Apr 30, 2018 - We feature the best Wacom graphics tablet for artists, designers. Windows or Mac OS, connecting a graphics tablet to your desktop.
Jump straight to the section you want with these quick links: -Drawing tablets have come a long way in recent years. Gone are the days where the only game in town was a Wacom Intuos. Now, there are options to suit all budgets – from powerful, feature-packed pen displays with high-resolution touchscreens, to mid-range and cheap drawing tablets that balance price with power. Right now, the very best drawing tablet you can buy is the Wacom Cintiq 22HD touch pen display, however it also has serious competition in the form of Apple’s latest iPad Pro 12.9, released in November 2018 and boasting some serious processing power.
Of course, both of these tablets involve a significant cash outlay, so if you’re on a stricter budget then it’s worth looking at some of the more wallet-friendly options out there such as the Huion H430P. Ultimately though, determining the right drawing tablet for you is going to depend entirely on how you intend to use it. (Scroll down to see our full list of recommendations.
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If you're new to drawing tablets, it's worth pointing out that there are three different categories to be aware of. Each takes a different approach to the central challenge of helping you draw on your Windows PC or Mac as if you were drawing on paper. Graphics tablets, which you draw directly onto with a stylus. Pressure-sensitive pen displays, which are hooked up to a monitor. Tablet computers, which can be adapted for drawing with an app You can below. With this covered, let's look at the options. Read on to find the best drawing tablet for your specific needs and budget – and the best prices.
The best drawing tablet 2018 overall 01. Wacom Cintiq 22HD touch pen display. Low screen res for the size Probably the most desirable drawing tablet on the market, the Wacom Cintiq 22HD touch enables you to draw direct onto its screen. It's generously sized so you can go large with your brush strokes, but the stylus is sensitive enough to cope with your most subtle expressions, too. The stand takes some getting used to, but enables you to switch between a near-flat configuration for drawing and an upright position for when you want to use the Cintiq 22HD touch as a regular monitor.
The best cheap drawing tablet 02. XP-Pen Artist 15.6 pen display. Stand not included All the basics you could want from a pen display are covered by the XP-Pen Artist 15.6: a reasonably sized drawing area, a comfortable pen with plenty of sensitivity levels, and a good screen. You don’t get quite the attention to detail or the advanced ecosystem of extras that Wacom provides, and the offset between the stylus tip and the on-screen cursor takes some getting used to, but this remains a pen display that can transform your digital creativity without breaking the bank. The best graphics tablets 03.
Wacom Intuos Pro (large). Drawing area could be larger When you’re creating artwork, you want room to sketch freely and a pen that feels as close as possible to the paper equivalent. You’ll find both in the Wacom Intuos Pro graphics tablet: it's one of the purest drawing experiences you can get from a digital device. The pen provides over 8,000 levels of pressure sensitivity and a drawing area that – while it’s not the biggest available – gives you more than the area of a magazine to play inside. All this is supported by Wacom’s broad ecosystem of alternative pens and Texture Sheets to give your drawing surface a distinctive feel. Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium). Driver problems reported Designers don’t typically require the range of movement that illustrators demand, making this smaller edition of the Wacom Intuos Pro graphics tablet just the job.
As well as the drawing area, eight shortcut keys and a Touch Ring give you access to your most-used commands and tools, so you don’t have to keep flipping between your tablet and your keyboard while you’re focusing on iterating a concept. The Intuos Pro also supports multi-touch fingertip gestures, making it easy for you pan and zoom around your current document. The best drawing tablet for beginners 05. Great Wacom alternative The second Huion drawing tablet on our list is the H640P, which boasts a comfortable drawing experience in a convenient size for travel.
If you work between studios or like to draw from a laptop on the move, you’ll need a drawing tablet like this that packs away handily – but still lets you draw with expression. The Huion H640P measures just 10.2 x 5.8 inches and is no thicker than a smartphone, but offers a set of shortcut keys as well as its drawing area. The best tablet PC for drawing 07. Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13. Stand costs extra If you have the budget, the MobileStudio offers everything you could want in a drawing tablet.
With a choice of Intel Core processors and solid-state drive storage capacities, it’s a fully fledged Windows computer. But it also benefits from the same technology Wacom brings to its Cintiq pen display range, making the MobileStudio a pleasure to draw with. And if you want, you can even tether it to the more powerful PC or Mac in your studio with the optional Wacom Link.
A 16in MobileStudio is also available. Also read: The best Windows tablet for drawing 08. Microsoft Surface Book 2. Surface Pen costs extra The Surface Book 2 delivers true versatility for the designer on the go.
You can use it as a regular laptop, then twist the screen to turn it into a flat tablet with a touch-sensitive screen. For drawing, you need to add the optional Surface Pen, which provides a respectable 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. You don’t get the deep drawing experience of the Wacom MobileStudio, but you do get a device that keeps up with your needs wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. Also read: The best iOS tablet for drawing 09. Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2018). Pencil costs extra The latest in Apple’s series of high-performance tablets, the iPad Pro 12.9 offers a significant performance upgrade over its predecessor, as well as a reduced bezel (screen-to-edge distance) and the removal of the home button – the device is practically all screen.
That luxurious LCD Liquid Retina, True Tone screen offers ‘Xbox One S-level graphics’, making it a beautiful surface on which to draw your projects, a process that has become easier than ever thanks to the reworked Apple Pencil 2 released alongside the tablet. The Pencil now offers magnetic docking and new workflow-improving shortcuts, such as double-tapping to switch modes. The new internal processors also mean the iPad Pro is faster than ever before, and even the high-storage versions offer fast read/write speeds for smooth file transfers. The best Android tablet for drawing 10.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. Fewer creative apps than iOS A high-quality OLED display and – yes – a stylus you don’t have to pay extra for form the foundation of a capable digital drawing platform, and that's what you get with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. Adobe offers good support for Android, and other big names like Autodesk SketchBook are also available. However, bear in mind that iOS still has more app choice for designers and artists.
And while the glass back feels classy, it perhaps isn’t the best surface for resting the tablet on your desk. All in all, this is a very capable digital sketchbook – and Samsung’s pen-operated Air Command menu system means the stylus is useful for more than just drawing. Also read: TechRadar’s 11. Lenovo Yoga Book.
Underpowered Though at first glance it may look like your average laptop, the Lenovo Yoga Book unfolds to reveal itself to be anything but. Hit a button at the top of the device’s capacitive keyboard and it switches to turn into what’s called the Create Pad, a drawing surface that works with the included Real Pen to offer 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity. This allows for the pleasingly tactile experience of being able to draw without your hand obscuring your own work, as it’s appearing on the screen in front of you. The downside to the Yoga Book is that it’s a little underpowered – if you try to use it as your all-purpose work and play tablet as well as your drawing companion, you may find it struggles to keep up. The best drawing tablet accessories.
I don't have Word 2011 (or any other Windows app), but I do have Pages and just tried it - and here is what I got: Open blank doc in Pages, turn on 'allow to write in any app' in Ink Preferences, got a 'scratch pad' and scribbled a couple of letters, scratch disappeared and the letters showed up as 'typed' in blank document. Scribbled circles did not, only letters - so, it appears it recognizes it for writing, but not drawing. I then used the Ink pad to draw a smiley face and, according to the Ink Help, you can 'send' it into the active application, but Pages would not recognize my drawing, which - in a way - does not really surprise me because Pages is a word processing app, not a graphics/drawing app. I then tried the same thing in the old AppleWorks (with a blank drawing doc open) - drew a smiley face, hit send, and it showed up as a smiley face!
I don't have Word 2011 (or any other Windows app), but I do have Pages and just tried it - and here is what I got: Open blank doc in Pages, turn on 'allow to write in any app' in Ink Preferences, got a 'scratch pad' and scribbled a couple of letters, scratch disappeared and the letters showed up as 'typed' in blank document. Scribbled circles did not, only letters - so, it appears it recognizes it for writing, but not drawing.
I then used the Ink pad to draw a smiley face and, according to the Ink Help, you can 'send' it into the active application, but Pages would not recognize my drawing, which - in a way - does not really surprise me because Pages is a word processing app, not a graphics/drawing app. I then tried the same thing in the old AppleWorks (with a blank drawing doc open) - drew a smiley face, hit send, and it showed up as a smiley face! Apple Footer. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided; every potential issue may involve several factors not detailed in the conversations captured in an electronic forum and Apple can therefore provide no guarantee as to the efficacy of any proposed solutions on the community forums. Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site. All postings and use of the content on this site are subject to the.