Which Graphic Tablet Should I Buy?

Posted on 07. Nov, 2009 by DAS Team in Articles

We receive tons of emails per day asking us what is the best graphic tablet out there and which one to buy. When answering such questions, one must consider what is going to be done with the tablet and what capabilities do you need to do your tasks efficiently. So in order to simplify these questions, we have decided to choose specific tasks and mention what would be the generally best tablet out there to make it.

Digital Artist:

As a digital artist, you will be doing a lot of digital painting and supposedly high res work. You will need to purchase a tablet that is sensitive enough to detect every level of pressure you do with your pen. That is where you need to know about Pen Level Pressure. We would advise digital artists (who are serious about their work) to buy the ‘WACOM intuos4′, which has a staggering 2048 levels of pen pressure. That is one of the highest sensitivity pressure levels out there in the market. Go to www.wacom.com/intuos4 and check out the various sizes available. Starting price of the Wacom Intuos4 is around $229.

Graphic Designer:

If you are a graphic designer, probably you do a lot of work that is related to cropping, editing and manipulating graphics. Therefore, tablets with good shortcut keys are very important for graphic designers. That is why we would recommend the ‘Genius G-Pen M712′ which is a great tablet with wonderful shortcut keys that are very helpful. It has a rolling pad that is very efficient when scrolling & zooming which becomes a big time savior. It also has 34 programmable keys which will make your work get done much more faster. It is important to note that it has 1024 pen level pressure which is much less than the Wacom Intuos yet as a graphic designer, probably you would need more shortcut keys than sensitivity levels. You can visit www.geniusnet.com for more information. Starting price of the G-Pen M712 is around $175.

Animators:

If you are a professional animator, you will need very high quality of tablet to help you, not only create your work but actually to make it move. That is why we think that the ‘Wacom Cintiq’ is one of the BEST tablets out there in the market. What is exceptional about this tablet is that you it is a screen, which you actually work on. That is why the sizes that are available are in inches- either 21″ or 12″. Both however have 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity which are alright. Working on the screen is a totally different experience, and gives you far more control to your artwork which why we believe animators will fall in love with it. You can go to www.wacom.com/cintiq for more information. Starting price for the Wacom Cintiq is around $999.

Beginners:

If you are a beginner who just wants to buy a graphic tablet just for experimenting with your artistic talents, we would highly recommend to buy the ‘Wacom Bamboo’. This is one of the easiest and simplest tablets out there to use. It has wonderful nine hand key gestures which allow you to navigate, click, scroll, rotate, zoom and do much more. Bamboo is a product line that has many models- but we specifically recommend the ‘Bamboo Pen & Touch’ model. The Bamboo Pen & Touch has 1024 sensitivity pressure levels in addition to all the glory of having the touch gestures. The Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch comes for around $99.

Tags: buy, choice, digital, genius, graphic tablet, pen, wacom, which