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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
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. Drawing tablets vary wildly with how rough their texture is.
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 can sound like like a pencil scratching on paper. Also it can be very quiet. The nib material makes often makes a big different. Felt nibs can cause more noise than plastic nibs.
For pen displays - these don't produce much/any sound when the pen moves on them because the surface of a pen display is only slightly textured.
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.
You may find that the amount of heat is correlated to the brightness setting.
You may find that the heat is localized in certain regions on the tablet. This is normal for pen displays.
If your pen display or its cabling gets very 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.
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:
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.
Something like this may help https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-lap-desk/
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.
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.
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.