Graphics design is a wide field that spans from professional work to editing pictures for fun. To produce quality graphic design work, you need both the right skills and tools. The most important tool is the hardware on which you'll draw or edit the graphics on.
You probably already know what a tablet is, but what about a drawing tablet? Well, a drawing tablet is just like an ordinary tablet but with some features more enhanced with graphics design in mind.
Many graphics designers prefer drawing tablets to PC screens because the tablets allow them to actually draw using a stylus pen what they intend to draw. Not only is this faster than dragging a mouse, it is also more accurate.
Choosing the right drawing tablet can be an uphill task with the wide variety that's currently in the market. However, there are few things you can look at to tell if the drawing tablet is worth buying. Here are the most important ones:
A good display is the first thing you should consider when shopping for a drawing tablet. Drawing on a low-quality display is not only frustrating, but it will also produce low-quality work. A fairly good display should consist of:
Most drawing tablets come with embedded operating systems which means that you cannot change them later. The Operating system will determine which graphic editing software you can install. Although some of the best graphic editing software graphic editing software like CorelDRAW are available across most platforms, OS like Android have very few professional graphic editing software on their platforms. It is therefore important to buy a drawing tablet that runs on a more common tablet OS like Windows.
Furthermore, if you are buying a drawing tablet to use alongside a computer, you should ensure that they are compatible. It would, for example, be unhelpful to buy a Windows tablet while you use a mac. Transferring the work from one device to the other alone will be a headache.
For a tablet to handle complex graphic design work, it will need to have a fast processor. A drawing tablet with a slow processor will lag and freeze when you install heavy graphic editing software rendering it useless.
As for RAM, it should be sufficient to run heavy graphic design software while saving some for background tasks.
A good drawing tablet should have enough internal storage to hold any graphic editing software. There should also be enough storage left for other apps that you might need and, of course, the graphics themselves. Some graphic formats are space-intensive and will fill up small storage fast, warranting you to delete some work or transfer it, which can be inconvenient.
If a drawing tablet doesn't have enough storage, it should at least have the option to expand it. A micro SD card or a USB port for storage expansion is, therefore, an important feature.
Drawing tablets come in a wide price range. The right price for one will depend both on its features and how you intend to use it. It is, for example, extravagant to spend $1000 on a drawing tablet you intend to use only for hobby drawing. To decide if a tablet is overpriced, you can compare its price to ones with similar features.
Choosing a drawing tablet can be as easy as it is confusing. Following the steps above will ensure that you get the right one for you.
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