use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zNUKkehnpc
When you bought your drawing tablet, it likely came with a nib remover. It's usually either a piece of metal or a metal part of a pen stand
Xencelabs has a a simple ring of metal. Using it, you pinch and pull out the nib from the pen.
The XP-Pen has a nib remover built into a pen case. See the metal ring below.
If don't have a nib remover, it's not a problem you can use any instrument that can pinch the nib. Here are some options:
Tweezers
Needle-nose pliers
Fingernail clippers
A nib that has snapped off and left part of itself inside the pen requires some special techniques. more here: .
All pen tablets (those without a screen) will experience some form of wear. The amount and type of wear will be affected by:
The material of the surface
The texture of the surface
The material of the nib
How you draw
Other sources of damage not related to normal use of the pen tablet
In general, surface wear is not a problem, unless it interferes with your pen. Typically this means a deep scratch which deflects the tip of the pen. This deflection may be strong enough that you will get little "bumps" if you try to draw a line across the scratch.
Texture erosion - where the surface texture starts getting a little smoother as you continue to move your pen over it. More here: Texture erosion on pen tablets.
False scratches - False scratches are things that look like scratches but are really the result of a tablet surface that isn't clean. More here: False scratches
Scratches - permanent grooves cut into the surface. More here: Scratches on pen tablets.
There are options to help protect the surface
Maintain your pen nibs so that they don't develop a flat edge
Use a felt nib which is softer than a plastic nib.
Don't press down so hard on the tablet
When traveling with the tablet, make sure you put it inside something to prevent something from scratching the surface
If the nib is broken in half and stuck deeply inside or there's not enough of it to grip then normal techniques may not get it out.
Here are some other options.
I used this iFixit set of precision tweezers. Specifically I used the one in the middle. I wasn't able to put both both ends into the pen. Instead, I put one end into the pen and pressed against the side of the nib to slowly push the nib out a little bit at a time. Once enough was out, I used the tweezers normally to pull the nib out.
A little bit of hot glue at the end of a toothpick
Stick a heated needle into the nib and when the plastic of nib cools, pull it out. Some people suggest combining this technique with glue on the needle tip. Use this option with great caution. People have ruined their pens and made the problem worse with this hot needle technique.
Store your pens so that the nib is not experiencing constant pressure. Some tablet users suggest that if the nib has a constant pressure applied to it, over time the pressure could damage the pressure sensor.
If you pen came with a case designed for it, that is the safest place to store it. These cases provide a lt of protection for the entire pen and the pressure sensor
In the photo below you can see how a case has extra room for the nib so nothing can press into it.
Below, three conceptual options are presented for storing a pen.
The one on the far right places no load on the pressure sensor
The one on the far left places the entire weight of the pen on the pressure sensor
The one in the middle places only the weight of the nib on the pressure sensor. This is the way I store my pens.
The surfaces of a pen tablet usually have some texture applies to prevent drawing on them from feeling "slippery".
Tablets vary quite a bit in how much texture is on them. The Intuos Pro models (PTH-460, PTH-660, PTH-860) are known for having a lot of texture.
As you drag your pen on the surface you will eventually notice two forms of texture erosion:
thin or thick marks
broad areas where the texture has been worn off
These texture erosion marks can be very difficult to see. Depending on the lighting, they may be invisible, lighter than the texture color, or darker than the texture color.
Some texture erosion marks aren't even caused by then pen. Other objects that come in contact with the tablet can cause them. You can often detect these because they produce much wider marks than the pen can produce.
Here is an example of broad area texture erosion on a Wacom Intuos Pro PTH-860. The overall area can be uniformly smooth/shiny or smooth/shiny in patches.
Here is an close up example of the texture of a Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860)
The texture erosion can be very subtle.
Below is an example of deliberately trying to erode the texture over a wide area by moving the pen back and forth over an area. Notice how much of the texture is gone.
Texture erosion is typically benign. While it is unattractive and sometimes visible it does not deflect the tip of the pen.
Below is an example of some scratches that while ugly, do not interfere with the drawing experience. Small scratches are also hard to see sometime and greatly affected by the lighting conditions.
As you can see the scratches can be very small. These kinds of scratches will not affect your drawing experience.
Here is a close up view through a microscope:
Deeper and larger scratches are also possible. This can definitely affect your drawing experience.
Dropping sharp objects onto the surface of a pen tablet can result in big changes. The crater below was formed by an accidental dropping of scissors from a height of about 6" above the pen tablet.
For more examples of surface wear and how to minimize it go here: .
Scratches are a form of permanent damage. Depending on how deep the scratch is, it can affect your drawing experience. For more examples of surface wear and how to minimize it go here: .
Pen displays (tablets with a screen) come in two varieties
those that have a glass surface, where your pen is making direct contact with the glass surface
And those that have a film on top of the glass surface, where your pen only touches the film and does not touch the glass
the glass surface is usually an etched glass surface. The etching is a very subtle texture created on the glass usually through the means of some acid that has eaten away a little bit of the surface.
The texture gives two benefits. First, it helps the glass avoid feeling slippery as you draw. That slippery feeling is a very common complaint for some devices like an iPad. Second, that texture also disperses light that is coming from the room and this dispersion will reduce glare. So the etching is often referred to as an anti glare treatment.
One negative aspect of the etching is that it can create an effect called anti glare sparkle. Sometimes the anti glare sparkle is very subtle but sometimes it is extremely strong and people do not like it. More here: Anti-Glare Sparkle.
in this case the film provides an anti glare treatment typically and provide some texture. Though I typically find that the texture.
In a general sense the glass that is used for append display is highly durable. They are designed to be directly drawn upon with the pens / nibs that the manufacturer also supplies.
And while these glass surfaces are designed to be very durable, they are not infinitely resistant to damage from various sources.
Let's talk about the first kind of damage which is damage from just basic drawing. There are a wide variety of experiences people have with scratching up or damaging the glass of their pen display.
Some people like me have drawn on pen displays for many years and have never seen any kind of scratching or damage that came from drawing.
But you can easily find people posting on online forums who show you photos of how the surface of their pen display has become worn. You can see for example regions of their pen displays that seem more scratched up and where the etched texture has clearly changed.
Some people suggest that small particles of various materials can be on your land on the glass or attach themselves to the nib of the pen. And they suggests that as you draw on the glass with your pen that you might see scratches that are caused not by the pen and nib itself, but by the motion of those small particles as your nib moves them across the surface of the glass.
I cannot say that I have personally experienced this myself. But I do think it is in your best interests to keep the surface of your pen display and your pens clean.
Some artists are very careful to remove anything metallic from there hands or wrists when they draw. And I think this is also a very reasonable thing to do to avoid the potential damaging the glass.
If you were transporting your pen display you should make sure that the glass is covered by something to protect it during it's journey. I have seen people mentioned that they put their pen display in a backpack but that's some other object in the backpack made contact with and
The glass surface of a pen display is not designed to be removed. In the case of fully laminated pen displays, remember that the glass is bonded to the display panel with the layer of optically clear adhesive (OCA). So in summary the glass you have is going to be there forever.
And anywhere or damage you caused the glass will also be there forever.
I have never seen anyone find anyway to somehow remove any on the glass surface
Protective sheets on top of the tablet glass naturally protect the glass from damage.
One benefit of protective sheets is if they do get damaged you can generally replace them.
More here: protective sheets
From this reddit post:https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/zv593v/does_cintiq_13hd_have_screen_protection_see_coment/
Sometimes you may encounter something that looks like a scratch on a tablet. But it is what I call a "false scratch" or a "temporary scratch". I use these terms because, these kinds of "scratches" can be removed by cleaning the tablet or even rubbing the it away with your finger.
These marks are caused by the pen displacing material on the surface. This material can include includes:
Oil from your skin
Dust and other grime
Tiny bits of the nib that have worn away.
To prevent glare a pen display will have either:
An etched glass surface
Or a anti-glare film.
Besides reducing the glare, films have the added benefit that they prevent the glass underneath from being scratched. Also the films can be removed and replaced.
This document covers the case when your tablet has an anti-glare film.
If it has an anti-glare film, the film can be carefully lifted off.
You can start at a corner and gently and slowly start lifting it up. And then slowly working your way across the entire surface.
How much anti-glare sparkle do you want?
If you want less ag sparkle, you should consider getting a film which has less. This is where you should evaluate options from companies like photodon. They sell little samples you can try out to evaluate how much the film will look on your tablet. I highly recommend trying those samples first before you commit to putting a new will film on.
Here's a video where you can see me try some of these photodon samples and talk about how it affected the ag sparkle:
Here are some options for cleaning your tablet:
First, you should realize than manufacturers might sell replacement films for their tablets. But even if they do not, you can find third party films that are pre-cut for your tablet or for which you can order them cut to a specific size. More here on your options:
Your replacement will will likely have some amount of anti-glare sparkle effect. If you buy the replacement film from the manufacturer you will get the same amount of ag sparkle as you originally had. More here on .
Nib wears down due to friction caused by the nib moving against the tablet surface.
Many factors influence how fast a nib wears down and people have vastly different experiences. For some people a nib may last years. Some people seem to go through a nib in a week.
Below you can see the wear on an Wacom Art Pen nib which has been used on a Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860) surface after two weeks.
Tablets vary in the amount of surface texture they have. The more texture, the more likely the nib is to wear down. More here: surface texture.
Keep in mind, even the surface texture can wear down and become smoother. So, even if the texture is eating through your nibs at first, later it may not affect them so much. More here: Surface wear on pen tablets
Some people draw "heavy-handed" and put a lot of pressure on their nib. This will increase the friction and the rate at which the nib wears down.
Some people a have drawing style that features lots of strokes drawn over and over. For example they might fill in an by drawing hundreds of cross-hatched lines. This can accelerate nib wear.
Nibs are typically made of plastic or felt. And the material choice will affect how fast the nib wears down. For example felt nibs wear down faster than plastic nibs. More here: Nib material.
Try drawing with less pressure. You can change the pressure curve in your driver to help lessen the need to press down so hard.
If you are doing a lot of back and forth strokes to fill in an area, that repeated motion of the pen can wear down the nib fast. Consider using some other way of filling in an area.
Some tablets like the Wacom Intuos Pro have replaceable texture sheets. In Wacom's case there are three texture styles: standard, smooth, rough. Try the smooth texture sheet.
I do NOT recommend using a metal nib.
I recommend you replace you nib when:
Most of the tip has become flat
The nib is getting short - nib remover tools need to be able to grasp enough of the nib to pull it out. If you let them get to short, they are going to be stuck or very difficult to remove.
Here's some videos related to this topic:
Aaron Rutten - When to CHANGE Drawing Tablet Pen Nibs
Aaron Rutten - Wearing Down Nibs & Tablet Scratches
For me what works best is just buying more nibs because they are cheap and easy to replace.
If the aspect ratio of your pen tablet's active area does not match your monitor's aspect ratio. You will see distortion. The diagram below shows that if you trace out a circle on the pen tablet, you will have traced out an oval on the screen.
Don't worry! You can correct this. And it's important you do. Because not only does it produce a distorted drawing experience, the mismatch between what your hand is doing and what is happening on the screen can be incredibly frustrating.
The issue with pen tablets is that the tablet and the display are separate devices. And each device has its own aspect ratio. The odds of the aspect rations matching by chance are very low. For example, as of 2024 most pen tablets do not have a 16x9 aspect ratio even though most displays do have a a6x9 aspect ratio.
If the aspect ratios match, then there is no distortion when you draw.
Here are some examples of what happens some Wacom pen tablets because of the mismatched aspect ratios when using a 16:9 monitor.
This mismatch of aspect ratios is SIMPLE to solve. All tablet drivers have a setting for this, although they call it by different names and the drive UI has a different way to enable it.
What this setting does is let you use only the region of the active area that matches to that of your monitor - so the aspect ratios will match.
Trade-offs
If you enable this setting you will not be able to take advantage of some of your tablet's active area, but BY FAR this is the better alternative than the distorted drawing.
Should everyone use this setting?
YES. I highly recommend it for for the vast majority of cases.
The setting is called Force Proportions.
Launch Wacom Tablet Properties
Under the Mapping tab, enable Force Proportions
The setting is called Screen Ratio.
Launch the HuionTablet App
Go to Working Area
On the bottom left there is a drop down.
Switch the dropdown to Screen Ratio.
The setting is called Screen Ratio.
Open the Gaomon driver app
Go to Workspace
Select Screen Ratio
The setting is called Proportion.
Open the XP-Pen driver app (called PenTablet)
Go to Work Area
Go to Pen Tablet
Select Proportion
The setting is called Screen Ratio
Open the Xencelabs driver app
Go to Device Settings
Look in Tablet to Screen Area Mapping
There's a drop down on the left side. It has three options: Full Tablet Area, Define Portion, and Screen Ratio
Select Screen Ratio in the bottom
The active area of a pen display and their display panel inside the pen display are equivalent. So they always match.
I've given convenient labels ("small", "medium", "large") to drawing tablets. This will make it easier to talk about their sizes. These categories are based off the standard sizes that Wacom uses. The sizes here are approximate. For each category a typical value is provided, and also a range of values.
Manufactures also sometimes provide size categories in the names of their pen tablets. But don't trust the size categories - always calculate the actual diagonal distance when comparing sizes.
Here's are some great examples:
The XP-Deco L is much closer in size to a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium than the Intuos Pro Large.
Inspiroy 2L is sort of in-between a medium and large size.
Here's what you should consider in your choice
What is your natural drawing style? some people draw a lot from the wrist and others use much larger motions driven from their elbows and shoulders
Do you have enough space on your desk?
Do you intend to be mobile and use the tablet in different locations?
Small (7") pen tablets are good for scenarios where the focus is less on creating strokes. For example, if you need to simply use a tablet as a replacement for a mouse, then a small tablet will work fine. One creative task that works great with small tablets in photo editing - since it doesn't typically require "drawing". Most people who are drawing would find using a small tablet, to feel very "cramped".
Medium (11") pen tablets are the best combination of size, cost, and ergonomics for most people interested in drawing tablets and is my standard recommendation. Medium tablets are the minimum size I would recommend for anyone who is interested in drawing, sketching, painting, or any creative task that requires drawing with strokes.
SMALL (13") pen displays may be good choices for children.
If you are drawing the minimum size I would recommend is MEDIUM (16"), though many people work very effectively with SMALL pen displays.
LARGE (24") are great but they do occupy a lot of space so ensure you have a desk that is big enough.
I think the best balance is around 20" to 22" - these provide enough space to draw on without being to cumbersome, occupying too much space on a desk, or being difficult to move.
Anti-glare sparkle - For a given anti-glare treatment, the higher the pixels-per-inch of the display, the more anti-glare sparkle you will notice. For example using the same anti-glare treatment a 4K 24" display will show less AG sparkle, than a 4K 16" display.
Some of you like to think of a tablet size relative standard papers sizes. The tablet below shows the paper sizes with their diagonal size and you can see how specific paper size matches my standard tablet sizes
This video goes into great detail about this topic.
Size = Active Area Size. The way we measure a tablets size is NOT the physical size of the device. Instead we measure the diagonal of the ACTIVE AREA of the tablet. The ACTIVE AREA is the region on the surface of the tablet that is responsive to the tablet's EMR pen. Learn more: &
Size category | Pen tablet | Pen display |
---|
Tablet and manufactr | My size category | Active area | Diagonal |
---|
Pen tablet | Pen display |
---|
Large (15") pen tablets are these days the largest size available. They are popular for some artists. They are large enough though that you will have to adapt to using them. More here: .
Extra large (23") pen tablets are no longer produced but for some users they are ideal but require quite a bit of adjustment to use. More here: .
If you have a pen tablet (which does not have a screen), then you use it with a monitor. You should consider the relationship between these two sizes. I find that that relationship influences how it feels to draw on the pen tablet. A much more detailed explanation is here: .
Standard tablet size | Nearest ISO paper | Nearest US paper |
---|
Nov 28, 2022
Mar 18, 2022
Mar 8, 2022
Jun 27, 2022
Jul 25, 2022
SMALL | Typical: 7" Range: 6" to 9" | Typical: 13" Range: 11" to 14" |
MEDIUM | Typical: 11" Range: 10" to 13" | Typical: 16" Range: 15" to 19" |
LARGE | Typical: 15" Range: 14" to 19" | Typical: 24" Range: 20" to 29" |
EXTRA LARGE | Typical: 23" Range: 20" to29" | Typical: 32" Range: 30" to 33" |
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium (PTH-660) | MEDIUM | 8.7"x5.8" | 10.5" |
XP-Pen Deco L | MEDIUM | 10"x6" | 11.5" |
Inspiroy 2 L | MEDIUM (high end of medium) | 10.5"x6.56" | 12.38" |
Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860) | LARGE | 12.1"x8.4" | 14.7" |
Pen Tablet Small (7") | ISO A6 (7.1") | n/a |
Pen Tablet Medium (11") | ISO A5 (10.1") | US Letter (13.9") |
Pen Tablet Large (16") | ISO A4 (14.3") | US Legal (16.4") |
Pen Display Small (13") | ISO A4 (14.3") | US Letter (13.9") |
Pen Display Medium (16") | ISO A4 (14.3") | US Legal (16.4") |
Pen Display Large (24") | ISO A3 (20.2") | n/a |
Starter tablet | MEDIUM (11") SMALL (7") if budget is a constraint | MEDIUM (16") SMALL (13") if budget is a constraint |
Drawing, Sketching, Painting | MEDIUM (11") LARGE (15") if you know you need it | MEDIUM (16") LARGE (24") if you know you need it |
Photo Editing | SMALL (7") is enough | SMALL (13") or MEDIUM |
MEDIUM (11") (I don't recommend pen tablets for note taking) | SMALL (13") (I don't recommend pen displays for note taking) |
SMALL (7") | N/A |
For children | SMALL (7") | SMALL (13") |
What I prefer and use | LARGE (15") | 22" - on the low end of LARGE |
A large pen tablet has an active area diagonal of about 15 inches.
Generally I advise against getting a LARGE pen tablet unless:
you already have experience using one
or are highly confident your art style will benefit from it and you are ready to deal with the ergonomic issues that come from using one.
With a medium pen tablet most people put their tablet to the right or left of their keyboard.
You can certainly try this with a large pen tablet. But what you'll discover is that it is extremely difficult to reach the more distant edges of the keyboard or tablet depending on how they're situated in front of you.
So a large pen tablet typically means you will have to have it directly in front of you. And then you place the keyboard above it. This of course means that it's more difficult to reach the keyboard.
Often if I'm not really drawing I'll in fact put the keyboard on top of the tablet.
With a large pen tablet your hand is really moving quite a distance to do some things. So for example if you are trying to reach a menu item at the very top of the screen you might be surprised how much distance you're going to have to move your pen. This can be very tiring for some people.
If the active area is too big for you, then you should keep in mind that you can always scale down the active area to any size you want. You can make the active area match a medium sized tablet for example.
If you want a large pen tablet, pick from one of these:
Wacom Intuos Pro PTH-860: EXCELLENT (my notes on this tablet)
XP-Pen Deco Pro XLW GEN2 (MT1592B): VERY GOOD (my notes on this tablet)
Huion Inspiroy Giano G930L: GOOD (my notes on this tablet)
In this video I go through a lot of detail about what it's like to actually use a large pen tablet. In this case I'm specifically using a Wacom intuos pro (PTH-860). But the same general issues apply to any large pen tablet.
Extra-large pen tablets have an active area diagonal of about 23".
Are very specialized and not appropriate for most people
Are no longer in production - only Wacom made them and the most recent models series - the Wacom Intuos 4 XL is from 2011.
Require lots of adjustment to your work style due to their size
Watch this video to learn about the reality of using EXTRA LARGE pen tablets:
There is a relationship between the size of a pen tablet and the size of your monitor that you should pay attention to. They both have different sizes and certain combinations may work better than others.
This table is based on my preferences - you might find you find that difference combinations work better.
This video helps explain the thinking behind it:
Note taking (more here:)
Mouse replacement (More here: )
For more general information about choosing the right size, go here: .
Pen tablet size | Example dimensions | Monitor Size |
---|
Extra Large (23") | 19" x 12" | 40" - 50" |
Large (15") | 12" x 8.5" | 30" - 40" |
Medium (11") | 8.5" x 6" 10" x 6" | 20" - 30" |
Small (7") | 6" x 4" | 20" - 25" |
In terms of what you see on it, your pen display is just another monitor/display to your computer. So, you can control how the computer shows its desktop to the pen display.
You have two options:
Extend the desktop - this means you can see different things on the pen display from your monitor. This is what I recommend you use.
Duplicate the desktop (aka "Mirror ther desktop") - This means your pen display and monitor will try to show the same exact thing. Sometimes this is very useful but generally I think Extend is better choice for most people and situations.
The steps depend on which operating system you are using.
Open Display Settings
The displays your computer is connected to will be shown and each one is numbered. The one in blue is the display currently selected.
If a display has two numbers, that means the desktop is being duplicated across those displays
NOTE: If you only see one display then the these settings do not apply.
Select the display that corresponds to your tablet
Towards the button right (to the right of the Identify button) you will see a dropdown setting that controls how the desktop is being applied to this display. Depending on how the display is already configured, the dropdown will say either
Extend desktop to this display
Duplicate desktop on X and Y
X and Y will be the numbers referring to the displays
Switch the dropdown between the Extend or Duplicate option as needed.
Go to Displays > Display Settings
Select your monitor, then set Use As to Primary Display
Then select your drawing tablet's display and set Use As to Mirror.
Using a pen tablet with a widescreen monitor presents some challenges and some new opportunities with a pen tablet due to the extreme differences in aspect ratio.
Normally a pen tablet aspect ratio has an aspect ratio of around 16:10 but monitors often have an aspect ratio of 16:9. By default this distorts shapes drawn on the pen tablet so that they appear stretched slightly in one direction. The solution is to force the tablet's active area aspect ratio to match that of the monitor.
Because the aspect ratios are close (1.6 vs 1.78), we lose a little bit of active area on the tablet, but now the drawing is without distortion.
But in the widescreen case, the aspect ratios are quite different (1.6 vs 2.33). So, if we match the tablet's aspect ratio to the monitor, we lose much more active area.
You could map the active area of the tablet to a region of the monitor with the same aspect ratio.
The region is shown in the center of the monitor, but it could be left or right aligned.
You get to use the full area of your tablet, but then you have to carefully possition yoru drawing application into a region that the tablet is mapped to.
This is pretty rare, but I've seen people do it.
If you can reliably tile your windows to the left half and right half, this is an alternative arrangement
It loses active area on the tablet, but may be easier to work with in terms of resizing windows.
Some widescreen monitors, support presenting themselves to a computer as two separate monitors. Usually this requires two separate cables for two separate video signals.
In this case you can map the tablet to one the monitors.
This still loses some active area on the tablet, but now it is very easy to get windows into the appropriate regions.
Also some tablets, have the ability for you to use an express key or a pen button to swap between monitors. This means you can use your tablet with the entire physical display of your monitor.
Sometimes people want to take a pen display and use it as a pen tablet. There are several options here. In this case, someone doesn't want to see anything on the pen display. It should be blank.
Some pen displays have their power button configured to effect only the screen. You can power off the tablet, which will turn off the screen, but since the tablet is still connected to the computer it will essentially act just like a pen tablet.
Not all pen displays are like this. Many have their power button set to turn off everything. So if you turn the tablet off, you wont be able to see anything on it or use the pen.
If your tablet is connected via an HDMI cable to the computer, you can disconnect the HDMI cable. In every pen display I know of, this will result in a blank screen but the pen can still be used with the tablet.
In your operating system, you can configure the displays settings to not use the screen in the pen display. This should leave you with a pen display that shows nothing and the pen should still work.
If you use a pen display even if the screen is off, you will still likely see the larger pointer lag.
Pen tablets have low pointer lag. Pen displays have higher pointer lag. More here:
If you are wearing out your plastic pen nibs too quickly, you might be considering a metal nib. Metal nibs in theory never wear out.
Are metal nibs safe for your pen tablet?
(part 1) (https://youtu.be/m0kYXa7Y4a8)
(part 2) (https://youtu.be/aByhTQOcIeM)
(part 3) (https://youtu.be/mU8MsD-DY0w)
(part 4) (https://youtu.be/c1dQj4q5lDk)
(part 5) (https://youtu.be/WvmMHzZoclg)
I DO NOT recommend using a metal nib
ferrite core damage - Some people report that the metal nibs can cause the pen's ferrite core to easily break. When the ferrite core breaks it cannot be replaced. You have to buy a new pen. I did not experience damage to the ferrite core even after I dropped my KP-504E pen repeatedly with the metal nib hitting the floor directly. However, I don't doubt that others have experienced real damage.
pressure sensor damage - I personally experienced that a metal nib cause a permanent increase in the initial activation force of my Wacom Pro Pen 2. This means the pen become less sensitive and going back plastic nib does not restore a low initial activation force. See this video for more details (https://youtu.be/WvmMHzZoclg).
I DO NOT recommend using a metal nib directly against the glass of a pen display
I haven't tried it with a pen display and I right now would not recommend someone doing doing that. I do believe there's a chance it can damage the screen. I've even seen people with plastic nibs damage the screen of their pen display.
If someone is going to do use a metal nib with a pen display, I would recommend using a protective sheet. See this doc protective sheets.
You may find different options for nibs, here several I know of.
For Wacom Pro Pen 2
TWITE Graphics (https://hitomins.tumblr.com/products_sus_English#b)
I purchased from (https://alice-books.com/item/show/1113-4) but you may find other sources.
This is the nib I use for the "Are metal nibs safe" videos
REEYEAR ( https://a.co/d/8H6lqGq)
TWITE Hybrid metal/plastix nib (https://hitomins.tumblr.com/products_hybrid)
For Wacom CTL-672,CTL-671,CTL-471, CTL-472
REEYEAR metal nibs (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2PGDF6S)
https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/740ktd/metal_nibs_where_do_you_purchase_them/ -
https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/ts2ted/titanium_alloy_pen_nib/ -
https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/tklhcn/stainless_steel_nib_finally_came_time_to_art/ -
https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/t7lraf/better_nibs_for_ctl472/ -
https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/gyo4ug/pro_pen_2_stainless_steel_nib/ -
https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/kyl5lj/but_seriously_why_are_all_my_nibs_sharpened_to/ -
These days many monitors and pen displays support very wide colors gamuts.
While these can look amazing, many people often find that they are too intensely saturated. This is often observed with reds, purples, and greens.
Often changing saturation levels or brightness might not do anything to reduce the intensity of these colors.
There are some techniques you can use to reduce the intensity of these colors
Many monitors an pen displays have an "sRGB emulation mode" that will rude the intensity of these colors.
This is the first option you should try.
A possible negative is that often these displays not only restrict the color gamut, but also keep reduce the brightness. If reduced brightness is not working for you you can try other options
Launch AMD Radeon Software
Click Settings
Click Display
Enable Custom Color
Disable Temperature Control (CTC)
Use the novideo_srgb tool
Download the release.zip file from here: https://github.com/ledoge/novideo_srgb/releases
Extract the files in the release.zip
Launch novideo_srgb.exe
Click Clamped
Taming the Wide Gamut using sRGB Emulation (https://pcmonitors.info/articles/taming-the-wide-gamut-using-srgb-emulation/)
r/Monitors - sRGB clamp - what is it and how can it affect user experience. 10/24/2021
r/Monitors - sRGB clamp for NVIDIA GPUs 8/24/2021
novideo_rgb tool (https://github.com/ledoge/novideo_srgb)
Blog: Wide Colour Gamut & SRGB Clamp (https://youtu.be/blcWTkv1bvQ)
What Is sRGB Emulation Mode And Why Is It Important? (https://www.displayninja.com/what-is-srgb-emulation-mode/)
For a display tablet your are pointing at one location on the pen, but the pointer is showing somewhere else. It could be do to the pen being incorrectly calibrated to the display.
Most pen displays offer a pen calibration to solve this problem.
Some, like the Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 offer this claibration because they are well-calibrated when you get them.
Pen calibration is a feature found in pen displays. Pen tablets don't need the feature.
Open the XP-Pen Pentablet app
Under Work area > Screen, press Calibrate
Follow the calibration steps
Open the HuionTablet app
Under Pen Display > Working Area, press Monitor Calibration
Follow the calibration steps
You can use a pen display like a regular monitor. However, there are a few things you should be aware of.
It's completely safe.
Just like any monitor or TV you can just keep them on all the time.
I've used multiple pen displays as a second display and leave them on 24/7 and my computers are set to never sleep so they are always showing something.
Specific pen displays I have used this way (each has been continuously turned on and showing something for several months at least):
Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 DTH-167
Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 DTH-271
XP-Pen Artist Pro 16 GEN2 MD160QH
Wacom One GEN1 (DTC-133)
Wacom One 13 GEN2 (DTH-134)
Wacom One 12 GEN2 (DTC-121)
Huion Kamvas 22 Plus (GS2202)
Huion Kamvas 13 (GS1331)
Huion Kamvas Pro 16 Plus 4k (GT1562)
Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K (GT2401)
Xencelabs Pen Display 24 (LPH2412U-A)
Pen displays typically they only up to 60Hz. Higher refresh rates are EXTREMELY rare. More here: Pen display refresh rate
A monitor often has a variety of inputs. For example, most of the monitors I have support these display inputs such as HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C.
Some pen displays have a variety of inputs. The Wacom Cintiq pro 27 DTH271 is a great example of one. It supports all of the inputs mentioned above.
But most modern pen displays now have only USB-C ports - usually two. One for a display signal & data and one for additional power if needed.
Typically monitors have to aspect ratios: 16:9 and 16:10. And there are variety of widescreen or ultra-widescreen monitors that support many other aspect ratios.
Pen displays have much less diversity of aspect ratios. The vast majority of modern pen displays are exactly 16:9. A very small number are 16:10.
Learn more: active area aspect ratio
Monitors and pen displays use various panel tech such as:
IPS
TN
VA
OLED
OLED introduction to pen displays. Starting by around May 2024, we seen the introduction of a few pen displays with OLED panels. The first pen display to use OLED was the Wacom Movink 13 (DTH-135) and the second OLED pen display was the Xencelabs Pen Display 16.
Pen displays aren't especially bright. most around around 250 nits. And only a few are >= 300 nits.
More here: Brightness
Most often monitors support VESA mounting so you can attach them to a stand or an arm.
Many pen displays support VESA mounting also. However, the pen displays that are 16" or smaller often do not support VESA mounting. Likely they do not support VESA mounting because these sizes of pen displays are to thin to do so.
More here:
Monitors tend to have the normal power cables and adapters.
Modern pen displays tend to support getting power via their USB C ports.
It varies quite a bit among pen displays, but often they exhibit more Anti-Glare sparkle than monitors. Sometimes it is quite noticeable. Some people are very irritated by the visual effect of this anti-glare sparkle.
More here: Anti-glare sparkle
Many monitors come with built-in speakers. They usually sound terrible, but they can be useful.
As far as I am aware, no pen displays do not have speakers.
One of the benefits of supporting multiple display input ports is that it makes it possible to display two or more inputs simultaneously.
Many monitors allow this now and it is very useful for very wide monitors.
This is not something found on pen displays. Or at least it is very rare.
It's common question whether pen displays would get to hot if they are continually used. Pen displays don't get any hotter than a normal monitor. More here: Heat
Monitors are almost always completely silent and don't even have fans.
However, some pen displays - notably some Wacom Cintiq Pro models - have fans are are known for fan noise. If you are sensitive to noise research this first.
Typically, when you press down with your pen and touch the tablet it will be interpreted is a "click" action - just as if you left clicked with a mouse.
However, in some rare circumstances and depending on the tablet and tablet brand and tablet driver, you MIGHT be able to modify the behavior to a slight degree.
Sometimes you can enable or disable the clicking of the tip
I don't know of any way to assign the tip to perform some other behavior when pressed. For example, no way for the tip to be assigned to the SHIFT key or something.
Wacom pens just always "click". There's no way to change this behavior.
The Huion driver lets you disable clicking.
In the Driver UI it is a little confusing though. The tip is shown as being in one of two states: valid and invalid.
The default is valid and this means the pen works normally.
The invalid setting, disables clicking.
In the XP-Pen driver, you can only disable the tip.
In the driver, press the gear icon and you can disable the tip by checking the box that says disable pressure.
A 3-in-one cable is a special kind of connection cable used for pen displays to connect to a computer.
A 3-in-1 cable typically looks like this:
The power end can work in different ways depending on which 3-in-1 cable you have
Older 3-in-1 cables may have a proprietary connection to the tablet instead of a regular USB-C connection.
Simplifies the physical design of the tablet. It minimizes the number of physical ports on the tablet. Instead of having an HDMI port, power port, and USB-A data port, the tablet can just have 1 USB-C port.
It also makes it easier to keep track of cables. You just have to have 3-in-1 cable instead of three separate cables.
Ideally you would connect your table to the computer with a single USB-C able. But this is not always possible.
USB-C ports on your computer may not supply enough power
USB-C ports on your computer may not support sending a display signal (aka DP alt mode)
Your computer may not have a USB-C port at all
So a 3-in-1 cable allows you to use older ports that many computers do have such as HDMI and USB-A and way to get enough power to the tablert.
More here on the different ways a pen display can be connected to a computer:
All pen tablets connect to a computer with a USB cable. Some pen tablets ALSO connect to a computer wirelessly - almost always Bluetooth.
If you are getting a tablet setup for the first time, use the cable.
In general, I recommend using the cable because any wireless connection typically has a little extra latency and is more prone to interference. Also in general, I've found wireless connection to sometimes just be a bit flakier and require manual reconnection sometimes.
Pen tablets, because they do not have a screen, don't draw much power and don't transmit a lot of data. So any USB 2.0 cable will work that fits the tablet and that carries data.
Modern pen tablets all have a standard USB-C port flush with the edge of the tablet.
Older pen tablets may use micro-USB ports. Some even older tablets, have the cable permanently affixed to the tablet. An example is the Wacom Intuos 4 XL.
If you want to use 3rd party cables, learn more here: Using 3rd-party cables with your drawing tablet.
Remember that essentially a pen display is a plastic box that contains two separate devices: (1) a pen tablet and (2) a display.
We need to account for 4 things to use a pen display.
This document is going to talk about connectors a lot. So you need to know what they look like first. Read this guide on different display connector types before you continue.
Those four components are distributed over cabling differently, depending on the the cabling option involved.
Some pen displays can run on a single USB-C cable. This used to be uncommon. But Increasingly many pen displays support this option. More here: Connecting a pen display with one USB-C cable
One USB cable for pen tablet (power, data)
One power cable for the display power
One display cable to carry the display signal - This will almost always be an HDMI cable. Though some tablets support alternate connector types for the display signal
one cable provides power for the display component
one USB-C cable handles everything the other 4 components
The 2 cable setup is how I use my Wacom Cintiq Pro 27.
This is a special kind of cable. One end will have a single USB-C connection. The other end it will have the different connections. Typically these will be: HDMI, USB-A, and some kind of power. More here: 3-in-1 cables
HDMI connectors are extensively used. So let's start by addressing HDMI which shows up in option B and option D.
In principle this is easy: Take the HDMI from the pen display and find an HDMI port and plug it in.
For the vast majority of you this will "just work".
But now let us explore all the complications
If your computer has multiple HDMI ports you need to pick one.
If it's a laptop - it shouldn't matter. Any HDMI port should work.
If it's a small form factor PC - then also it shouldn't matter. Any HDMI port should work.
If it's a PC that has a separate graphics card you might have an HDMI port in multiple very different locations
You could have HDMI ports on the graphics card
You could have HDMI ports on the motherboard of the computer
As a general rule, always use the HDMI ports on the graphics card
Only use the HDMI ports on the motherboard as a last resort.
Sometimes you'll read a statement like "HDMI doesn't work on the motherboard". That's kind of an exaggeration but its a well intentioned one. But it is true that sometimes HDMI ports don't work on the motherboard. Let's go through the reasons.
First, to get an motherboard HDMI port working you need several things to be true
First the HDMI port must exist
Second, the computer has to have a component that sends a display signal to the port. This is called integrated graphics. It's called "integrated" because the graphics component is on the CPU.
Third, the use of the HDMI port must be enabled.
What often happens is, not all these conditions are met with motherboard HDMI ports on all PCs.
The HDMI port might exist, but there is no "integrated graphics" - so that port won't work
You might have the port and integrated graphics is available, but also the BIOS might be set to disable the use of that port. So you'll have to enable it in the BIOS.
Finally, some computers have an interesting behavior where, if a graphics card is installed, then they automatically disable the motherboard HDMI. In other words, you can either use the motherboard HDMI or the graphics card, but not both.
You aren't going to hurt your computer by trying to use motherboard HDMI, but you should know why it might not work.
These will work, but there is one thing you should be aware of. Sometimes graphics cards have N ports, but only N-1 can be used simultaneously. I have a card like this.
If you have two ports that work - one on the motherboard and one on the graphics card, then which should you pick? The answer is ALWAYS try the graphics card HDMI first and only use the motherboard HDMI as a last resort.
First, Motherboard HDMI support just isn't as powerful as what you will typically find on a graphics card from the same era. The motherboard HDMI may not support 4K or may not support a high enough refresh rate. So it might, work but your experience might be degraded.
Second, both motherboard HDMI and the graphics card need to use memory to do their work. A graphics card comes with its own memory that is dedicated to dealing with graphics. Motherboard HDMI as far as I know - does not use any dedicated memory - but instead uses the same memory as the CPU. This means that you CPU is "losing" some memory so that the motherboard HDMI can use it instead.
If you need to make an HDMI connection but have no HDMI ports you can convert other ports to HDMI using an adapter. See Using HDMI adapters with pen displays
When you've connected your display you might see it show a message saying NO SIGNAL. Here is a troubleshooting guide to work through the NO SIGNAL problem.
Go here: Connecting a pen display to a mobile device
No pen displays connect wirelessly. They all require at least one cable to connect to your computer.
Input or Output | Needed by | Notes |
---|---|---|
Power to tablet
tablet component
very little power is needed
Data
tablet component
for example, pen position data is sent to the computer. Also the computer can send data to the tablet such as a firmware update
Power to display
display component
much more power needed than the tablet component
Display signal
display component
What is shown by the tablet
This document focuses on how a pen display connects to a mobile device such as a phone. It's a subset of the broader guide Connecting a pen display to a computer, but focused on the specific issues that come up for a mobile devices.
USB-C port on the mobile device
Your mobile device must have a USB-C port
Your mobile device's USB-C port must support DP alt mode. Not all USB-C ports support DP alt mode.
USB-C cable connecting the phone to the tablet
This cable must also support DP alt mode
Compatibility between pen display and a phone
Even if your phone's USB-C port supports DP alt mode, your phone simply may not support using it with a pen display. A great example here is iPhones - they simply do not work with pen displays at all.
A pen display may be compatible with some mobile devices but not others. You should contact the manufacturer and ensure which phones they support with their tablets.
Power
Your pen display needs power from somewhere.
Most likely your mobile device cannot provide enough power so you will need get power separately.
Apple iPhones - these phones DO NOT WORK with pen display
You don't need to "connect" your pen.
With drawing tablets and their pens, as long as you using a pen that is compatible with your tablet, then the pen should automatically start working when you bring it within around 10mm of the surface of your drawing tablet.
There is no specific connection or pairing step required unlike a Bluetooth device.
For example: Apple Pens and most Microsoft Surface pens - These pens use Bluetooth.
So, you'll have to enable Bluetooth on your computer than follow the instructions for the specific device you have.
Ideally you would be able to connect your pen display to your computer with a single USB C cable. And that cable would provide display signal as well as enough power for the pen display. You should understand
Key things to keep in mind:
- Not all pen displays support this configuration - even if they do have USB C ports on the tablet
- Not all computers are capable of sending power and display signal over their USB C ports
- Not all USB C cables can be used for this purpose.
So, you have to do your research and plan carefgully. Do not buy a pen display assuming that a single USB C cable connection will work.
The first thing you should do is verify whether the tablet supports a single USB C connection.
Ideally you do this before you even purchase the tablet.
You can do this verification easily:
look at the user manual for the tablet and see how it connects
or contact product support for the tablet and ask them specifically if it will work for that specific model.
When doing this research it will simplify things if you know the exact model number of the tablet and not just its name.
Your cable and ports MUST support DP alt mode. To find out if you ports and cables support DP alt mode, read this: USB-C DisplayPort alt mode.
Cables
Thunderbolt USB-C cables do support carrying enough power
Ports
Even if the cable supports power, your computers USB-C port may not supply enough power.
Power needed
The size of the pen display affects how much power is needed.
It's very likely that if your USB-C port can deliver enough power a 13" pen display
At 16", some pen displays require additional power usually from a power adapter that is plugged into a wall.
Above 16" most often in my experience a single USB-C cable is not enough and these pen displays require additional power.
I recommend you get the USB-C cables the manufacturer provides for use with a single USB-C cable configuration - primarily because these are known to work with the device and will fit into the well that contains the port.
I sometimes use thunderbolt 3 cables, but sometimes have to shave off a bit of plastic from the end to make them fit into the pen display.
To keep it simple, I often just use Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 cables since these are USB-C cables that are defined to support DP alt mode and enough power.
Computer tested
Surface Pro 8
Computer port: I connected to the USB-C ports on the side of the Surface Pro 8 which support Thunderbolt 4.
The computer is plugged into a Surface dock to provide power.
Cables tested
CableMatters [Intel Certified] 20Gps Thunderbolt 3 cable (6.6 ft) supporting 100W charging. (amazon link)
Cable end thickness
For the CableMatters Usb-C cable, the cable ends are a little too thick to be plugged into some ports.
I had to remove some plastic from one of the ends to fit it into the tablets using a knife.
This plastic was tough to cut. I didn't do a very clean job but it just barely fits into the port - the fit is very snug and I should probably remove just a little more.
Remember this is testing with my hardware. Your computer may not supply enough power via its USB-C ports to match my results.
Here is a list from Huion about devices that can use a single USB-C cable: https://support.huion.com/en/support/solutions/articles/44002011098-list-of-compatible-devices-support-usb-c-to-usb-c-connection-with-huion-displays
Brad Colbow connecting the Huion Kamvas 13 with a single USB-C cable: See 6:00 in this video: https://youtu.be/ku8x1q_nhFQ
Teoh on Tech connecting the XP-Pen Artist 13 (2nd gen) using a single USB-C cable. See 4:30 in the video: https://youtu.be/Exj2PZu4MHM
Your drawing tablet comes with the cables needed to connect it to a computer.
It IS POSSIBLE that you can use other cables depending on the type of drawing tablet and the type of computer.
Pen tablets - you can almost always use a 3rd-party cable
Pen displays - You can often use a 3rd-party cable but sometimes a manufacturer cable is really the best or only option
For pen tablets, I recommend using the cables that the manufacturer provides. But sometimes these get lost or damaged. Even though I never use those cables myself, I always use 3rd party cables.
If you use a 3rd party cable you have to make sure the cable can do 2 things:
Can carry power
Can carry data - not all USB-C cables carry data. For example, some USB-C cables are power only.
Can you use the cable that you use for other devices? Yes, as long as it can carry power and data.
I use USB 2.0 cables with a USB-C plug on one end (this goes to the tablet) and a USB-A end on the other (this goes to the computer or to a USB-hub).
The specific cables I use are these:
And I use these cables with many other devices that only need USB 2.0 connectivity.
I specifically choose the blue color so that I can visually identify it is a USB 2.0 cable.
These days the ports on pen tablets are all USB C ports. However older tablets used different kinds of ports. These could be micro USB or mini USB. And cables that have micro USB ends or mini USB ends are getting more difficult to find. For this reason I prefer to continue to use USB C cables but use adapters for these older tablets if possible.
Single USB-C cable connection
Even if the cable meets the requirements - there are some issues you should be aware of.
Sometimes the USB-C port on table goes into a recessed port and the manufacturer cable was specially designed to go into that port.
Sometimes the USB-C port is not recessed, but expects the metallic part of the USB-C cable to be a little longer (an extra 1 mm for example). The manufacturer provided cable works correct, but you may find that a 3rd party cable's metallic end does not go as deep and the connection might work but is loose and might disconnect if the cable is moved slightly.
Sometimes, in my experience, 3rd party cables are seem to - for whatever reason - sometimes not work correctly or as well as the manufacturer cables. This is rare, but happens.
3-in 1 cable connection
3-in-1 cables provided by the manufacturer are almost always proprietary. You have to get to get the same exact cable from the manufacturer.
Tablet | Port | Cable | Results |
---|---|---|---|
More here:
If the pen display was connected with a single USB-C cable, then you can TYPICALLY use a USB-C cable that MEETS CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS to connect your pen display. More here: .
Huion Kamvas 13
(GS1331)
lower
CableMatters Thunderbolt 3 cable
VERIFIED TO WORK
Huion Kamvas Pro 13 2.5K
(GT1302)
upper
CableMatters Thunderbolt 3 cable
VERIFIED TO WORK
Huion Kamvas Pro 16 Plus 4k (GT1562)
lower
CableMatters Thunderbolt 3 cable
VERIFIED TO WORK
XP-Pen Artist 12 GEN2
(CD120FH)
upper
CableMatters Thunderbolt 3 cable
VERIFIED TO WORK
XP-Pen Artist 13 GEN2
(CD130FH)
upper
CableMatters Thunderbolt 3 cable
VERIFIED TO WORK
XP-Pen Artist Pro 16 GEN2 (MD160QH)
left
CableMatters Thunderbolt 3 cable
VERIFIED TO WORK
Wacom One 13 touch GEN2 (DTH-134)
left
CableMatters Thunderbolt 3 cable
VERIFIED TO WORK
Wacom One 12 GEN2
(DTC-121)
left
CableMatters Thunderbolt 3 cable
VERIFIED TO WORK
Wacom One GEN1
(DTC-133)
only 1 port
CableMatters Thunderbolt 3 cable
This pen display does not support using a single USB-C connection. I tested it anyway and
VERIFIED that it did NOT WORK
Wacom Movink 13
either
CableMatters Thunderbolt 3 cable
VERIFIED TO WORK
When you draw a stroke with a drawing tablet, your stroke will not be perfectly smooth. There are many causes for it any many things you can do to address it.
The tablet and driver are components that can contribute to strokes that aren't as smooth as you would like
All tablets have a degree of diagonal wobble that can appear in your stroke.
Tablet sometimes exhibit a little bit of "noise" in their stroke. This noise is similar to wobble in that it deviates from a smooth line, but it does so in a more random way.
The surface of a tablet may be too smooth and this can cause the pen to easily "slip" away from your intended path.
You are user and your drawing style can affect the smoothness of a stroke
Your hand and arm and way of moving them over the tablet can cause imperfections in your stroke.
Drawing slower is more prone to introducing errors into your strokes.
Consider how you hold you pen. Different techniques of holding your pen can affect how smooth your strokes are.
Brad Colbow - How Pros Hold a Pencil 2024/05/28
Using a digital; pen on a very smooth tablet surface can result in the pen feeling "slippery" as you draw. And so the pen often seems to "slide away" from the intended path of the stroke you are trying to make. This is a common complain for iPads because an iPad's surface if very smooth glass.
Consider buying a protective sheet to increase the surface texture a bit. See: protective sheets.
Another way of increasing the surface texture and avoiding a slippery feeling is to use a felt nib. Many tablets now come with felt nibs, though they may not be installed in your pen by default.
Many people draw just by moving their wrist. Try instead drawing by moving your shoulders more.
Usually someone's hand can draw a smooth stroke easier at some angles than at others. For example, if you are right handed drawing a strong from bottom left to top right is easy but drawing from top left to bottom right is harder and the stroke less smooth. Rotate the application canvas so that you accommodate what your hand is better at doing.
Some people find that drawing a stroke toward themselves is easier to keep smooth than drawing away from themselves.
Generally speaking a faster stroke will result in a smoother stroke.
Occasionally some people enable mouse mode in their tablet driver. Mouse mode uses relative positioning and usually makes it harder to make a consistent stroke. Instead try disabling mouse mode.
If you are using a pen tablet, mismatched aspect rations between your pen tablet and your monitor will distort your strokes and make it harder to draw smoothly. Make sure you check for this and correct it. More here: Matching aspect ratios.
Please do check for this. Many people have been using their tablets for years with mismatched aspect ratios and when they make the ratios match it is a BIG DIFFERENCE in their ability to draw strokes correctly.
Use zoom to your advantage. The stroke is affected several things which are physical in nature. For example, a diagonal wobble may introduce a 1mm wobble as your draw. If you are drawing with your canvas zoomed out then 1mm accounts for a lot of pixels. If you zoom in more then the 1mm accounts for fewer pixels of wobble. So you can really minimize some effects my zooming in as much as possible for your stroke. This minimizes the effect of those disturbances and also forces you to draw with a longer stroke which itself will minimize errors.
Use brush smoothing in your applications.
Krita, under Tool Options, has 4 different brush smoothing options: None, Basic, Weighted, and Stabilizer.
Clip Studio Paint has several options
A setting called Stabilization that goes from 0 to 100. Where 100 adds the most amount of smoothing possible.
You can also separately use the Adjust by speed setting. It has two options: Increase stabilization when drawing slowly and increase stabilization when drawing quickly.
Some apps like Clip Studio Paint have the ability to "fix" strokes after they have been drawn.
The advantage to this technique is that it doesn't slow down your stroke as you draw.
The disadvantage to this technique is that you don't exactly know the path of your stroke until a moment after you draw the stroke. Also if you draw a sharp corner, post-correction techniques can somethings not recognize the corner and instead show it as a smooth corner.
Applications like Krita also support vector tools. If you are having problems with smooth strokes with you pen, the vector tools can produce perfectly smooth strokes.
Some applications, like ProCreate on the iPad, have a a shape detection feature. Roughly speaking after you draw a stroke and hold you pen still for a moment, it will recognize a line, or circle, or curve and create a perfect smooth version of your stroke.
In Clip Studio Paint, smoothing is called Stabilization. The Stabilization setting found under the brush's Tool property > Correction options.
If you don't see this setting click on the little wrench icon at the bottom right of the Tool property palette and you then can see the option, set it, and make it appear in the brush's tool property palette.
In Krita, under Tool Options, use the Brush Smoothing options
A pen display will either one of two surfaces:
The traditional thinking is that etched glass is better. You will see many "pro" tablets that have etched glass while their "consumer" counterparts have the film.
My view is that it is not so clear that etched glass is better. In some cases films have real advantages. In this document we'll discuss the merits of each.
AMOUNT of Anti-glare sparkle - which is an undesirable effect - is present in both etched glass and films. And the amount is highly variable. It's not possible to say that either choices has less of the sparkle. You have to examine the specific etching or film used for a tablet.
This is not possible. There is no known way to reduce the amount etching on glass.
For films, many tablets that do have films have removable films. And manufacturers even sell replacement films.
This is one flexibility that films have over etching.
You can remove the film entirely
If you scratch the film, you can replace the film.
If you don't like some aspect of the film - maybe it has too much AG sparkle - you can buy a different film that has different properties. For example, Photodon sells films that have different amounts of AG effects. You can even get completely clear film.
NOTE: Some pen displays have very securely attached films, and it may be difficult to remove them.
Scratches in etched glass are permanent
Films are clearly better at this since the films can be replaced.
Plain glass will feel slippery to draw on. Etched glass offers some texture and so too do films - so you will find that your pen grips the surface a bit better.
In my opinion the etched glass has a silghtly stronger texture feeling. The films tend to fill a little different. Both are better than plain glass.
Etched glass - glass that has an etched texture. Learn more here:
Film - A thin film on plastic that sits on top of the glass. See .
Almost all drawing tablet send pen tilt data to the computer. Wacom consumer tablets are the notable exception.
Assuming your tablet is sending tilt, data you may want to have to tilt control what you draw. This document explains how to configure your application so that it can take advantage of tilt
First, make sure your tablet drivers are installed typically these will be necessary to take advantage of tilt.
Here is an example of how to configure tilt in Clip Studio Paint
A simple example is the Calligraphy brush in CSP
Open up the brush settings then go to brush size
Click on the arrow pointing up at the end of brush size
A dialog called Brush Size Dynamics will open
There are four checkboxes controlling what will control the brush size
Disable everything and enable tilt
NOTE: it's not required to disable everything , but it just makes it easy to see how tilt is affecting size if only it is enabled.
Then once the brush is configured you should see tilt affecting the size of the brush
After that you can look at other brush settings and get tilt to affect other properties of the brush.
Etched glass is one of two popular treatments the glass surface of a pen display. (The other is called an anti-glare film).
"Etched glass" describes a microscopic texture applied to a glass surface.
Etched glass provides two benefits
It reduces glare and reflections due to light hitting the tablet. Etched glass does this my scattering that light.
Provides more "grip" for the pen. Without the etching a pen would feel "slippery" on the smooth glass surface.
Like other anti-glare treatments, etched glass can produce an effect called anti-glare sparkle which is a "rainbow noise" effect. Depending on the tablet there will be a little or lot of this sparkle. Learn more here: Anti-glare sparkle.
Etched glass is a permanent treatment to the glass. It cannot be removed.
The tablet sends "tablet reports" to the computer at somewhere around 200 reports per second. Each report contains information like pen position, pressure, tilt, button info, etc. More here: tablet reports. A brush engine's responsibility is to take that information and use it to draw a stroke in a drawing application.
In a creative applications that draws strokes - applications such as clip studio paint, krita, or photoshop, there is a component (or set of components) we can refer to as the brush engine
Among its responsibilities is to take this pen data and combine it to draw a stroke.
Your drawing apps typically feature different brushes: pen, pencil, watercolor, etc. You could think of separate brush engines for each kind of brush. In reality a single brush engine may handle multiple kinds of brushes.
But what all these brush engines have in common is that they transform the pen data in various ways to affect how the brush works.
Typically these are the ways in which a brush engine can control the stroke
stroke opacity
brush size
brush rotation
And there are lot of other settings
Here is an example from Clip Studio Paint 2.0 for its Calligraphy brush
Here is an example from Krita
If you are in a creative application that draws strokes,
The most common mapping of pen input to stroke is how pressure is handled. Typically, pressure is either:
pressure -> ignored - it has no effect on the brush. this is common for very simple brushes
pressure -> brush size - more pressure gives a bigger brush
pressure -> brush opacity - more pressure gives a more opaque brush
Tilt typically is treated like this:
tilt -> Ignored
tilt -> brush size - for example a pencil brushes may get wider as the pen is tilted to simulate how a real pencil makes wider marks on paper as it is tilted.
tilt -> brush rotation - enabling the tilt to orient the brush shape
This film is affixed to the glass underneath with some optically clear adhesive.
Anti-glare film provides two benefits
It reduces glare and reflections due to light hitting the tablet. The film does this my scattering that light.
It adds some texture which helps the pen grip better - without this the pen would feel slippery on the glass
As a film, it provides some protection to the glass underneath.
Some films are designed can be removed and replaced. So if you've scratched up the film, you can restore the table to its original feeling.
For SOME tablets, these films are intended to be removed by the user. Some manufacturers even sell replacement films. These films, tend to be easily removed.
For SOME tablets, these films are quite firmly attached to the glass and are not easily removed.
If you remove the film, you'll notice typically that the display will look brighter and the colors more vibrant, however:
you'll notice glare
And of course the glass is no longer protected from scratches
Sometime people confuse these films with lamination. They are very different and have different benefits:
These films are on TOP of the glass
Lamination means that the glass is bonded UNDERNEATH to the display panel
So it is quite possible to have a pen display that has BOTH a film AND is laminated.
Also called "Matte film", anti-glare film glass is one of two popular treatments the glass surface of a pen display. (The other is called ).
Because this is a visible phenomenon, watching the video I made on this topic may be a good starting point. https://youtu.be/g_nsvraK3P8
To prevent reflections and room lighting from interfering with your drawing experience, manufacturers of pen displays provide an anti-glare treatment.
The treatment comes in two forms:
anti-glare etched glass
anti-glare film
The physics of the anti-glare treatment produces an effect called anti-glare sparkle (AG sparkle).
AG sparkle is hard to describe in words, but overall it will look like a grainy look.
Photographing it or filming it is very tricky.
Depending on the camera settings...
the effect can disappear
the sparkle can look very different from what your eyes see.
you might notice it more with some colors than others
The the pictures below show screens that are showing black, white, and gray pixels.
The one on the right represents an mor extreme example . You can clearly see that different "color grains"
It could also look like this - this is a very close up view
I found this in a reddit post. The AG sparkle is everywhere but is most noticeable in the green area.
Huion Kamvas Pro 24 (4K) [GT2401]
XP-Pen Artist Pro 16TP [MD160U]
Wacom One [DTC133]
You MUST research AG sparkly for any tablet you are intend to buy.
I see many people buy tablets and not realize the AG sparkle might be present. And so they get very frustrated with their purchase.
DO NOT rely on photos provided by the manufacturer. These photos never show AG sparkle. It's probably not even deliberate that AG sparkle isn't shown because it is very tricky to photograph.
You need to ask people who use the tablet if the tablet exhibits the effect and how much the effect is visible.
AG sparkle is varies depending on the model of pen display.
All pen displays that I know of will have some amount of it because they all have some kind of anti-glare treatment.
Your perception of AG sparkly will be affected by several factors.
The nature of anti-glare treatment. Some tablets models in general seem to use a very intense AG treatment and others have a much milder treatment.
The distance between your eyes and the tablet. What might be strongly noticeable at 1 few inches might be essentially invisible at a normal drawing distance.
The pixels-per-inch (PPI) of the display.
High-pitch means lots of pixels per inch (PPI).
For example:
4K on a 27" pen display has a pitch of 163.7 PPI
4K on 16" pen display gives a pitch of 281.4 PPI
AG Sparkle will appear more on high-pitch displays
If the same exact AG treatment is used on those two displays you will notice it more on the 16" display.
I don't know of any way to remove the anti-glare sparkle if it is due to etched glass.
However, some people have had luck reducing the sparkle by adding a film on top of the AG glass.
Here is an example:
r/wacom - Cintiq 24 Pro OEM screen protector 6/9/2023
Tablets with replaceable AG films
Some tablets have a film that is designed to be removed and replaced. For example the Huion Kamvas 13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8CyIZfX8co. If you have such a tablet you could remove the film.
You could also try 3rd party screen protectors to replace the one you have. See protective sheets.
Tablets without replaceable AG films
If the tablet's film is not designed to be removed, you could still do it, but I think you might risk damaging the glass. If you do pursue this route, try to find someone who did this before and learn from their experience.
If you do remove the film, you will be drawing on the glass of the display. To avoid scratching that glass, you may want to search for a film that can protect it, but that does not have any anti-glare treatment. See protective sheets.
r/huion - https://www.reddit.com/r/huion/comments/13ikmph/ - This deleted reddit post has an video thet perfectly demonstrates the shimmering effect of the sparkle.
r/huion - Is this normal? Possible display issue? noisy output? 11/23/2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iTGUNAxPOc
https://jamesferwerda.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/j18_ferwerda14_jsid.pdf
Just like a monitor a pen display contains a display panel with a native display resolution.
Monitors tend to have a large variety of resolutions, but pen displays have just 3:
2K (aka HD) = 1920x1080
2.5K = 2560x1440
4K = 3840x2160
Some considerations about the display resolution
Some people are very sensitive to seeing pixels.
When drawing on a pen display you'll be much closer to it than when you are using a monitor
So you might notice the pixels more due to this proximity
The resolution with the least compatibility issues is 2K.
This format has the least issues with ports, cables, GPUs, adapters, etc.
As you start getting into higher resolutions, you have to be more careful about compatibility and ensure everything is going to work.
For example:
Not all HDMI cables support 4K
Some laptops struggle to support an external 4K display
Macintoshes have difficulty supporting 2.5K resolutions
Some systems support the higher resolutions but not a high-enough refresh rate. For example one of my laptops supports 4K but only at 30Hz instead of the standard 60Hz.
People often ask about picking between these two resolutions. Overall I think 2.5K is the best value for your money.
Especially at the 13" and 16" sizes, a 2.5K delivers a massive increase over 2K. After that the benefits are incremental.
Lamination in the context of a display is the removal of an air gap between the display and the sheet of glass above it. The benefits of lamination are improved parallax and preventing things from getting between the glass and the display.
Especially in older models of pen displays and pen computers, there is an air gap between the display panel and the glass. This air gap itself is another source of parallax.
A laminated display removes the air gap and replaced it with an optically clear adhesive layer. This layer because of optical properties and because it can be thinner than the air gap it replaced also thus reduces the parallax.
It is always preferable to by a drawing tablet that has a laminated display.
The most obvious benefit of lamination and the removal of the air gap is that it can improve parallax.
However, it can also prevent a things from getting between the glass and display panel such as:
moisture
dust and other particles
Diagonal size | 2K (HD) | 2.5K | 4K |
---|
You can find PPI values by using this tool:
Given a specific physical size for a display panel, anti-glare sparkle is more noticeable on higher resolutions. See this document for more information: .
small insects (more here: )
XP-Pen: What does fully laminated screen mean? Fully laminated display vs non laminated display ()
iPad’s Laminated Display Vs. Non-Laminated Display ()
Laminated vs non laminated tablet : What is a laminated display?()
13" | 169.45 | 225.94 | 338.91 |
16" | 137.68 | 183.58 | 275.36 |
22" | 100.13 | 133.51 | 200.26 |
24" | 91.79 | 122.38 | 183.58 |
27" | 81.59 | 108.79 | 163.18 |
32" | 68.84 | 91.79 | 137.68 |
Parallax = an apparent inaccuracy in pen tracking due to physical separation of the display panel from the surface the tip of the pen is touching. The apparent inaccuracy will change as the position of your eyes changes relative to the pen on tablet.
Parallax is discussed in great detail in this video (https://youtu.be/M4rEk_RNBrM)
The cause of parallax is a physical separation between the display panel and the tip of the pen. Whenever there is any distance between the two, some parallax will be introduced. The greater the separation, the greater the visual effect of the parallax.
In drawing tablets this is caused because there the glass that covers the display panel has some non-zero width.
Depending on where your eye is, the what you see the tip of the pen pointing to is different.
Compare this line of sight
To this one:
Clearly parallax makes you see different things.
Additional parallax can be introduced by:
anti glare matte films that applied on top of the glass.
protective films on top of the glass
touch senser between the glass and the display panel
The way to reduce parallax is to minimize the distance between the tip of the pen and the display panel
Here is a thick sheet of glass with lots of parallax
Compare it to a very thin sheet of glass with much less parallax
Especially in older models of pen displays and pen computers, there is an air gap between the display panel and the glass. This air gap itself is another source of parallax. Replacing the air gap so that it is replaced with an optically clear adhesive can improve the parallax.
learn more here: Lamination
It is always preferable to by a drawing tablet that has a laminated display.
The Apple iPad Pro has the best (lowest) parallax I've ever seen. I would rank it as EXCELLENT.
Parallax introduces an apparent visual inaccuracy.
Consider these two cases:
(1) A pen display that tracks the pen position perfectly. If there is any distance between the display panel and the where the tip of the pen touches the tablet (for example due to glass) then there will be some amount of parallax - an apparent inaccuracy.
(2) A pen display that does not track the pen position accurately but also has NO distance between the display panel and the pen tip. Such a pen display would have NO PARALLAX effect but clearly their will always be some real inaccuracy.
So we see that inaccuracy comes from two sources:
apparent inaccuracy from the parallax
actual inaccuracy from the tablet EMR sensor
Very often, people refer to any visual discrepancy as "parallax" but that is an incorrect usage of the term. They should only be using it when the position of their eyes in combination with the physical separation of the display panel and glass are causing the discrepancy.
Generally, users of drawing tablets do not want to see parallax.
However, some people (perhaps not many) even find parallax to be slightly beneficial. For them, they like to see where they are drawing a stroke on the display and having the pen tip be a little displaced from that position makes it easier to see that point.
These three pen displays show very good parallax. Notice that the one of the left is a $3500 pen display and two on the right are entry level $300 pen displays. All these displays are laminated/
Compare the laminated pen display on the left to the unlaminated pen display on the right. Disregard the blurry image - that is an issue with the photograph itself. Notice how far away the tip of the pen is from the tip of the point.
Sweet Monia: What is parallax? And is it really bad in a pen display like Cintiq or Kamvas?(https://sweetmonia.com/Sweet-Drawing-Blog/what-is-parallax-and-is-it-really-bad-in-a-pen-display-like-cintiq-or-kamvas/)
Drawing tablets that have an embedded display panel and those display panels have maximum typical brightness. You have been exposed to many display panels in televisions in phones and watches. Here I'd like to set your expectations about what you're going to experience in terms of brightness for drawing tablets.
Brightness is measured in cd/m2 (Candela per square meter) but that is hard to type so man people use the equivalent unit of nit.
The environment you are using the tablet in greatly affects the brightness you need. Below is my take on what you need under different conditions
Overall, display panels for drawing tablets fall in the range of 200 to 400 nits.
Many are within the range 220 to 250 nits.
Only a few are >= 300 nits.
Here is the distribution of brightness values for pen displays released on 2020 or later.
Includes only those pen displays that have been released since 2020
A few tablets (only Wacom as far as I know) have fans. And these fans help to keep their brighter displays cool. The fan noise can be disturbing for some people. For others it doesn't matter.
Sometimes the tablet needs to be connected to your computer through HDMI. This means that there's a cable coming from your tablet that has a “male” HDMI plug. And of course you then need a “female” HDMI receptacle.
“Plug” and “receptable” are the official terms, by the way 😊
However it is possible you can use another port.
Not all ports are equally good for connecting to HDMI. Some you should try first because they will give you a better experience.
If you don't have an HDMI port you should try alternative ports in the order below.
DisplayPort
USB-C (remember not all USB-C ports support sending a display signal).
DVI
VGA
These will be MALE DisplayPort to FEMALE HDMI.
Quality: There is no loss in quality when using this kind of adapter.
What I use
Quality. There is no loss in quality using this kind of adapter.
What I use
This comes in different lengths (6ft and 3ft) and different refresh rates (60Hz and 30Hz). Make sure you buy one long enough for your needs and get the 60Hz version.
These will be MALE DVI to FEMALE HDMI.
I don't have any direct experience with DVI to HDMI, but some people seem to have had success.
Note that there are multiple DCI port shapes
Videos:
Reddit threads:
VGA is a very old display technology. You should use it as a last resort.
Quality: Because VGA is analog and must be converted to a digital signal for HDMI, it is possible you might see some degradation in quality.
reddit threads:
You need to make sure your adapter supports the resolution and refresh rate that you want from you pen display.
Generally these adapters "just work". But sometimes there are odd quirks on some computers and they just don't work or not work correctly.
When working with pen displays tablets you'll encounter lots of different connector types. This is a visual map of those connectors.
the "male" end is called the plug
the "female" end is called the receptacle
Normal-sized DisplayPort connectors
Mini-DisplayPort connectors
The important thing to remember about USB-C is that it is a popular connector type, but it often not clear what a given cable or port support. For example:
Some ports and cables support power only
Some ports and cables support power + data
Some ports and cables support power + data + display signal
Some ports may not deliver as much power as you need
Some cables may not support as much power as you need
Thunderbolt 3 and 4 use the same USB-C port shape.
The important thing about thunderbolt cables and ports is that they are required to carry a display signal. So, if your USB
Thunderbolt 2 connectors use the min-DisplayPort connector type. And again by definition they can carry a display signal.
USB-A ports are not used to provide a display signal. They are being listed here as a reference so you know what they look like compared to the other USB ports.
Try to avoid using HDMI splitters if possible. If you need to use one, then understand the limitations and research before you buy one. But overall I recommend that you try the alternatives listed at the end of this document.
HDMI splitters are devices that take a single HDMI input and provide two HDMI outputs.
They can be very useful devices, but they are often misunderstood in the context of using pen displays. This doc will help clarify how and if you can use them.
Below is an example of a simple HDMI splitter. The male HDMI end goes to your computer. The two female HDMI ports are intended to connect to monitors, pen displays, etc. This splitter takes the signal from the computer and copies the two devices you have attached.
Often someone with a new pen display will need to connect it to their computer via HDMI.
In this situation they may have an HDMI port but it is already in use.
So, they wonder if an HDMI splitter can turn that 1 HDMI port into 2 HDMI ports. In a sense, that is exactly what an HDMI port does, but it may not do that in a way that is desirable.
Physically an HDMI splitter will take a single HDMI port and then provide two HDMI ports.
However, it is important to understand that whatever input the HDMI splitter gets from the computer will ALWAYS be duplicated on the two HDMI ports.
In other words, if you were expecting to show two different things on your pen display and your monitor, then an HDMI port WILL NOT BE HELPFUL. It will always duplicate the exact same image.
If duplication is what you want then an HDMI will work for you.
If you are an HDMI splitter, and you check your computer's settings you will see that it thinks only 1 display is connected. The computer has no idea that the signal is being split.
Every display device has a native resolution.
It is typically best if the display signal they receive exactly that native resolution
If you pen display and monitor have different native resolutions and yet receive the same display signal, ALWAYS something weird will happen.
You may see an image on one of your displays that is:
cropped
smaller but with correct proportions
smaller but with incorrect proportions - it will looks stretched in one dimension
flickering
etc.
Or you may not even see an image on one of them at all.
Your HDMI splitter may not support the refresh rate you want. For example, some might only work at 4K resolution up to 30Hz. Verify refresh rate support before you buy a splitter.
HDMI splitters may not support the resolution of the display signal you want to send. You may want to send a 4K signal, but your HDMI splitter may only support up to 2.5K signal.
All HDMI splitters that I know of support at least 2K resolution (1920x1080)
Sometimes displays just don't like receiving a signal from an HDMI splitter and will show you a blank screen or some other problem.
Your computer may have other ports you can use.
If you have a DisplayPort port available, you can buy a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. I use these often.
If you have a DVI port, you may be able to find an adapter that works. I don't have any experience with this.
If you have a USB-C port THAT SUPPORTS A DISPLAY SIGNAL, then you could buy a USB-C to- HDMI adapter. I have used one of these and found it to work, but it is flaky - working with some USB-C ports but not others.
There are many threads on this, some linked below - and there isn't a clear consensus. Some claim that there is no additional lag, some claim it does. Overall I haven't noticed that splitters that I have personally used have introduce any lag into the signal.
Environment | Notes |
---|---|
Brightness | Count |
---|---|
Pen Display | Brightness |
---|---|
You may want to familiarize yourself with this doc before you continue if you are not experienced connection options:
Display Port - For a 2K display at 60Hz:
Mini DisplayPort - for 2K display at 60Hz:
Not all USB-C ports carry a display signal. You need one that can. Read more here:
I've had good luck with the "Amazon Basics Premium Aluminum USB-C to HDMI Cable Adapter (Thunderbolt 3 Compatible) 4K@60Hz, 6-Foot, Black". Note that is an entire cable, not just an adapter. link:
[2020]
Other resources: -
Wikipedia:
Wikipedia:
Wikipedia:
Wikipedia:
Aug 11, 2023
Do HDMI Splitters add LAG to your games ???
indoors + dark
Low amounts of ambient light. Light conditions are not changing.
200 to 250 nits is enough
indoors + bright
Lots of ambient light. Maybe be to bright indoor lights. Maybe due to windows. If window, then brightness may change dramatically because of cloud cover.
250 to 350 nits is enough
outdoors + under shade
Overall bright environment with lots of ambient light. No direct sunlight hitting your tablet.
>=500 nits is needed
outdoors + no shade
Very bright. Sunlight hitting your tablet.
>= 1000 nits is needed
400
2
350
1
330
1
320
1
300
2
275
1
250
9
220
16
210
1
200
3
WACOM Cintiq Pro 17 (DTH-172)
400
WACOM Cintiq Pro 27 (DTH-271)
400
WACOM Movink 13 (DTH-135)
350
XENCELABS Pen Display 24 (LPH2412U-A)
330
WACOM Wacom One 13 touch GEN2 (DTH-134)
320
WACOM Cintiq Pro 16 (2021) (DTH-167)
300
HUION Kamvas Pro 27 (GT-2701)
300
WACOM Wacom One 12 GEN2 (DTC-121)
275
XPPEN Artist 22 GEN2 (CD220F)
250
XPPEN Artist 24 FHD (CD240F)
250
Some pen displays exhibit a color tint at the edges of the display. Often it is a purple or lilac color. Some devices exhibit it as a yellowish or orange color. Is NOT pixelated or rough - has very smooth look.
The tint is greatly exaggerated in these diagrams. In reality in can be very subtle.
Keep in mind the topic being discussed here is when the tint as at the edges, not when the tint is evenly distributed over the entire display.
This effect can be visible the first time you use your pen display, or it can can show up after you've been using the pen display for a long time.
Unlike backlight bleed, the tint is often visible even on a very bright or pure white background
Based on what I have read the cause due to an issue with laminated displays (see: lamination). Laminated displays have a layer of optically clear adhesive (OCA) between the glass and the display. Apparently, pressure at the edges of the display causes this effect in the OCA layer.
Overall it is uncommon. It is present in NONE of the display devices I have that are laminated.
If you want to send a display signal from your computer to a pen display via a USB-C cable, then the ports and cables need to support DP alt mode (DisplayPort Alternative Mode).
NOT ALL USB-C PORTS OR CABLES SUPPORT DP ALT MODE.
Support for DP alt mode is something you must verify for your ports and your cables. Sometimes this is not straightforward to do. You will find multiple techniques described below.
The DisplayPort symbol indicates the cable or port supports DP alt mode. Unfortunately many cables that DO support DP alt mode, do not have this logo.
The Thunderbolt symbol indicates a cable or port supports DP-alt mode.
Here is an example of two USB-C ports with the Thnderbolt symbol
Here is an example of a cable with a Thunderbolt symbol.
Unfortunately, many USB-C thunderbolt ports and cables simply do not have the thunderbolt logo on them.
If your cable or port, does not support DP alt mode, you have several remaining strategies:
Read the documentation. Look for for the words "Thunderbolt" of "DP alt mode". Sometimes the documentation will say something more ambiguous like "supports display".
Contact product support from your manufacturer. Just ask them!
Reach out to an online community and ask if anyone has been able to use that port in their tablet to receive a display signal.
You have to verify DP support for the USB-C port AND the USB-C cable. Just having one support DP alt mode is not enough.
DP alt mode has nothing to do with whether the port or cable can carry power or carry enough power. That is a separate issue.
A dead pixel does occur on some small percentage of monitors and pen displays.
I have not seen it be super common on pen displays from any manufacturer. And none of my pen displays from Wacom, Huion, or XP-Pen have any dead pixels.
It MIGHT be possible to fix a dead pixel
Usually a single dead or pixel will not be enough to qualify for a return or refund.
If you have a lot of them or a cluster of them, then you have a case for a refund.
In either case there is no harm checking to see if you can return the product.
See this video:
Dec 30, 2023
2021/12/06
2021/11/26
Aug 26, 2022
The vast majority of drawing tablet pens have two buttons.
Though some consumer Wacom models have only a single button.
A few pens have three buttons - for example a Wacom Pro Pen 3
These are the default settings for Wacom pens with two buttons.
lower button (the one closer to the nib) set to perform a mouse right-click
upper button (the one further away from the nib) set to perform a mouse left double-click
The actions taken by the buttons can be customized. Usualy to perform either a mouse action (left click, right click, a keypress, a system action, or to do nothing)
Other things people configure their buttons to do:
MOUSE DOUBLE CLICK - because same app use a double click
CTRL-Z keypress to perform UNDO
SPACE keypress - in many apps, SPACE + dragging pen will pan the drawing canvas
CTRL+SPACE keypress - in many apps, this will zoom into and out of the canvas (Krita, Photoshop, Illustrator)
NO ACTION - sometimes people accidentally press the buttons too oftern, so they set the button to do nothing.
Drawing tablets tablets are very specific about which pens they work with. Never buy a pen without verifying compatibility first. The best way to confirm compatibility is to contact support.
Usually a drawing tablet is only compatible with the exact pen model it came with
A pen from Manufacturer A will most likely not work with Tablet from manufacturer B.
A pen from Manufacturer A may not work with all tablets made by manufacturer A
Using the same technology such as "EMR" does not mean two pens are interchangeable.
Apple Pencils are only compatible with Apple iPads.
Wacom has so many tablets and and pens that compatibility can get confusing. More here: Wacom pen compatibility.
If you need to replace a pen, find out the model number that is compatible with your tablet. Then order that exact model. If you don't know the model you need, contact support for your drawing tablet.
Different pens use different resonant frequencies for their EMR signal. So pens that don't use the same frequency as the tablets expect will not be compatible
Different pens use different techniques for transmitting some kinds of information back to the tablet, and these techniques have to also be supported by the tablet to work.
This is sometimes why you can for example try using brand X pen with brand UY tablet, and the tablet might be able to sense the position of the pen, but not the button presses, or pressure.
Driver selectively excludes pens - I know of at least one case with Wacom where the pen and tablet would actually work but the Wacom driver prevents it. The way around this is to use opentabletdriver which does not have that restriction.
Huion's guide to finding compatible pens: (https://support.huion.com/en/support/solutions/articles/44002337828-how-do-i-choose-correct-pen-for-my-huion-tablet-)
Sources:
[1] Kuuube
[2] TheSevenPens
Pens vary in weight. Typically between 8g to 16g .
Here are a few examples of pen weight:
Wacom Pro Pen 2 (KP-504E) 15g
Huion PW600 15g
XP-Pen X3 Pro 10g
The vast majority of EMR pens are not designed to have their weight altered.
The only exception to this is the Wacom Pro Pen 3 which can be easily unscrewed and a custom metal rod from Wacom can be inserted to add weight to the pen.
If you do want to add weight to the pen, consider adding tape. Many osu! players add raquetball tape aorund their pens for a bettwe grip. Maybe that would add enough weight for your needs.
Pen | Weight | Source |
---|
If you want to see more pen weight data see:
Wacom Pro Pen 2 (KP-504E) | 15g | [1] |
Wacom Pro Pen (KP-503E) | 16g | [1] |
Wacom CP-913 | 11.1g | [1] |
Wacom CP-923 | 9.9g | [1] |
Wacom LP-1100K | 11g | [1] |
Wacom LP-190K | 9g | [1] |
Wacom Pro Pen 3 (with metal rod) | 13g | [3] |
Wacom Pro Pen 3 (without metal rod) | 9g | [3] |
XP-Pen X3 Pro | 10 | [3] |
Huion PW600 | 15g | [3] |
Huion PW600S | 14g | [3] |
Huion PW517 | 15g | [3] |
Samsung S Pen | 8 | [3] |
Apple Pencil GEN2 | 13 | [3] |
See this reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/XPpen/comments/1buiyvy/dismantlingteardown_of_x3_stylus_for_artist_16/
The Huion PEN80 is a VERY OLD Huion pen. It use a an active EMR pen - meaning it uses a rechargeable battery for power instead of getting power from the tablet. Again, it is very old and the newer Huion Pens like the PW517 (and other models) are passive EMR pens.
I've mentioned the Huion PEN80 my 2022 EMR video as an example of one older method in which pressure information is transmitted from the pen to the tablet. c
The nib fits into the hollow ferrite rod.
There is enough pressure in the ferrite rod such that the nib does not fall out.
The nib does not go all the way through the ferrite rod. There's about 2mm left inside the ferrite rod
The spring touches the ferrite rod.
The plastic piece fit into the the spring.
The wires from the inductor coil to the circuit board have been cut to make it easier to present
The wires from the circuit board to the rechargeable battery have been cut to make it easier to present.
Panda Tech: Huion Pen80 Disassemble & Reassemble (https://youtu.be/F3Y3uxPhVlY)
To fully use all the features of your drawing tablet, you must to install drivers in your computer.
Without tablet drivers you won't be able to:
Use tilt
Use pressure
Configure the buttons on the pen
Configure buttons on the tablet
Control which display the tablet is mapped to
Ensure that you have matching aspect ratios between your tablet and display so that you are drawing without distortion
Control the pressure curve of the pen - though you will still be able to control it in those applications that support it.
A specific version of a tablet driver tends to be compatible with a range of tablets from a specific manufacturer.
For example Wacom's windows are compatible with wide range of their tablets.
Wacom:
Huion:
XP-Pen:
Xencelabs:
In some cases it is possible to use a tablet without drivers. More here: .
Here is the for version 6.4.4-3 of the Wacom drivers.
An alternative to manufacturer-provided drivers is OpenTabletDriver ()
If you want to try OpenTabletDriver on Windows for use with creative applications, I wrote an detailed .
OpenTabletDriver (OTD) is a third-party tablet driver. "Third-party" means it is made by someone else than the tablet manufacturer.
At the OTD site: https://opentabletdriver.net/ you can find:
A list of compatibles drawing tablets
Documentation
A link to the GitHub repo
Normally, you should use your manufacturer-provided driver for your tablet. However, there are some situations where OpenTabletDriver is extremely useful or required.
Your manufacturer dropped support for your tablet model with their latest drivers. This may leave you stuck with a tablet you can't use.
Your manufacturer's drivers may be malfunctioning in some way that is beyond your control to fix.
You are trying to troubleshoot a problem and want to see if the problem is in the driver vs some other component.
To learn how to install and configur OTD on windowes, go here: Using OpenTabletDriver on Windows
OTD is open source. You can see the code on their GitHub repo: https://github.com/OpenTabletDriver/OpenTabletDriver
OTD supports 200+ tablets across many brands and many release years
OTD is actively maintained
OTD supports plug-ins that can modify its behavior
OTD runs on Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
People use OTD as their normal tablet driver for playing osu! and even when they are doing creative tasks.
OTD has a very active discord server: https://discord.gg/9bcMaPkVAR
Press WINDOWS+R to bring up the Run window
In Open, enter shell:startup
Delete the OpenTabletDriver shortcut
If OpenTabletDriver processes are running, then stop them.
You can use Task manager for stop the processes, or you can stop the processes with these two Powershell commands
Delete the folder that contains OpenTabletDriver
Navigate to the folder that contains VMulti
run uninstall_hiddriver.bat as admin
No matter where OpenTabletDriver is installed, when it is running, it will put its data into a user-specific application data folder on Windows.
The location of the folder is here in Windows: %localappdata%\OpenTabletDriver
This expands to a path that should look like:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\OpenTabletDriver
This is what my folder looks like:
It will open a window directly to that folder.
Using OTD for doing artwork is an advanced scenario. You should try only if you are confident in your technical skills or can get someone to help you.
In that list, your tablet may be marked as needing "Zadig WinUSB". If so, you will also have to install that component. I do not have any drawing tablets that require Zadig WinUSB so using Zadig WinUSB is NOT covered in this document.
The instructions cover this specific version of OTD: v0.6.3.0
These instructions are for x64 operating systems only. OTD does not support 32-bit versions of Windows.
I tested these instructions on Windows 11 64-bit (version 10.0.22621)
Uninstall any existing tablet drivers (Wacom, XP-Pen, Huion, etc.).
Uninstalling may require a restart of your system. So get this out of the way before you proceed with the next steps.
Create a folder somewhere on your computer called "OpenTabletDriver". I will use "C:\OpenTabletDriver" for the examples in this doc.
You MUST install VMulti driver if you want pressure sensitivity & tilt to work with your tablet on Windows.
Right click the zip and select Extract All.
This will create folder called VMulti.Driver.
Copy the VMulti.Driver folder to the C:\OpenTabletDriver.
Right click on install_hiddriver.bat and select Run as Administrator
NOTE: This bat file may restart your computer without warning. So, close any applications and save any docs before you run it.
OTD requires a specific version of the .NET Runtime
Right-click on OpenTabletDriver.win-x64.zip, then select Extract All
This will create a folder called OpenTabletDriver.win-x64
Copy the OpenTabletDriver.win-x64 folder to c:\OpenTabletDriver
In the OpenTabletDriver.win-x64 folder, launch OpenTabletDriver.UX.Wpf.exe
That launches the OTD app
If you see a message that .NET 6 Desktop Runtime X64 is not installed, then follow its instructions to install that runtime. Then launch OpenTabletDriver.UX.Wpf.exe. This message does not always come up, so I recommend that you install the .NET Runtime before you use OTD.
The OpenTabletDriver Guide may automatically start
Click the X in the upper right hand corner to close the guide.
You can get back to this guide at any time in OTD by navigating to Help > Show guide.
When the OTD app is running, this icon will appear in your taskbar
OTD will automatically try to detect your tablet
The tablet will be shown in the Window title at the top
To force detection click Tablets > Detect tablet
In the OTD app, navigate to Plugins > Open Plugin Manager
Click on the Windows Ink plugin , then click Install
The Windows Ink plugin will appear at the top of the plugin list
Close the Plugin Manager window
In the OTD App, go to Output > Tablet Section
In Output > Display, right-click anywhere and pick Set to Display <displayname> where <displayname> is specific display you want to use with the tablet.
In Output > Tablet, right click anywhere, and then select Lock Aspect Ratio.
In the OTD app, on the bottom change to mode dropdown from Absolute Mode to Windows Ink Absolute Mode
NOTE: You will only see Windows Ink Absolute Mode listed if you previously enabled the Windows Ink plugin.
In the OTD app, navigate to the Pen Settings tab
To summarize, you'll want your Pen Settings to look like this:
At the bottom of the OTD app, click Apply.
In the Auxiliary Settings tab, each button shows up as an Auxiliary Binding.
In the screenshot above, one of the buttons has been set to match the "e" key.
Click Save at the bottom
Click Apply at the bottom
You don't have to keep the OTD app visible all the time, you can minimize the app at any time
If you need to open OTD app again, you can find it in the taskbar
The specific instructions vary per app.
Right-click on OpenTabletDriver.UX.Wpf.exe
Select Create Shortcut
Right click on the shortcut, then select Properties
Under Run, select Minimized
Click OK
Press WINDOWS+R to bring up the Run window
In Open, type shell:startup
This will open a new Explorer window pointing to a folder called Startup
Move the shortcut to the Startup folder in that explorer window
By default OTD performs no smoothing on the pen data. This is desirable because
it gives you a VERY responsive drawing experience
Gives you complete control about the smoothing
To add smoothing back in to your drawing, your first and easiest option is to use the smoothing features in your drawing application.
This document is for creative users are interested in using OpenTabletDriver on Windows and want to use pen features such as pressure sensitivity, tilt, etc. If you don't know much about OpenTabletDriver, read this introduction first: . You should also familiarize yourself with these .
What follows are the detailed steps I use to install OTD on Windows. This document does not replace the official OTD documentation ().
Although OTD supports many (200+) tablets but not all of them. Consult the complete list here:
To be absolutely sure you have completely removed the drivers follow use the (this tool is for Windows only)
Download VMulti.Driver.zip from:
You can directly download and installed the version of .NET Runtime needed by downloading it from this link:
Download and put it in your Documents folder
Setting | Value |
---|
Instructions for specific apps:
By default OTD does not use a pressure curve to modify how the pressure data is interpreted. However, you can edit the pressure curve by following these instructions:
Learn more here:
More here:
See the instructions here:
r/huion - 2023/11/07
Tip Settings >Tip Binding | Type -> Windows Ink Button -> Pen Tip |
Pen Buttons > Pen Binding 1 | Type -> Windows Ink, Button -> Pen Button |
Pen Buttons > Pen Binding 2 | Type -> Windows Ink Button -> Pen Button |
Eraser Settings > Eraser Bindings | Type -> Windows Ink Button -> Pen Tip |
If you need help, join the OpenTabletDriver Discord server: https://opentabletdriver.net/Discord
DO ask questions in the #support-windows
channel
DO NOT ask for support via DMs.
Your tablet manufacturer WILL NOT help or support you in any way when you are using OpenTabletDriver instead of their own drivers.
OTD does NOT support touch input.
OTD does NOT support tablet rotary dials.
OTD does NOT support pen barrel rotation.
OTD does NOT support wireless or bluetooth connections.
OTD does NOT support per-application configuration. All OTD settings are system-wide.
DO NOT run OTD as administrator.
OTD will not work correctly if you do.
There are two Pen APIs in the Windows ecosystem: WinTab which is older, and Windows Ink which is newer.
OTD only supports Windows Ink so any apps you want to use it with must also support Windows Ink.
Most creative apps support Windows Ink - Clip Studio Paint, Krita, Photoshop.
If you want pressure sensitivity, tilt, etc. - you must you MUST configure OTD to use Windows Ink and configure your apps to also use Windows Ink.
By default, OTD has no restriction on the hover height of your pen. Most drivers impose an artificial limit of about 10mm for a pen. But you'll often find with OTD that the hover height is increased substantially.
The maximum hover height is dependent on the specific model of tablet involved. For example with a Wacom Intuos Pro (PTH-860) my hover height goes from 10mm with the Wacom Driver to 20mm with Open Tablet driver.
You can install a plug-in to control the hover height and have whatever limit you want.
OTD stores information in its application data directory
More here: OpenTabletDriver application data directory
If you are doing more advanced things with OTD you should be familiar with this folder.
OpenTabletDriver lets you configure the pressure curve via plug-ins.
In the Filters tab, enable Slimy Scylla Pressure Curve
This is what the configuration looks like:
To enable the filter, click Enable Smily Scylla and click Apply.
Remember once you make changes to the settings, always click Apply in OTD
OpenTabletDriver lets you configure smoothing via plug-ins.
There are several filters that involve smoothing the position of the pen.
Position Smoothing Moving Average
Position Smoothing Pulled String
Position Smoothing Exponential Moving Average
The one I recommend using is Position Smoothing Exponental Moving Average
This is what the configuration looks like:
If you want to enable the filter, click Enable Smily Scylla ... at the top and click Apply.
Amount = how much smoothing (range 0.0 to 1.0). Try 0.1 to start with
Always Apply to Hover = to leave this unchecked.
Instructions for installing Slimy Scylla are here:
The settings here will let you configure the pressure curve. Unfortunately, there is no interactive view of the pressure curve inside the OTD UX. However, you can use the demos tool to play with the settings interactively and see the pressure curve
Instructions for installing Slimy Scylla are here:
here:
Slimy Scylla is created by tablet enthusiast Kuuube.
It is extremely powerful and configurable.
It features many amazing filters:
Launch the OpenTableDriver UI
Navigate to Plugins > Open Plugin Manager
The plugin manager will look like this
Click on Slimy Scylla in the list on the left.
Then click Install.
Close the plugin manager
In the OpenTabletDriver app, click on Filters
If Slimy Scylla is installed you will see many filters with names that start with "Slimy Scylla"
If you want to use a filter make sure to enable it and to press SAVE.
There are several filters that involve smoothing the position of the pen.
Position Smoothing Moving Average
Position Smoothing Pulled String
Position Smoothing Exponential Moving Average
The one I recommend using is Position Smoothing Exponental Moving Average
This is what the configuration looks like:
If you want to enable the filter, click Enable Smily Scylla ... at the top and click Apply.
Amount = how much smoothing (range 0.0 to 1.0). Try 0.1 to start with
Always Apply to Hover = to leave this unchecked.
Slimy Scylla docs here: https://github.com/Kuuuube/Slimy_Scylla/tree/main/docs
In some cases, you can use a drawing tablet without installing a driver.
This is highly dependent on:
The operating system - Some operating systems MAY come with built-in drivers for tablets (though these are limited in features)
The specific tablet model - Some tablets REQUIRE a driver to be installed
Also, in this case it may be that not all tablet features are available.
A common reason why people are interested in using a tablet without installing a driver is simply that they are not allowed to install a driver in their situation.
This is very common in educational environments. IT departments often "lock down" their computers. This prevents a normal users such as instructors and students from installing ANY software. Unfortunately, convincing IT to change their software installation policy is incredibly difficult. Also, often the IT department is even unwilling to pre-install the drivers on those machines.
If you have a Windows computer with no driver installed, and then you attach a tablet. One of two things will happen:
The tablet will work. In Windows this is due to Windows PNP (Plug and Play) support for tablets. Keep in mind that Windows PNP support for tablets does NOT have all the features that a typical tablet driver would provide. See: Windows PNP support for drawing tablets.
The tablet will not work at all. Some tablets are designed to deliberately NOT work without drivers installed. A great example is the Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860). Plugging it into a Windows computer achieves nothing. doesn't enable you to use
If you can't install a driver, another option is OpenTabletDriver.
Is a special kind of driver. It's called a "user mode" driver. A normal tablet driver has to be installed. The driver components have to be placed in a specific location and affect how the operating system works. But OTD isn't "installed" at all. It's just a program you run. You can copy the OTD executable files to your machine and start it. While OTD is running, a connected tablet will work.
What OTD provides by default:
Moving the pen moves the pointer
Clicking and drawing
What OTD does NOT provide by default:
pressure
tilt
If you want those pressure and tilt, you have to install an additional component called VMulti that OTD can work with. Unfortunately, VMulti actually has to be installed in the traditional sense - it is not a "user mode" component. And your IT setup may prevent you from installing it.
If you are interested in using OTD as your tablet driver on Windows and want to use features like pressure and tilt, I wrote a detailed step-by-step guide to help you: Install OpenTabletDriver on Windows
You can bind the pen buttons to several kinds of actions:
Mouse Button Binding is not supported
Key Binding is supported
Multi-Key Bindings is supported
Windows Ink Bindings are supported
For Windows Ink here are the options:
If you specify Pen Button, the effective behavior you will get in an application is a mouse right-click.
I haven't tested a Mac for this yet.
Unfortunately I do not know of an equivalent tool for MacOS. But on the other hand, I don't see that it is needed on MacOS.
Navigate to Add/Remove programs and uninstall your existing tablet drivers.
Note that you may be required to restart your computer.
If Step 1 did not require a restart of your computer, then restart your computer now.
Extract all contents of the zip file to any location
Right-click on TabletDriverCleanup.exe
and click Run as administrator
The cleanup tool will open a terminal window and show the results of its cleaning. In the example below it did not find any leftover driver components to uninstall.
On Windows, manufacturer tablet drivers sometimes uninstalling a manufacturer tablet isn't enough. Occasionally the drivers leave bits of themselves around. The TableDriverCleanup tool created by user can help remove these leftover bits.
If you want to see the source code to understand exactly what it does then go here:
Download
Manufacturers usually keep all the old versions of their tablet drivers on their website. If you can't find the driver you need you can always contact customer support and they should be able to help you find it for you.
You may run into problems using an older version of a tablet driver.
A common issue is that the operating system has changed since the driver was first created and applications have also changed in that time. So if you have an older driver you may have difficulty using some features. For example a very new version of Photoshop combined with an older version of the Wacom driver can create a situation where buttons on the pen do not work. The issues you will run into are highly dependent on the specific version of the operating system and the specific version of the application.
Consider OpenTabletDriver
Some brands (Huion and XP-Pen) and maybe let you export and import driver configurations. This has some great benefits:
You can backup the settings that work well for you and restore them later
You can configure a tablet on one computer and import that configuration on another computer.
Click on the gear icon in the upper right. You will see a New Backup button for exporting, and a Import backup button.
In the Huion driver, click on the gear icon, then navigate to the Backup tab. You will see Export and Import buttons
In the XP-pen driver, click on the gear icon. You will see Export config and Import config buttons.
The brains of your tablet is in the firmware. Firmware is a special kind of computer software that is stored on your device. More from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firmware.
Generally speaking you can avoid thinking about firmware.
However. every now and then you may need to upgrade the firmware in your tablet.
The process of upgrading the firmware is usually very simple for a drawing tablet. You open the driver application and there's usually some button to indicate that you can upgrade the firmware or to check if there's a new firmware version available.
Updating the firmware is unlikely to damage your tablet in any fundamental way. However the firmware can change the behavior of the tablet. For example it might change how responsive the pen is because it might add or remove position smoothing.
In a general sense it's best to have the latest versions of the firmware. However I think that unless there is a specific problem you're having you should avoid upgrading the firmware.
If you are considering installing firmware to fix a problem please make sure you have contacted support first. They may have specific versions of firmware they want you to use. They may want you to try a different firmware version to test something out. And certainly they may know that certain firmware should not be installed.
Somewhere between 100 to 250 times a second, your tablet sends a "package" of data to your computer. This package is called a "tablet report" or just "report". The tablet driver, operating, and application may modify that data. And of course a drawing application uses that data to draw a stroke.
You can see this often in the specifications for a tablet as "report rate". Here is an example.
"RPS" means "Reports per second"
Because this is a value per second in some literature you might see the unit Hz being used. So for example instead of "200 RPS" you might see "200hz".
The exact format of the data varies dpeending on the tablet. But conceptually the report will include data like this:
The x,y position of the pen
The pressure reading. 0 = no pressure or some positive integer if there is pressure
The tilt - composed of two values: x tilt and y tilt
The button press status
The report contains other interesting things, but these are the critical ones for drawing strokes.
This site () is sample app that shows how a web page can interact with a drawing tablet. It is also a good way to easily diagnose some tablet or pen problems.
Source code for pen-tracker is here:
-
Depending on the kind of drawing tablet you have you, you will have a very different body posture.
To quickly summarize:
With a pen tablet, your back will naturally have a more vertical posture
With a pen display, your will be hunched over a little or a lot.
With a standalone tablet, you will also be often hunched over.
When using the pen tablet on a desk...
The pen tablet will be laying typically flat on the desk - so it is parallel to the desk.
Your posture will be as follows
Your back will be vertical
Your head will be looking straight ahead at your monitor
Your eyes will be pointed straight ahead at your monitor
One hand will be holding the pen on the tablet
The other hand will usually be on the desk, often placed on or hear the keyboard to press shortcut keys
When using a pen display on a desk..
The pen display will mostly be at an angle to the desk and not flat because people:
Tilt the tablet using legs that come with the tablet
Tilt the tablet to varying degrees using a stand. Some tablets come with a stand and some are bought separately
Tilt the tablet using a monitor arm
Your posture will be as follows:
Your back will be leaning in toward the tablet
Your head will be angles down a bit towards at the tablet screen - how much you look down depends on on the tilt you have of the tablet.
Your eyes will be likely be looking down a little bit
One hand will be holding the pen on the tablet
The other hand will usually be on the desk, often placed on or hear the keyboard to press shortcut keys
Most people report that using a pen tablet gives them a better posture.
Even people who prefer to use pen displays typically have to be conscious of their posture and take breaks, stretch, etc.
Be aware MANY people find the posture of a pen display to be very difficult to deal with. I've seen many people buy a pen display and the return it and switch to a pen tablet because of this reason.
For some people the posture of a pen display is VERY uncomfortablet and can cause real pain.
Here is an example:
You likely prefer to use a pen with your right hand or your left hand.
The good news is that drawing tablets are designed to work equally well for both cases. And sometimes, you don't even need to do anything at all - it will "just work"
A tablet with NO buttons is symmetric across its vertical axis - on on other words the left side and the right side have no difference. Out-of-the-box these tables work for left-handed or right-handed people
If the buttons are symmetric from left-to-right - for example if the buttons are on top, then also this kind of tablet automatically works for left-handed and right-handed people.
If a tablet has buttons on a side, it is almost alwasy the left side. This means a right-handed person can use the tablet easily. But a left handed person must rotate the tablet if they want to avoid accidentally hitting the buttons. Alternatively they could disable the buttons in the driver so that the buttons are inactive.
By default, drawing tablets are configured for landscape orientation. However all drawing tablets can be configured to handle portrait orientation also. This applies to both pen tablets and pen displays.
This is done via a "rotation". You will at least need to make a change in the tablet driver. And if you are using a pen display, also in the display settings of your computer's operating system. This rotation configuration instructions are here: Rotating a drawing tablet
For various reasons you may want to rotate your tablet to use it in a different orientation.
Most drawing tablets support these rotations:
Some support all four orientations
Some only support two orientations
Some support only a single orientation
Configure the driver app to perform the rotation
If you have a pen display
ensure you are extending the desktop to the pen display, not duplicating it
In the system's display settings, rotate the the the desktop on the pen display
Physically rotate the tablet
You can perform these steps in any order.
Here is a demonstration of how to rotate a pen display: https://youtu.be/_OkANovOxBQ
Note that not all Wacom tablets have an Orientation option.
This is something that might work for you. I have tried it but, it was not a great experience.
Because it it is unsteady in the lap, you might drop your tablet on the floor.
If you are using a pen tablet, it probably won't damage the pen tablet.
If you are using a pen display, it's even more dangerous because if it falls from your lap your pen display is very likely to be damaged.
For a pen tablet your eyes will be looking at a monitor and not at your tablet. This is the same when the tablet is on a desk or in your lap.
For a pen display your eyes will be looking at pen display. Even when the pen display is on a desk, this might cause some neck or back strain. When the pen display is on your lap, you'll be looking at more of an angle and that might cause even more strain.
I found it slightly awkward to keep one hand on the tablet and another up on the desk to use the keyboard - I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts when I draw.
When the tablet is on my desk this is easy.
When the tablet was on my lap it was very awkward to move between drawing and typing because my hand had to travel too far.
Something like this may help
Overall drawing tablets are very quiet devices. Many are silent. This document will explain the sources of potential noise
Pen tablets - drawing tablets without a screen - are completely silent. Nothing in them makes noise.
Pen displays - drawing tablets with a screen - are silent or not depending on the model. For example, many of them have no fans - so they are also silent. Occasionally some of them do have fans - and those will produce an audible fan noise. The amount depends on the specific model.
When you drag the pen on the surface of a drawing tablet, there is a little bit of friction. Depending on the pen nib material and the surface material and texture you might hear the pen move on the surface.
For pen tablets - It sounds often like a pencil scratching on paper.
For pen displays - these don't produce much/any sound when the pen moves on them.
For various reasons people sometimes want to use their drawing tablet in bed.
It is possible, but you should be aware of some of the complications. Generally I recommend people use an iPad.
I tried using a Wacom One (13") and a Huion Kamvas Pro 16 Plus 4k in bed and overall it was super cumbersome and a little risky.
A 16" pen display is just too big when lying on my stomach - my face was close enough to the screen that it made seeing and reaching the corners awkward. When I sat up it worked better. However, while I found the drawing experience nice, I didn't feel comfortable managing something that large and always felt it was going to slip from my grasp.
I ended up with a big mess of wires connecting to power, my laptop, and the tablet. It made for a precarious situation where I was afraid that something would happen and send my laptop or tablet crashing to the floor
With a laptop and pen display it was just difficult to do many things because of the need to reach for the laptop's keyboard. If the tablet has buttons that helps, but it turns out that there's lots of things I still needed to use the keyboard for. For example, to switch apps, or launch a program, or change the volume.
These pen displays don't have touch, so that's another inconvenience.
My laptop wasn't enough to power the 16" pen display. So I had to power it from the wall. I think my laptop could power the Wacom One - but then it significantly drained the battery.
Cabling. For these displays I had to use a their included 3-in-1 cables. Which meant that I could not directly connect them to my Surface Pro 8 which did not have the ports needed. So I had to use a Surface dock to provide a USB A port for data, a USB A port for power, and a mini DisplayPort that I used with an adapter to provide an HDMI port.
It was much easier using my iPad since the apps and applications (like Procreate) were optimized to be used without a keyboard. Power, touch, size - it all worked better with the iPad.
Pen tablets stay at ambient room temperature. They do not get hot or even warm.
If your pen tablet or its cabling gets noticeably warm or hot. Disconnect it and contact support immediately.
Pen displays either stay at room temperature or get very slightly warm - maybe close to human body temperature.
If your pen display or its cabling gets noticeably warm or hot. Disconnect it and contact support immediately.
These are essentially laptops. So they in theory can get warmer than pen tablets and pen displays which is normal for laptops. But your experience may vary depending on what you are doing.
Only a very small number of drawing tablets are touch sensitive.
Here is list all the tablets I know of that support touch.
In my opinion, no drawing tablet offers a great touch experience. Some are truly terrible. Even the ones with the best touch support are NOT comparable to a laptop trackpad or an iPad which are much better.
If you do have a tablet that supports touch, it will work MUCH better on Windows. Windows has had deep touch support for a very long time.
MacOS does not have as good support for touch.
Note that some tablets only have touch support on Windows but have no touch support on MacOS at all.
Again, in neither case does touch come close to what you would experience with an iPad. One area where the iPad is clearly better is palm rejection.
All tablets that have touch allow a user to disable touch support
Some tablets have a physical switch to enable and disable touch.
Drivers also tend to allow you to disable touch
Because a drawing tablet with touch may not reject the palm as well as an iPad, consider using a drawing glove. They can help substantially with palm rejection. I've noticed though that some gloves seem to bve better than others. More here: Drawing gloves.
The very first thing I do with my tablets that support touch is disable the touch feature.
There will be outliers and of course I don't have anything but anecdotal data, but my sense of it is that most users of tablets disable the touch support.
The recent Cintiq Pro 16 and 27 models from Wacom introduced in 2021 , 2022, and 2023 have much better touch than older Wacom models, but it is not as good as what you would get from an iPad.
r/wacom - Touch or No Touch? 2021/12/10
Pen tablet | Pen display |
---|---|
Wacom Intuos Pro Small (PTH-460)
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium (PTH-660)
Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860)
Wacom Intuos Pro Small (PTH-451)
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium (PTH-651)
Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTH-851)
Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 (DTK-167)
Wacom Cintiq Pro 17 (DTH-172)
Wacom Cintiq Pro 22 (DTH-227)
Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 Touch (DTH2420)
Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 (DTK-271)
Wacom One 13 touch GEN2 (DTH-134)
Wacom Movink 13 (DTH-135) XP-Pen Artist Pro 16TP (MD160U) Huion Kamvas Pro 19 (GT1902) Huion Kamvas Pro 27 (GT2701)
How much it really costs to own a drawing tablet
The cost of the drawing tablet is often the only cost people consider. However, that is only the most obvious cost, and I suggest everyone get familiar with all the other costs. The sum of all these other costs is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
All costs below are rough estimates.
Costs of tablets vary significantly based on brand, audience (pro vs non-pro), quality, size etc,
Pen tablets - from about $50 to $250
Pen displays - $250 to $3500
Pen computers - $2500 to $3500
Mobile computers with pen support - $250 to $1200
New tablets usually come with the cables the need. However you may need to purchase cables if you bought your tablet used, or you lose your cables, or you damage your cables.
Pen tablet cabling - costs not much to replace. $10
Pen display cabling - These cabling options are more complex because they have to account for a decent amount of power and bandwidth for the display signal. $30 - $50.
These are useful for cases when you want to prevent skin oil from collecting on your tablet and also very useful if your tablet supports touch because they can help aid in palm rejection. $10
Pens are a big contributor to TCO. Even though pens come with a tablet, you have to consider their cost. Pens are very easily lost and very easily damaged. Replacement costs vary significantly. At the high end, Wacom's professional pens cost more than some tablets. $30 - $140.
These are popular for keeping tablets - usually pen displays at an angle. $30 to $70
Instead of a stand, some people prefer keeping their pen displays on a monitor arm so that they can switch between using them like a monitor and a tablet. $70 to $300
TBD
TBD
When purchasing or discussing drawing tablets you should never rely on the name alone. You should always make sure which model number you're talking about.
The naming of drawing tablets is simply too confusing.
The names can be confusingly similar.
The same name might be used for different versions in different years
The names meaning might have changed over the years.
All these issues can cause people to purchase the wrong tablet or purchase the wrong accessories for the tablet.
Currently this describes 5 different tablets of different kinds and manufacturer in different years and of different levels of quality.
Wacom One GEN1 (DTC-133) - a pen display released in 2019
Wacom One 12 GEN2 (DTC-121) - a pen display released in 2023 (I don't recommend this tablet)
Wacom One 13 touch GEN2 (DTH-134) - a pen display released in 2023 (I don't recommend this tablet)
Wacom One S GEN2 (CTC-4110WL) - a pen tablet released in 2023 (I HIGHLY don't recommend this tablet)
Wacom One M GEN2 (CTC-6110WL) - a pen tablet released in 2023 (I HIGHLY don't recommend this tablet)
Wacom One - any one of 5 higher-end consumer tablets (3 pen displays and 2 pen tablets)
One by Wacom - two low-end consumer tablets. Don't let "low-end" fool you. These are excellent tablets.
These tablets names differ by where the word "Pro" is in their name. One has it in the middle and one has it a the end.
Artist Pro 16 (ID160F-E) (product page)
Artist 16 Pro (doesn't have a model number) (product page)
If you see an "Intuos Pro Medium" you have to verify whether it is a PTH-660 or PTH-850. The same goes for the small and large sizes.
Between the PTH-x60 and PTH-x651 there are differnces in
What kind of USB port the have
Which pen they come with
Which pens they are compatible with
Huion Kamvas 22 Plus (GS2202)
XP-Pen Artist 22 Plus (MD220FH)
Originally:
"Intuos" designated Wacom's professional line of pen tablets.
"Baboo" identified their consumer line
But Wacom at some point switched to:
"Intuos Pro" designated their professional line
"Intuos" identified their consumer line
You will occasionally see a products marketed as:
Foobar tablet
Foobar tablet PRO
It is tempting to believe that the PRO version must be better.
This is sometimes NOT the case.
Sometimes PRO versions were released some years before the non-PRO versions and the technology of the non-PRO versions has surpassed that of the PRO models.
If you can't find the model number for a tablet, I don't suggest you get it.
If the manufacturer doesn't have a model number listed this typically indicates a very old and discontinued model
Not having a model number will make it more difficult for you get help from others. because, they may not be sure which tablet you are referring to.
Of course, model numbers are sometimes hard to read, mysterious, and people may not be familiar with them.
So, I suggest if you need to discuss a tablet use "Model name (Model number)" when talking about them. This keeps the reference to the tablet easy to use, and still makes it easy for people who are familiar with the model numbers to know which tablet you are talking about.
For example:
Wacom Intuos Pro Large (PTH-860)
Huion Kamvas Pro 19 (GT1902)
XP-Pen Artist Pro 16 GEN2 (MD160QH)
One of the most important pieces of information you need to collect if you need help with your drawing tablet is its model number. Knowing it will accelerate discussions with support and with community members who are trying to help you.
One reason it is very useful is that tablet are sometimes often similarly named, and sometimes they have the same name but come from different generations from different years. Having the model number removed ambiguity about which tablet is being discussed.
Usually the model number is printed on the back of the tablet.
In some tablets the model number is printed, but in a more hidden location. For example, some tablets might show it hidden under a leg or behind some removable panel.
Occasionally, you may find that the model number has been worn off the tablet. In this case, you'll have to try other options.
Here's an example from the packaging of the XP-Pen Deco LW
If you have installed compatible tablet drivers for your drawing tablet usually there's some place where the drivers will tell you the exact model number.
This will typically we found in some kind of diagnostic tool in the tablet driver UI.
Here are some examples:
Click About > Diagnose
When you select a tablet you will see it right on the home page for that tablet.
As of 2024/02/27 the driver app does not provide any way to see the model number, only the name.
As of 2024/02/27 the driver app does not provide any way to see the model number, only the name.
If you got your tablet inside its original packaging, the model number may be printed somewhere.
Here's an example from the packaging of the Huion Inspiroy 2 L.
If you have the original documentation that came with the tablet, it might also contain the model number.
Sometimes you don't have the driver and you don't see the model number so you're going to have to go just by the way the device looks.
And for this you need the help of either customer support from your drawing tablet manufacturer or you need help from the community.
In either case what you can do here is take some pictures of the tablet: front, back, sides that have ports, etcetera. Any photos that show distinguishing characteristics can be useful.
Make sure to get some clear lighting on the tablet because many tablets are black plastic or dark Gray plastic and so it can be really difficult to make out visuals.
Name | Model ID | Year |
---|---|---|
Intuos Pro Large
PTH-860
2017
Intuos Pro Large
PTH-851
2013
Intuos Pro Medium
PTH-660
2017
Intuos Pro Medium
PTH-651
2013
Intuos Pro Small
PTH-460
2019
Intuos Pro Small
PTH-451
2013
Most often people use tablets that have been very recently manufactured - in just the past few years. However, sometimes people ask about using tablets that are older. In summary, the primary issue that determines whether you can use an older tablet comes down to tablet drivers.
As of 2023 I have used tablets that were manufactured 25 years ago on my windows 11 system. So it is certainly possible to use an older tablet with a modern computer for creative purposes and was able to use pressure and tilt.
Models I have specifically used with Windows 11:
Wacom Intuos 4 XL (PTK-1240) - using Wacom drivers and OpenTabletDriver. This tablet was released in 2009.
Wacom Intuos 3 12x12 (PTZ-1230) - using OpenTabletDriver. This tablet was released in 2004.
Wacom Intuos 2 12x18 (XD-1218-U) - Using OpenTabletDriver. This tablet was released in 2001.
They bought the tablet a long time ago but haven't used it recently.
It was a tablet that was gifted to them
They bought the tablet used - for example from eBay (more here: buying used drawing tablets)
Drivers allow a tablet to be used with a computer. They are required if you want to use the special features of a drawing tablet and the pen such as pressure sensitivity and tilt. More here: drivers
Every time a driver is updated it may be the case that a manufacturer drops support for one of the tablets that the driver used to support.
For example today, if you install the latest Wacom tablet drivers and then proceed to plug in a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet, the driver will simply tell you it does not work with this tablet.
if the latest drivers do not work with the tablet that you have, then you have two options:
Use OpenTabletDriver
These days all drawing tablets have ports so the tablet is separate from cables and those ports are almost always now USB-C ports.
Some older tablets - for example the Wacom Intuos 4 XL - have permanently attached USB cables.If
Some older pen tablets that have ports, do not use USB-C ports, but instead micro-USB or occasionally mini-USB.
Some older pen displays use proprietary ports and connectors.
Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) can occur between your tablet and other devices. Devices could include cell phones or keyboards. It doesn't even really have to be a device- sometimes ordinary non electronic objects have magnets inside of them that can interfere with a tablet.
EMI can make the pen have jerky movements - making the pen unresponsive for a few tenths of a second and then the pointer will catch up.
Sometimes it is the tablet that is interfering with another device.
Examples:
A wireless mouse might have trouble working near some tablets.
A tablet might interfere with your WiFi network connection
Weird things can happen! I have a keyboard, that when I unplug its USB-C cable will act like a pen and control the position of the pointer on one of my tablets!
There are computer desks that are made of metal and deliberately magnetized. These can interfere with your drawing tablet. See:
Sometimes the EMI takes the form of a region that warps straight lines. Below is an example of such a warping caused by a magnet. This this case it was a magnet attacked to a stand underneath the tablet. ()
EMI interference can also present as a region where pen seems unable to make a mark. Notice that some warping is also present. In this case, the causes was that the tablet was resting upon a laptop keyboard. Note that there is also some warping of the pen position. ()
See:
With the popularity of iPads and iPhones, it's natural that people ask if they can use a drawing table with their Apple Device.
The summary is:
You can use a pen tablet (screenless tablet) with an iPad or iPhone only under very specific conditions - with specific apps and specific tablets.
There is currently no way to use a pen display (screen tablet) with an iPad or iPhone.
Ibis Paint (https://ibispaint.com/) supports connecting a drawing tablet to an iOS device
ONLY via Bluetooth. Wired connection is NOT supported.
ONLY specific tablets models.
Read more about Ibis Paint and pen tablet at these links:
HiPaint supports connecting a drawing tablet to an iOS device
ONLY via Bluetooth. Wired connection is NOT supported.
It is unclear which tablets are supported or not supported. I tested it with a Huion Inspiroy Frego M (L610)
There are instructions in the HiPaint user manual explaining how to connect to a tablet.
https://www.aige-hipaint.com/support/manual/en-us
Wacom specifically calls out that their Intuos models do not work with iPhones or iPads in this document: Wacom - Does the Wacom Intuos pen tablet work with an iPhone or iPad?
Currently I don't know of any way to use a pen display with an iPad.
For example, if you connect a Wacom Cintiq Pro 22 to an M4 iPad here is what happens:
The iPad will treat the pen display just like a normal monitor
Using the pen on the pen display does nothing
Even though this pen display supports touch, if you put your fingers on it nothing happens.
Depending on the android device you have and the specific tablet you may be able to use your android device with your drawing tablet. Overall though, there will be limitations - and some very severe ones - and you should be aware of them before trying to use a tablet with an android device.
Do not assume a drawing tablet works with an android device. Check with the tablet manufacturer before trying this.
With a pen tablet, your android device will be able to provide enough power for the tablet.
With a pen display, your android device may NOT be able to provide enough power. You may need to get additional power from an adapter. Even if the android device can provide more power, be aware that the pen display reduce your battery life.
Mapping
A pen tablet may not be able to map the active area as you would intuitively expect to your android device. With some tablets only a portion of the tablet's active area will be usable for drawing when connected to an android device.
Proportional drawing and lack of it
The mapping may (likely) be non-proportional and create a distortion. This means that tracing out a circle on the pen tablet may result in an oval on the android device.
With a PC, to use your tablet you normally install drivers provided by the manufacturers.
But for Android devices, you don't install any drivers (and manufacturers don't provide any Android drivers). Instead, you will rely on the built-in support in your android device.
While this seems like a good thing, it also means you cannot configure the tablet or take advantage of some specific features.
Because there is no manufacturer driver on an android device, there is no way to control what the buttons or dials on the tablet do. They are inactive when using an android tablet.
Because there is no manufacturer driver, there is no way to control what the pressure curve within the driver.
You will have to rely on the pressure curve control in your applications - if it has them.
For a list of applications that work on Android go here: Applications.
Bluetooth. I don't know if this will work. I haven't ever tried.
Your android device must have a USB-C port that supports DP alt mode. Not all Android device support have such USB-C ports.
The USB-C cable you use to connect the tablet to the android device must be capable of transmitting a display signal.
Setup 1: Huion Kamvas 13 + Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
The following setup below worked for me.
For this setup, I used a Microsoft Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock
Samsung S8 Ultra connected to the dock via the dock's attached Thunderbolt 3 cable
Huion Kamvas top USB-C port connected with Huion 3-in-1 cable:
3-in-1 cable red USB-A end (for power) connected to dock.
3-in-1 cable black USB-A end (for data ) connected to dock.
3-in-1 cable HDMI end not connected
Huion Kamvas 13 lower USB-C port connected to the USB-C port on dock using a Thunderbolt 3 cable.
Step 2: Samsung Galaxy S9 FE
Samsung Galaxy S9 FE does not work with an external monitor. Because of this, I was unable to get it to work a pen display.
General
Pen tablets
Wacom - Wacom Center for Android app 2023/08/10
ibisPaint - I connected a Wacom pen tablet to my smartphone [Wacom Intuos] 2019/10/04
Pen displays
Pen tablets and pen displays can be used with Chromebooks. But be aware of the limitations.
You MUST verify compatibility with your tablet manufacturer. Not all tablets work with Chromebooks. Only some do. I suggest you also seek out the opinion of other users of your tablet model and see what their experience has been with Chromebooks.
Tablets work with the built-in drivers in the Chromebooks not the manufacturer drivers. This means that some features of your tablet and pen may not work with a Chromebook.
With pen tablets you will not be force the active area to match the display of the Chromebook. This means there will be a distortion to your drawing. More here: Matching aspect ratios.
Wacom - Connect Wacom One with Chromebook 1 2021/11/11
Brad Colbow - Can you Draw On A Chromebook? (Testing One by Wacom and XP-Pen Deco) 2021/02/22
Even without a drawing tablet attached, SOME Chromebooks work with a stylus on their screen.
Chrome Unboxed - Better pen experiences are coming soon to Chromebook tablets 2023/05/04 - NOTE: this video is speculation.
Tablet Pro - The Best Stylus for Chromebooks: A Game-Changer for Artists and Designers - Introducing USI 2.0 2023/06/17