Top Pressure Sensitive Graphics Tablets 2014

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Graphics Tablet Pressure-Sensitivity

Pressure sensitivity of your graphics tablet is one of its most important characteristics you need to consider before buying. This attribute denotes the responsiveness of your drawing tablet to the pressure you apply with the stylus, and there are several pressure sensitivity levels to consider.

The levels of sensitivity range from 256, 512, 1024 or 2048, but your average value that is now most common is the 1024. This PS level is actually more than good enough for most, but serious graphics designers and people who want the best of the best may want to get their hands on a tablet with 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. These are a bit more expensive, but depending on the side of the graphics tablet you need, you may even get a good price.

The key is to weigh the attributes you NEED very carefully - you do not want to throw away your money on a graphics tablet someone else says would suit you best. Perhaps a better choice for you is to get a small tablet with 2048 levels of sensitivity, while someone else may work better with a tablet that is medium size, but has 1024 levels. I use a Bamboo Create with 1024 levels, medium size, and I do not feel the need to change this drawing tablet at all.

Pressure-Sensitivity Explained

Pressure sensitivity of your tablet will literally determine the thickness or the opacity of your strokes according to the pressure you apply. You can set this feature up the way it suits you in the preferences of any better drawing software. I prefer that the pressure determines the thickness of the lines, but I mostly don't color my drawings.

Graphics tablet pressure sensitivity works either by having a sensitive surface of the tab, or by placing the sensors in the stylus. The more common method is when the stylus detects the pressure. The purpose of this attribute is to make you feel as though you were working on paper, imitating the natural way drawing feels traditionally - but on your computer.

Which are the best pressure-sensitive graphics tablets?

Depending on your needs, there are several graphics tablets you should consider if you are considering them by their pressure-sensitivity. Make sure to pick the correct size for yourself though.

Wacom Bamboo Create Pen and Touch

This is a perfectly balanced graphics tablet that has everything most artists and designers need. It dons a bit larger surface with 1024 pressure-sensitivity levels. I am using it, for instance, and it's perfectly suited to my needs.




Wacom Intuos5 Medium Pen Tablet

This graphics tablet offers smooth sailing in all areas with its superb attributes. It dons a medium sized surface, a light ergonomic stylus and 2048 pressure sensitivity levels.



Wacom Intuos5 Large Pen Tablet

This pen tab is the larger version of the one above. With its 2048 levels of sensitivity and a spacious working area, this is all you will ever need. If you can afford it, go for it. The Xpress buttons on the side are very useful as well.

Wacom Cintiq 13HD Interactive Pen Display

Cintiq is a dream tablet for anyone who is serious about their art/work. The main characteristic that makes it so alluring is that you work directly on the screen, and it also has 2048 levels of PS, along with a pretty large surface. If you can afford a Cintiq, you should look no further. This is, in my opinion, the best graphics tablet currently.

VT PenPad 7.7-Inch Graphic Pen Tablet

If you never had a graphics tablet before and you want to practice, this one is about 30 $ and it has shocking 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. So what's the catch? There is no catch, it's a value product. Buy Wacom for the quality, VT for the practice. If you don't take care of it, it won't last you over a year.

Monoprice MP1060-HA60 Graphic Drawing 

Decent price, very affordable and offers a larger surface with 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity. Also, its stylus is pretty good. This is the cheap version of Bamboo Create.

Turcom Tursion 10 x 6.25 Inches Graphic Drawing Tablet 

A cheap tablet with 2048 levels of sensitivity and a large work area. Enough said.

Tursion Graphic Drawing Tablet with 8 Hot Key, 10 x 6.25 Inches

For 50 $ you get a graphics tablet with a large ergonomic working area, 1024 levels of sensitivity  8 hot key and 16 function keys. Great for people on a reduced budget.

These are the tablets worth considering when thinking about buying a pressure-sensitivity-wise a good drawing tab. I have explained the characteristics of some more tablets and listed them in the Best Pressure-Sensitive Graphics Tablets article, so you can see that as well.

Good luck finding the best graphics tablet for your needs!

Monoprice 10X6.25 Inches Graphic Drawing Tablet Review

Is Monoprice the best cheap graphics tablet?

In my opinion, Monoprice 10x6.25 inches graphics drawing tablet is the best value graphics tablet available.

In this review, I will try to list some pros and cons of this graphics tablet so that you can decide if this is a good product for your needs. As I emphasized numerous times in my article Graphics Tablets Brands and Reviews, some of us may not be able or willing to cash out a couple of hundreds of dollars for a Wacom tablet, and they are looking for something cheaper that has good specifications.

Monoprice graphics tablets is certainly one of the best out there when it comes to good quality for a low price. This tablet is extremely cheap at about 50-60 bucks, and proved to be very durable and practical.

Monoprice features a good size of 10x6.25 inches, which is comparable to the size of Bamboo Fun, and is 4 times less expensive than the Wacom in question. Its pressure sensitivity is excellent at 1024 levels, and only the prefessionals and the extra-needy will want more. What I expected with this tablet was a bad response time, but I am happy I was wrong. The low response time of the Monoprice graphics tablet downright impressed me.

Much like most graphics tablets, it has programmable hotkeys which are excellent for advanced users who want to save time. It's also very solid, which makes it durable and easy to use without worrying you'll damage something. In fact, I was always more cautious with my Bamboo Create tablet than with this one, because Monoprice seems much sturdier.

The only con I would emphasize is the fact that the pen requres a battery, which makes it bit heavier. Regardless of this, the pen is still not awkward to use and will fit well in your hand.

If you are sick of paying a lot of money for your graphics tablet, or are buying your first graphics tablet, I'd recommend Monoprice. It will not let you down, and won't hit your wallet hard. A warm recommendation.

You can find your own Monoprice pen tablet or read more customer reviews here:

However, if you want to see more graphics tablets before you decide, refer back to my main article Top 10 Graphics Tablets and take a look at more recommendations and reviews.

Top Recommended Graphics Tablet

Which is the top recommended graphics tablet?

Which drawing tablet is the best?

These are all valid questions which need to be addressed, but always keeping in mind that this is a higly individual matter that needs to be answered with caution.

With that in mind, I give you my personal recommendations and my take on this matter.

As I have previously mentioned in my post top graphics tablets, you need to be careful when choosing a drawing tablet, especially if you never had one before. You want to go for something that is not too expensive, but your choice has to be solid - you need to select a graphics tab that will have balanced specs, an adequate work surface, a pens stylus that will feel good in your hand and with good pressure sensitivity.

Now, what is ideal for somebody may be a disaster for someone else, so this is all more or less individual. However, I was asked to pick one tablet that could be considered the best choice for beginners and professional artists as well. Keeping in mind that not everyone has the same budget for a drawing tablet, I have selected two of these to review in this post, one cheaper and balanced, and one great, albeit a bit more expensive tablet.

Wacom Bamboo Create

When I just started out with digital art, I had a generic brand graphics tablet just to try out if it works for me to draw digitally. It turned out I loved it, but the tablet I had had horrible pressure sensitivity. Bamboo Fun tablet was the first version of this tablet, and when Bamboo Create was released, I had just enough money to get one. You will love this tablet - it has 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity (which is more than enough for most artists), it is 13.8 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches in size, it has express buttons, and virtually no compatibility issues. It dons a sleek design, it's easy to use, the pen stylus is perfect and the price is very accessible  If you'd ask me which is the best cheap to medium price graphics tablet to get, I'd say Wacom Bamboo Create.

Wacom Intuos5 Medium

This tablet offers 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity on a 48.4 square inches of working surface, which is somewhat impressive for its price. It's a perfect tablet for professional artists who cannot quite afford the Cintiq. On the other hand, this tablet offers you just about everything you need, so there is no point in looking further than this if you need very good specs. With Wacom Intuos5 Medium, you will get all of this for a reasonable price, and this tablet will be your best friend for a long time because of its quality and durability. This is my personal favorite graphics tablet, and I have no intention of getting another one for a good while. A warm recommendation.

Of course, if these two are not in your price range, or you'd like to see more graphics tablets and read some more reviews for the sake of comparison, you can go to my top 10 graphics tablets page and see some more. Feel free to leave a question or a recommendation of your own either there, or right here on this post.

Graphics Tablets for Beginners | Best Choices When Buying a First Graphics Tablet

So, what are the best graphics tablets for beginning artists?

This post will deal a bit more with differences between traditional drawing and digital drawing and editing. So, let's first explain those, even though I'm sure most of us know this already.

Traditional art and drawing implies that an artists uses a piece of paper and a pencil (or other materials of choice), to be blunt, and creates their masterpiece like that. So this is actually the old-fashioned way, which is elementary and mustn't be neglected or overlooked no matter how much we love our gadgets.

Digital art or digital drawing and editing implies, to be simple, using computers to create our art, whether we choose to use a mouse or a really neat graphics tablet with a lot of cool possibilities. That is the digital input method, which is used more and more to edit, fix, create or manipulate our art, all with ease and a lot of really great effects.

Now, if you have decided you need (or want) a good drawing tablet, then you must wonder about the differences between these two methods. Well, there are several things to keep in mind, and I will list them below.

1. Friction

You will find that drawing with a tablet is much smoother as the surface is like that to allow the stylus to simply 'glide' across it. It takes some getting used to.

2. Stylus is nothing like a pencil

While you wont have to worry about sharpening it or spending it, the stylus will not give you resistance like your good ol' fashioned pencil. And I mean very little resistance.

3. Pressure sensitivity

Each graphics tablet has certain pressure sensitivity levels which enables us to apply more or less pressure in order to get different strokes and so on. If we are used to drawing on paper, we may tend to use the same amount of pressure more or less in all our strokes, and repeat them where necessary. This aspect of the graphics tablets is maybe the best advantage, but also takes the longest time to get used to and learn to take maximum advantage of it.

Remember, finding a perfect tab is crucial if you are trying it out for the first time! Besides, you don't want to waste your money anyway, right?

However, in case you know this already, or want to know more about what exactly to consider when picking our YOUR future drawing tablet, then you need more information about graphics tablet options, possibilities and prices.

Go to this listing of top 10 graphics tablets to see exactly what I'm talking about, and find out more about best brands of tabs and see their reviews.

Best Graphics Tablets 2014 | Graphics Tablet Reviews and Recommendations

How to pick a suitable graphics tablet for your needs?

Everything you need to know about graphics tablets

Most people jump right into searching for a best graphics tablet without even knowing how to use one or even which drawing tablet is best for their personal needs - they think they are just going to find a best tablet, plug it in the computer and produce digital masterpieces.

This is a bit of a delicate subject. There are a lot of people out there who are professional graphics designers or have a graphic tablet that they are generally very satisfied with, and you will see them recommending great tablets as tools of the trade to others all the time. While it is pretty easy to recognize a great computer graphics tablet brand, it may be a bit more difficult to determine exactly which pen tablet is perfect for you.

However, if you have your fair share of knowledge about graphics, computer tools and digital art and design and have relevant experience in the area, you will know exactly what you are looking for. In that case, you can find some excellent graphics tablets without having to follow through the next steps. In case you are still unsure, read on please.

Everyone is different, so before choosing to buy a tablet for your drawing, design, photo editing undertakings and so on, it is more than important to do some careful thinking.

Why, you may ask?

How do I choose the best and most suitable graphics tablet for my own personal needs?

There are many good guides out there, but the generalities are the following:

1. You need to define your budget

2. You need to think about what you need (good pressure sensitivity, express keys, larger surface, and so on)

3. Study the different graphics tablet brands (there are A LOT of different great products out there)

If you are serious about finding a best suitable computer graphics tablet for yourself, you can find a lot more information on different brands of graphics tablets right here. On this site you will be able to follow through the before mentioned steps and decide on what you need, see the best rated and best selling graphics tablets and read their reviews. Remember, tablets are tools of your trade and you need them for your digital projects just as you need a computer to be here on this site.

Computer and digital art is the future and graphics tablets are the tools you need to express yourself - and every trade has its tools.

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Top Ten Graphics Tablets and Top Pressure-Sensitive Graphics Tablets are articles written by a digital artist and represent a compilation of reviews and experiences of several people who own and use graphics tablets for professional and non-professional purposes.