New to drawing tablets but know I want the best product for me

Support and Advice General Questions
, ,
1

Hey everyone,
Im fairly new to krita, fairly new to digital drawing in general but already its something I know I love and want to thrive in.
I am currently working with a 40$ wacom drawing pad and my issues with it are as follows:

-slight lag when the pen is on the tablet
-have to use an ungodly amount of pressure on the tablet
-computer is a laptop and i live rather poorly, not a proper table or desk or chair so im sitting hunched over looking at a screen far away from me and it becomes difficult. would prefer to have it closer
-have thought about screen tablet but never used one or had access to one.
-the USB cord i have to use always pulls out of the tabelt

  • have heard and read Wacom being the monopolized brand, where the quality tends to be exagerated or towards a certain drown to spend money, I.E. like apple

on XP pens website there are about 10 choices and I dont even understand the info in regards to the specs. I like to learn after! its just my style.

I am learning that the 1000$ ranged tablets might not be what I want or need but somewhere around the 500$ mark might be. I want to be able to keep my drawing devices seperate from my computer and I dont know how krita works when downloading onto drawing tablets or if it even does.

I know im sounding fairly childlike but I do appreciate any help or advice i can get in laymen’s terms.

2

:slight_smile: Hello @Chicken_and_soup and welcome to the forum!

Wacom is certainly the leading brand and probably has the most sophisticated models, but you will also find very good tablets at Huion. Then probably come XP-Pen and Gaomon. UGEE and Veikk then lead the rest of the pack and partly sell tablets from Huion and XP-Pen under their name, if what you hear and read is true.
Currently, the fairly new brand Xencelabs is trying to enter the market and seems to have the goal of challenging Wacom for the title of leader. But for a newcomer to the market, Xencelabs is too expensive for me, the product range is still far too limited, and there is hardly any empirically usable material about the products and their durability.

Michelist

1 Like
3

Wacom is reliable, I am still using the intuos 4 from 2009. medium size.

2 Likes
4

Graphics tables with screens are really just screens. You don’t download anything to them.

2 Likes
5

Well if Wacom or Apple are overpriced is a matter of opinion…

Those cheaper tablets from Huion or XP-Pen may seem equivalent on paper for a much lower price, but there are a few details where Wacom simply is better.
For example the tilt detection on Huion and XP-Pen is rather mediocre, it’s rather uneven or even jumpy at certain angles.
I haven’t used one of their latest tablets yet, UC Logic (the company making the sensor hardware pretty much all Wacom competitors use currently) seem to have changed design recently to catch up to Wacom, Huion calls it “PenTech 3.0”, XP-Pen “X3 Smart Chip”, but the pen tip on my XP-Pen still has a mechanical spring mechanism that will wear out a bit over the years, and also causes the tip to have a bit of clearance so it wobbles a fraction of a millimeter if you do tiny zig-zag moves, while my old Wacom Graphire stylus doesn’t do that.
Wacom also offers more stylus and tip options, although I saw Huion now also has felt tips available, so the difference keeps getting smaller.
For the pen display, it also seems Wacom offers various precalibrated modes like sRGB and AdobeRGB, while the others are just “here’s a (wide-gamut) display, calibrate it yourself.”

Now I only got a simple XP-Pen Deco 01 V2, but I don’t regret the purchase, offers plenty for tiny money and the drawbacks are tolerable.
I just wish there was a slim stylus available though…

As for your specific issues, I’m not sure the tablet is really at fault.

Lag usually happens more on the software side, monitor refresh rates, VSync and power management settings but also tablet driver settings can have an influence on that, and a slow CPU of course doesn’t help either.

Also investing in a proper desk is a good idea now matter if you go with display tablet or not. I can’t imagine that using a display tablet on your lap for hours is going to be great for your back, altough I never tried that…

I don’t know what’s up with the high pressure you need to use, it’s not something Wacom is known for, unless your Stylus went bad. And you should be able to adjust that in the driver, but also in Krita, though reaching 100% pressure really should take a lot of force.

2 Likes
6

When I was given my first drawing tablet, my parents did not have any clue how drawing tablets worked at all. However my parents ended up getting my drawing tablet from Gaomon on Amazon. The tablet is this one on Amazon. For the price it works and it is often on sale around december for around 170USD. Some things to note this specific model from my use of it:

  • When downloading the driver for this model, there are 2 versions (Gaomon_Windows_Driver_v14.8.133.1259 and Gaomon_Windows_Driver_16.0.0.37); for me v16 has a pretty bad offset that I could not remove while v14 dosen’t have a offset at all

  • The dedicated screen protector for the tablet is decent with the replacements from Gaomon, however there are way better offbrand screen protectors on amazon from other brands; the one i use is this screen protector

  • The edges of the screen don’t match up with the style pen (which dosen’t have batteries and have replacable nibs) and sometimes dosen’t respond all the time, from what I know, this is normal behavior

  • Inside the files of the driver, there are language files; for me when I open it first time, the text is in english, however after opening it again after closing the driver, all the text converts to chinese (Gaomon is a Chinese company) and the best way I found is to remove the language files and leave the language file you want (all the language files are in the accronyms for languages)

  • The pressure you can apply is adjustable via the driver settings; the shortcut keys on the side and pen are also configurable and if you want, you can rotate the screen on the tablet so that the shortcut keys are on the left or right side (I use them on the left side)

  • The cords for the tablet work well for me, although there is 3 plugs on one end (the computer end) and 2 plugs on the other end (the tablet end); the plugs stay in pretty well and the power supply plug twist 90 degrees so it stays in

7

Nah you still do download software for the pc with the drawing tablet with screen on it still.

8

Huion always has best cost performance.huion gt1602? actually i don’t know its usd price, I’m chinese.

9

That huion tablet cost about $599.00 in USD but that doesn’t included the shipping or the sales tax either

10

Xp-pen mini 7 is about $40, the review is quite good.

If the wacom drawing pad is lagging, that might be a windows thing or it’s windows driver, you can try install linux, krita runs very well on linux.

I just found out the $40 wacom drawing pad has 2048 pressure senstivity, same as my old intous 4, perfectly fine for drawing/painting.

11

Entirely true!
and forming an opinion is hard.

All devices i have owned were hand-me-downs by people who really loved their products so my quote on apple was literally an opinion many people have had around me and I am just not sure of how I feel at all and prefer taking others advice.

Personally I loved my samsung more than my apple phone but now i cant even remember how to use a samsung because i have had an iphone for a couple years now.

I didnt even know there were stylus tips lol or a difference in them, without many people to show me and a SEVERE problem watching youtube videos( pretty much never got into YouTube and have had a hard time adjusting to the search algorithm to find what I am looking for)

So thats something I need to learn more about.
I dont even know what “pre-calibrated modes like sRGB” mean lol and I know thats on me. Im pretty much a youngin when it comes to devices and dont practice with them enough.
I dont even have a monitor, just an HP laptop dyxx2 and it will be quite some time before I can afford anything more. I live by myself with three pets and manage all my bills while being in my early twenties, I live paycheck to paycheck.
I will get a real desk and chair eventually but, i mean, i just got a BED after not having one for a year and that was about 1000$, i am still recovering from that big purchase.

This tablet will be the one “gift” i ask for for christmas as my family is happy to try and help out when it comes to bigger purchases like this.

This is why I want to do my diligence and suggest something that isn’t WAAAAY to expensive but something relatively pricey for a good reason. Ill admit some of my 40$ headphones were STELLAR but none compared to a pair 160$ worth my brother got for me. But even he suggested the apple pencil which i do not want. I prefer krita and its design more and thats why am looking into drawing tablets.

If its gonna lag with my computer I will have to just deal w it until a real PC comes along. I am just really finding it frustrating to work on a tablet and stare at a separate screen. The hand eye co-ordination is not AS strong as I thought within me!!!

Im seeing tablets that you can draw on as well as connect to a computer which is something preferred if possible! and something about the “paper texture” of the screen I keep seeing people write that and if its how my wacom feels I want to KEEP that texture while also it being a screen.

Advice?

thank you so much again!

12

Thank you for the welcomes!

with all of this information and after browsing the websites I am in fact leaning a bit more towards the XP-pen products as for the design and display, connectivity as well as the size of the tablet in general they seem like the best idea for me.

sell me, you guys! sell me on these products! I want to believe, for example for me and what I am doing and who will be purchasing, that this Artist 10 (2nd Gen) | XPPen Canada Official Store
might be a better choice than Huion Official Store: Drawing Tablets, Pen Tablets, Pen Display, Led Light Pad

HOWEVER. i AM NOT SAYING better product!!! just a best choice for me!

13

Because of the nearly identical price, I would go for the bigger one, the Huion, but that is my personal preference because of slowly loosing eyesight.

Michelist

14

understood!

as someone who draws miniature, makes miniature, watercolors and doodles small because the details make more sense to me then i assume I would like the smaller one but I am thinking to look and see if i can find them in person here in Toronto and get a better look at them before making a decision.

Thank you so much again for all the help!

15

If you don’t buy wacom, then just consider huion and xencelabs.

Gaomon and huion are the same company, and gaomon belongs to the low-end product line.

Ugee, XP pen and xencelabs belong to another company. Ugee is responsible for China and XP pen is responsible for overseas. Xencelabs is a newly opened high-end product line.

The technical solutions of other companies are purchased from these two companies.

1 Like
16

I think it should be possible to find a store in Toronto that stocks these tablets. Given the size of the metropolitan area, it’s unlikely that you won’t find such a store, so check the Yellow Pages.

Michelist

17

It may sound paradox but drawing small and detailed things is actually harder on a smaller tablet. Small tablets have a lower resolution (the sensor raster) and that means there are less data points for translating input to what happens on screen, which makes things more imprecise.

18

AH! thats very good to know. I just know i dont need a HUGE PRO drawing tablet, just a fun good portable one!

19

I own a cheap Huion Inspiroy H950p for some years.

It’s great now have a lot of quality options, and not only Wacom. I’m not going to recommend one or other, but reading your introduction, I think you like more a tablet (well, there are not cheap, but they are cheaper than a screen tablet :D) with a good pencil. If your like mobility they are great. And they don’t require a computer.

You could try screen tablets, but they are only screens, so you’ll need a computer or phone near. And other think, you’d want to check first if drawing and looking at a tablet fit with you. Some people, unless they have the screen vertically, they suffer neckache after hours of drawing.

20

tablets are simply the drawing device on its own correct? as in youre looking directly at what youre drawing, not at a screen and drawing somewhere else? or is that the screen?

i want the tablet to be the display, as well as connect it to the computer so i can see what im drawing displayed in two places. I most definitely would have the tablet set up on a stand so its vertical like a computer screen, but i dont mind if its something i have to mcguiver myself and not purchase something with a stand.

after all thats been said so far i am considering these three but again having a hard time now deciding with what device will last me longest and will have proper customer support services in person here in toronto if need be.

i just dont want a huge drawing tablet, right now my laptop screen is 15.6 inches and i feel that is almost too big and wouldnt want anything better, but some are saying you give up quality with getting the smaller sized tablets