Pencils are so last week

Graphics tablets are knocking it out of the park this year, making art easier than ever before

In 2021, there are more graphics tablets on the market than ever before. Brands like Apple pushing them into the mainstream with the popularity of the iPad amongst non-creatives and creatives alike, while more and more high end professional artists tablets are being produced.

In recent times then, its no surprise that the somewhat overwhelming number of products on the market means that some are heading back to the old fashioned way — pencil and paper — or simply reach for the first available tablet, regardless of how suitable it is to the individuals needs.

While pencil and paper certainly has its place, and many digital artists have created incredible work by utilising the old fashioned tools of the trade, knowing how to analyse your needs and pick the right digital art supplies can be extremely helpful to all manner of creative professionals.

There are a lot of factors that impact the quality and functionality of a drawing tablet, and perhaps the most important, and the ones we’re covering today are:

• Size
• Resolution
• Pressure sensitivity
• Responsiveness
• Stylus

Size

We’re starting with the obvious — does the tablet fit your needs. If you need a tablet for use on the go, a 16" model is going to be more sensible than, for example, the huge Wacom 32" 4K Cintiq Pro. If you’re setting up a full time studio however, 32" of screen may be perfect for your setup.

And don’t forget, the size of the entire device is not necessarily the size of the active area that you can actually draw on, so read product descriptions carefully.

Resolution

Have you checked the LPI for the tablet you’re considering? LPI, or lines per inch, dictate how much detail you’re going to be able to get into your work, so its very important if you’re creating intricate pieces!

Pressure Sensitivity

Pressure levels vary considerably from tablet to tablet, and dictate how much variation you can expect in your line intensity, relative to the pressure you put on the pen. The more pressure levels, the better distinction between thicker lines and finer lines. Most tablets have between 300 and 3,000 pressure-sensitivity levels.

Beginners? You should be looking at a tablet that has at least 1,024 pressure levels. A bit more advanced? Try 2,048 pressure levels.

Responsiveness

The last thing you want to deal with when creating great art is lag. You want your pen movement and the line appearing on the screen to be perfectly in synch — and if it isn’t, you need to check the tablet’s drivers and your computer’s specs (CPU, GPU, RAM).

Stylus

Not all styluses are created equal — check if the tablet you’re considering has a battery-powered, rechargeable, or electromagnetic resonance (EMR) stylus. Each one has its benefits — and often battery powered and rechargeable stylus’ can be cheaper, but an EMR stylus will give you considerable freedom, and mean that you don’t have to keep batteries on hand, or go running for a power socket. They’re also the newest kind of stylus, so more likely to give a higher performance.

Once you’ve considered all these points, don’t forget to seek out some expert opinions! YouTube is full of creative professionals giving their insights into why they chose their specific graphics tablet, and how you can put their knowledge to use in choosing yours — like this one from Lauren Gonzalez