wacom driver for touch screen monitors free sample

Important: Download and install the latest Wacom driver so your device works properly, unless your device comes with a pre-installed driver. Refer to the Quick Start Guide to discover if your device has a pre-installed driver or not.

From the resources list that displays for your device, click Download Windows Driver or Download Mac Driver, depending on your computer"s operating system.

Updated Wacom drivers are periodically made available on Wacom"s Product Resources page (see instructions above) and in Wacom Center. Check in and update regularly so your device has the latest features and functionality.

Tip: On Windows 10 and later, you can check whether there is a Wacom driver update available from the Wacom Update Utility. From the Windows Start Menu, go to Wacom Tablet > Wacom Update Utility. If a new Wacom driver is available, you can download and install it.

Note: If you uninstall the Wacom driver, your device will not work. If you uninstall the driver, reinstall the latest driver from Wacom"s Product Resources page so that your device works again. If the driver is reinstalled, your device will revert to its default settings.

We recognize that integrating access to digital pen data from pen-enabled devices can be a challenge for developers. That’s why we provide multiple ways to retrieve this data from a range of Wacom and Wacom-enabled third-party products.

The licensed Wacom Ink SDK for devices contains the Common Device Library (CDL), which allows you to integrate Wacom pen-enabled devices and third-party products into your applications. Your benefits include:

The option to receive RAW data from the device: This allows you to provide a high quality front-end and UI, without sacrificing original data for internal / back-end usage.

This version of the SDK is the best choice if you want maximum control and flexibility when integrating digital ink data into your Windows applications. It enables you to develop once for multiple devices with an extended library that supports pen data collection via a single interface. The devices you can access include:

This licensed version of the SDK allows you to integrate Wacom “paper” devices and Android/iOS pen-enabled inking devices into your applications. Specifically, this SDK supports:

For detailed technical information about both versions of the SDK, see our Wacom Ink SDK for devicestechnical documentation and download the sample code.

For detailed technical information, see our Wacom Device Kit developer documentation. To access sample code for building your digital ink apps from GitHub, see our Wacom Device Kit sample code. To access sample code to build your digital ink apps, see our Wacom Device Kit sample code on GitHub.

Whether you’re just starting in digital creation, want to add a twist to your visual thinking or looking to improve your digital expression, Wacom One delivers a great experience. It comes with all the essentials to spice up your digital life. There’s the natural pen feel on the 13.3” screen, the included creative software – even the ability to connect to certain Android devices. And it’s compatible with leading pen brands too. Open up new possibilities with Wacom One.

Sketch, draw and paint directly on screen and enjoy natural surface friction with minimal reflection. Imagine a pen that uses software to make it the tool you want it to be: paintbrush, pen, marker, pencil, chalk or eraser. The only limit is your imagination.

With the familiar feeling of pen on paper, Wacom One lets you capture ideas, create mind-maps, draw diagrams and more, before sharing them easily with friends and colleagues.

Impress your social media fans and followers alike. The precise Wacom One Pen and the nearly A4/Letter-sized canvas let you comfortably personalize your images or videos, boosting your editing skills in the process.

Feels like pen and paper. Works like magic. You can draw, edit photos and videos, or brainstorm in a way that’s so familiar, you’ll forget you’re doing it digitally.

With Wacom One, you get more than just a creative pen display. You have everything you need to get off to a flying start. Our included Bonus Pack is ready and waiting for you. And conveniently, Wacom One is compatible with your computer, as well as certain Android tablets and phones.

You’re bound to love the included Wacom One pen. But a pen is a very personal thing. Several top brands have made pens that are compatible with Wacom One, so you’re sure to find the right pen option for you.

When it comes to learning, teaching and collaborating, the right tools make the job easier. Whether you’re remotely working with students and teachers, taking down notes, or working on your latest digital art piece, do it naturally and comfortably with Wacom One.

This product works with devices capable of running the latest version of Chrome OS. Google is not responsible for the operation of this product or its compliance with safety requirements. Chromebook is a trademark of Google LLC.

Gain 3 months complimentary access to great bundled apps specially tailored for education. The apps enable teachers and students to collaborate and share ideas just as easily as in the classroom.

Whether you need to create a presentation or explainer video, guide or task others, explain any topic or design a project, this one’s for you. You can quickly share the results of your thinking with others or collaborate on a project with a group.

Kami transforms any existing document into canvas for expression or an interactive learning experience. Work collaboratively in real-time and ignite creativity with an array of annotation tools accessible with your Wacom pen display and Wacom pen tablet.

Founded by educators, Pear Deck makes it easy for teachers to build and launch interactive presentations within Google and Microsoft classroom tools, helping students engage with their teacher, classmates, and new ideas, every day.

Get ready to create, convert, edit, sign, and draw on any PDF across desktop, mobile, and web. People everywhere are taking charge of their document solutions with Foxit PDF Editor, and now you can too. Use Foxit with your Wacom device to quickly customize, mark up, sign, and manage your PDF documents.

When creativity hits, you don’t want anything to get in your way. Whether you need an intuitive and precise digital tool, or a bigger digital canvas to connect to your smartphone or simply need a second screen, you can add Wacom One easily to whatever ecosystem you’ve got going on with your devices.

Used to working with pen and paper? Well, there"s a new digital world waiting for you. When working on a pen display, your pen can act as different pencils and brushes in a whole range of colors – bundled software ensures you can easily change color or brush size, all with the same pen. And the fact you can easily edit and update work makes Wacom One the ideal product for budding creatives and keen note takers.

Wacom One adds a natural, intuitive pen experience when used with a PC or Mac. Unlike a mouse or trackpad, it allows for working in precise detail whatever the task at hand. Whether annotating documents, editing images and videos, or playing games, the pen is ergonomically balanced and battery-free, meaning it sits comfortably in the hand and doesn’t weigh you down when used for extended periods.

Add Wacom One to your Android smartphone* and you basically add an extra digital canvas to your favorite tool. Ideal for working on your notes, editing your latest images, or whatever other use you need more space for. Plus, the pens of Wacom One and your Android can be used on both devices.

The Wacom world is a playground for the creative and the curious. Film-makers, animators, special effects artists and designers around the globe keep on choosing Wacom as their favorite creative brand.

There are more than 35 years of learning and innovation behind Wacom One, each one working towards the vision of enabling digital creativity. It’s here, and it’s for everyone. Switch on.

Eliminate smudges and reduce friction between screen and hand. The drawing experience never felt so good with the Wacom Drawing Glove. Simply draw with confidence.

Designed with eco-friendly recycled materials, the Wacom Drawing Glove allows you to draw with the freedom of knowing you are helping the world we live in. Recycled Polyester and Spandex offer breathability, stretch and durability for a comfortable fit. Feel comfortable drawing anything, and know that you’re contributing to a better environment.

Use the Wacom Drawing Glove and enjoy a natural drawing experience. Say goodbye to unnecessary smudges, fingerprints and minimize friction from hand to screen or pen tablet. And with everything clearly visible on screen, nothing comes between you and your creation. Now, you’re free to draw comfortably for hours.

Wacom Drawing Glove’s unique fingerless design and seamless edge allows for a natural working experience. Focus on your drawing and access touch functionality on screen as well as the keyboard. Designed to work perfectly whether you"re left or right-handed. Sound good? You’ll find it feels good too.

This replacement AC Power Adapter (Regional power plugs included) is an external power supply designed to work with the Wacom One creative pen display and the Wacom One X-Shape Cable.

Specifically designed nibs for use with Wacom One Pen (CP91300B2Z). These Standard Nibs come in a set of 5, and can be easily attached to the tip of your Wacom One Pen to replace worn nibs.

The Wacom One replacement pen is designed for use Wacom One creative pen display (DTC133). The pen is cordless, battery-free with 4096 levels of pressure and a programmable side-switch to put shortcuts at your fingertips.

Copyright © 2018-2023 Wacom. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used with their permission.

Handwritten signatures are often crucial for organizational workflows in many sectors, from education to banking. Used together with a digital pen display or pen tablet, Wacom Ink SDK for verification is a set of software tools that enable organizations to verify the authenticity of signatures accurately and with less effort than humans can achieve on their own.

Thank you for your recent purchase of a Cintiq 22HD pen or Cintiq 22HD pen & touch display and welcome to the Wacom family. To get you up and running, we offer you free valuable software, as well as installation videos, webinars, blogs and software tutorials. Wacom also has a wide range of product accessories for your Cintiq 22HD. And if you need more help, you can contact one of our customer care representatives who are happy to assist you.

Installing the software driver is necessary for your Wacom product to work properly. If you have not done so already, please download and install the correct software driver. Be sure to come back to this page for additional help in getting started with your product.

Please refer to the printed Quick Start Guide provided in the product box for descriptions of the parts and components for your Cintiq 22HD and instructions for setup. Help topics will help you make the best use of your Cintiq. You can access Help by pressing the ? icon located on the bottom right corner of the Wacom Tablet Properties in your driver, or from the Help & Support section of the Wacom Desktop Center.

The standard-issue pen of Intuos and Cintiq products features a cushioned grip, a customizable side-switch for shortcuts and modifiers, and pressure-sensitive pen tip and eraser.

2-pack of wide bodied grips for the Wacom Grip Pen, for use without the side switch.Copyright © 2018-2023 Wacom. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used with their permission.

Most graphics tablets will work out of the box with Arch Linux. Additional configuration is required for certain extra features, such as button remapping and adjusting the tablet"s aspect ratio. This article explains how to configure your tablet under Xorg. For configuration under Wayland, see #Wayland and libinput.

The Arch Linux kernels include drivers by the linux-wacom and DIGImend projects. linux-wacom supports Wacom devices, while DIGImend supports devices from other manufacturers. Both projects publish a list of supported devices: linux-wacom, DIGImend. After connecting your tablet via USB or Bluetooth, it should show up when running dmesg as root and be listed in /proc/bus/input/devices. For USB devices, the lsusb command from #Device not recognized by the kernel.

Install the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-wacom.conf file will automatically load the configure Xorg to use it with the wacom driver, which will allow configuring it through xsetwacom. Create a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d, where VID:PID is your USB ID as seen by lsusb:

configuration module that allows remapping buttons and mapping a tablet to a monitor. It also supports tablet-specific profiles and hotplugging. It does not work on Wayland as it requires the wacom Xorg driver.

wacom2monitor.sh is a script that maps all Wacom devices using the #Mapping the tablet to a monitor method, and allows cycling between available outputs. It is designed to be activated through Xbindkeys or sxhkd.

AUR is a GTK 2 GUI for mapping a tablet to a monitor. It works by changing the tablet"s Coordinate Transformation Matrix through xinput, so it works regardless of the Xorg driver used (either wacom or libinput).

For the get and set commands, devices can be specified by name or id. Scripts should use names because ids can change after X server restarts or replugging.

Mapping custom commands to tablet buttons can be done through Xbindkeys or sxhkd. First, you may want to remap the button to a function key or mouse button that"s not available on your hardware, such as F20 or mouse button 10. Then follow the configuration instructions for either program.

It is possible to remap your tablet"s buttons through Xorg configuration instead of xsetwacom. When using this method, you can only remap the buttons to mouse buttons.

Because X uses buttons 4-7 as the four scrolling directions, tablet buttons 4 and higher are translated to mouse buttons 8 and higher by default. While xorg.conf uses the actual button numbers, xsetwacom uses the translated mouse button numbers. If you are going to remap your buttons through xorg.conf, the "button 8" example above would use Button4.

Tip: You can look at your tablet"s layout SVG for an overview of its button layout. Find out the filename with a recursive grep search for the tablet name reported by xsetwacom list devices:

In this case the respective layout SVG is /usr/share/libwacom/layouts/bamboo-16fg-s-t.svg. The letters in the SVG correspond to the button numbers: A=1, B=2, C=3, ...

Drawing areas of tablets are generally more square than the usual widescreen display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, leading to a slight vertical compression of your input. To resolve such an aspect ratio mismatch you need to compromise by either reducing the drawing area height (called Force Proportions on Windows) or reducing the screen area width. The former wastes drawing area and the latter prevents you from reaching the right edge of your screen with your Stylus. It is probably still a compromise worth to be made because it prevents your strokes from being skewed.

If you have multiple monitors, it is useful to map your tablet to a single monitor in order to avoid distortions when drawing. This can also be used if you have a graphics tablet with a screen, in order to map the tablet"s active area to its own screen.

If xsetwacom is unable to find your output, you can use the command in #Reducing the screen area width to manually map the tablet to a region matching your monitor. Run:

Where SCREEN_WIDTH and SCREEN_HEIGHT are your monitor"s width and height in pixels, while HORIZONTAL_OFFSET and VERTICAL_OFFSET are the coordinates for your desired monitor, starting from the leftmost and highest pixel in your setup. For example, if you have two 1920x1080 monitors side-by-side, and you want to map your tablet to the rightmost monitor, you would run:

Tip: You can combine this with the formula in #Reducing the screen area width to map the tablet to an output in a way that does not distort the aspect ratio, by replacing SCREEN_WIDTH with the calculated width from the formula.

If all else fails, you will have to adjust your tablet"s Coordinate Transformation Matrix. Instructions to calculate a matrix for your tablet are available in the xf86-input-wacom wiki.

Use the Wacom Pressure Curve and Threshold Graph to find P1=red (eg. 50,0) and P2=purple (eg. 100,80) of your desired curve. The x-axis is the input pressure you apply to the pen; the y-axis is the output pressure the application is given.

It is possible to save your xsetwacom parameters in a shell script that is autostarted through udev with a custom systemd/User unit file. This approach is more complex than autostarting the shell script through your desktop environment or window manager, however, it will run the script every time the tablet is connected to the computer.

Prepare the script for tablet configuration. When started from the systemd user service, the needed variables DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY should already be set. See systemd/User#DISPLAY and XAUTHORITY for details.

The Wacom input devices may not be ready at the time udev invokes the systemd service and the script is started. A workaround is to add sleep 1 at the beginning of your script (more might be needed, e.g. up to 10s for a Cintiq with integrated display due to its startup time). If it is still not working, check [1] for possible solutions.

The button IDs might change each time a tablet is plugged in. Hence, the script should not hardcode the IDs, but parse the correct IDs from the xsetwacom list devices output. See [2] for details.

The Identifier can be arbitrary and is printed into the Xorg log when the section matches. Giving your identifiers a common prefix lets you easily grep for what sections were matched: grep "WACOM OPT" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

To enable proper usage and pressure sensitive painting in GIMP, just go to Edit > Input Devices. Now for each of your eraser, stylus, and cursor devices, set the mode to Screen, and remember to save.

Please take note that if present, the pad device should be kept disabled as I do not think GIMP supports such things. Alternatively, to use such features of your tablet you should map them to keyboard commands with a program such as Wacom ExpressKeys.

You should also take note that the tool selected for the stylus is independent to that of the eraser. This can actually be quite handy, as you can have the eraser set to be used as any tool you like.

If the above was not enough, you may want to try setting up the tablet"s stylus (and eraser) as a second mouse pointer (separating it from your mouse) by using the xinput create-master and xinput reattach commands. It can help when GIMP does not start painting even if the stylus touches the tablet.

Pressure sensitivity in Inkscape is enabled the same way as in GIMP. Go to Edit > Input Devices.... Now for each of your eraser, stylus, and cursor devices, set the mode to Screen, and remember to save.

The "Devices" tab displays the list of detected input devices with little general information. Each one can be assigned to specific tasks by clicking on their parameter in the "Use for..." (Any Task, Ignore, Non-painting tasks, Navigation only) and "Scroll..." (zoom, pan) columns.

Brush settings can be accessed by the brush context menu (right click on a tool). You can duplicate an existing tool before making modification, and so, keep the tool with its default preset ("clone" in the context menu).

To edit brush settings, simply use the Edit Brush settings from the context menu on brush. There are several settings, see the MyPaint documentation for a full description or play with them to discover what they do.

If your tablet does not draw in Krita (clicks/pressure are not registered) but works in the brush selection dialog which has a small test area, try putting Krita in full-screen or canvas-only mode.

Krita only requires that Qt is able to use your tablet to function properly. If your tablet is not working in Krita, then make sure to check it is working in Qt first. The effect of tablet pressure can then be tweaked in the painttop configuration, for example by selecting opacity, then selecting pressure from the drop down and adjusting the curve to your preference.

Note: Krita"s official builds have several patches for Qt and other dependencies. Most of those patches have not reached their project"s upstream yet. If you experience strange issues with Arch Linux"s AUR first.

When you are using Wayland, graphics tablets are handled by libinput. In this scenario, configuration through xsetwacom is not possible. You can only configure your tablet through the settings that are available in your desktop environment or Wayland compositor.

For example, if you have two 1920x1080 monitors side-by-side, and you want to map your tablet to a region in the rightmost monitor, use the following line:

Some tablets may be too recent to be supported by your current kernel. On Wacom devices, this is represented by a "Unknown device_type" message in your dmesg output. In this scenario, it is possible that the out-of-tree version of the drivers have support for your tablet before it is upstreamed to the kernel.

Your logs indicate that the correct driver is selected, and the tablet works. However, when running xsetwacom list devices or use similar tools that depend on the correct driver, you get an empty list.

A reason might be the execution order of your xorg configuration. /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d gets executed first, then /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d. The package /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-wacom.conf. If there is a catchall for tablets, executed after this file, the previously selected wacom driver will be overwritten with a generic one that does not work with xsetwacom et. al.

To make sure, check the rules contained in the files executed after /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-wacom.conf for anything that looks like graphics tablets.

A manual configuration is done in /etc/X11/xorg.conf or in a separate file in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ directory. The Wacom tablet device is accessed using an input event interface in /dev/input/ which is provided by the kernel driver. The interface number event?? is likely to change when unplugging and replugging into the same or especially a different USB port. Therefore it is wise to not refer to the device using its concrete event?? interface (static configuration) but by letting udev dynamically create a symbolic link to the correct event file (dynamic configuration).

If not, your device is likely to be not yet included in the udev configuration from wacom-udev which resides in /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/wacom.rules. Copy the file to /etc/udev/rules.d/wacom.rules and modify it there.

In this example idVendor is 056a and idProduct 0062. In case you have device with touch (e.g. Bamboo Pen&Touch) you might need to add a second line for the touch input interface. For details check the linuxwacom wiki Fixed device files with udev.

Save the file and reload udev"s configuration profile using the command udevadm control --reload-rules Check again the content of /dev/input to make sure that the wacom symlinks appeared. Note that you may need to plug-in the tablet again for the device to appear.

Usually it is recommended to rely on Xorg"s auto-detection or to use a dynamic setup. However for an internal tablet device one might consider a static Xorg setup in case autodetection does not work. A static Xorg setup is usually not able to recognize your Wacom tablet when it is connected to a different USB port or even after unplugging and replugging it into the same port, and as such it should be considered as deprecated.

In either case, dynamic or static setup you got now one or two files in /dev/input/ which refer to the correct input event devices of your tablet. All that is left to do is add the relevant information to /etc/X11/xorg.conf, or a dedicated file under /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/. The exact configuration depends on your tablet"s features of course. xsetwacom list devices might give helpful information on what InputDevice sections are needed for your tablet.

If you are using libinput, graphic tablets that have a stylus and a touchscreen might not support touch arbitration out of the box because the devices are not grouped into the same libinput device group. You can fix this by writing udev rules. For example, if the touchscreen is recognized with 0001:000a and the Wacom tablet with 0002:000b, you can create /etc/udev/rules.d/80-touch-arbitration.rules as a rule that groups these devices into the group f865e87b:

If you have a non-Wacom tablet that has missing features, you can report a tablet test to DIGImend drivers authors in order to include its functionalities into the driver. The DIGImend diagnostic tools are available on the AUR as AUR. You will also need the lsusb and usbhid-dump programs available in

This driver is not applicable for the selected product. Choose another product to re-enter your product details for this driver or visit the Product Support page to view all drivers for a different product.

Dell Technologies recommends applying this update during your next scheduled update cycle. The update contains changes to maintain overall system health. It ensures that the system software remains current and compatible with other system modules (firmware, BIOS, drivers, and software) and may include other new features.

In Gnome, if someone wants to use the GDM theme of a custom gnome-shell theme to have a consistent look trough login/log-out/lock-screen, the settings for mapping the buttons will render a blank overlay with no options.

The device is not recognized, the xinput doesn’t list it, etc, that is most likely due to a not supported device, no specific ID in the /usr/share/libwacom/ for it.

A possible resolution is to install the input-wacom-dkms making sure that the headers for the kernel are installed too, then manually adding the modules to load.

It will not provide a functionality if the modules are not loaded, and still relies in the xf86-input-wacom, libwacom and the Graphical interface for Tablet settings.

In KDE Plasma 5 the kcm-wacomtablet recognizes the pen and tablet but the pen (Stylus) doesn’t draw. By default there are no settings for them, the resolution is:

This product works with devices capable of running the latest version of Chrome OS and has been certified to meet Google"s compatibility standards. Google is not responsible for the operation of this product or its compliance with safety requirements. Android, Chromebook, and the Works With Chromebook badge are trademarks of Google LLC. Pen must be used with the tablet to function with Chrome OS. The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

To test the applications, a Wacom tablet driver must be installed and a supported Wacom tablet must be attached. All Wacom tablets supported by the Wacom driver are supported by this API. Get the driver that supports your device at: https://www.wacom.com/support/product-support/drivers.

In order to run the sample applications, it is necessary to install a Wacom tablet driver, which installs the necessary runtime components that support Wintab .NET. The driver can be found at: https://www.wacom.com/support/product-support/drivers

Open the Wacom Tablet Properties application (from the Start menu, go to Wacom Tablet > Wacom Tablet Properties) to confirm your tablet is recognized.

Open the WintabDN.sln file in Visual Studio. The demo includes all SDK header files needed to build with. Other SDK components necessary to run the demo are installed with the tablet driver.

As the app starts, there should be no warnings. If you do see warnings, be sure the driver is running with the attached, supported, tablet as described above.

If you have questions about the sample application or any of the setup process, please visit our Developer Support page at: https://developer.wacom.com/developer-dashboard/support.

The Wacom Intuos makes all the right compromises for an affordable drawing tablet aimed at beginners that feels capable enough to grow with your skills, and it’s our choice over any other similarly priced option. It was easy to set up and provided accurate and responsive lines from the get-go. The accompanying pen is comfortable enough for long drawing sessions, too. The Intuos is one of the most affordable of Wacom’s tablets, and its overall quality makes it a better value than any of the other graphics tablets we tested, including many with more features. It also comes with a few free software trials that may help you decide what tools are best for you (though we had trouble actually using some of these programs). The Intuos has a software and hardware warranty of two years, in contrast to the one-year warranties included with many other tablets.

Pitted against the non-Wacom tablets we tested, the Intuos offered more control, and we experienced no driver issues or input lag. Although some other tablets claim to offer two times as much pressure sensitivity—8,192 levels versus 4,096 on the Intuos—in practice we were better able to control line weights and thickness with the Wacom tablets. We found it easier to create consistently faint, medium, or dark lines (and to go from one extreme to the other) by varying the pressure we put on the pen.

The Intuos is a small tablet next to some of the competition, but many of our sources preferred the 6-by-3.7-inch active area. “It really helps to have a small compact tablet I can put in front of my laptop,” said Dami Lee. Others, like Cher Threinen-Pendarvis, chose medium tablets for their homes or studios and smaller tablets for travel. Unlike most tablets, the Wacom models have a dot grid printed on the surface that comes in handy when you’re creating artwork that requires precise scale; it can also provide a gentle guide for straight lines. In addition, the drawing surface is textured, so it feels natural, like using a pencil on paper, whereas the surface on the other tablets we tested felt slicker and more like plastic.

Like all of the most recent tablets we tested, the Intuos uses a battery-free stylus. The pen has a storage compartment for spare nibs and a nib extractor inside for when the tip of the pen starts to wear out, and it comes with three extra standard nibs. You can buy a pack of five standard nibs for around $5 as they wear out, or you can choose felt nibs for the same price if you prefer a different texture.

The Intuos lets you customize the pen and tablet to a much greater extent than tested tablets from other brands. In addition to giving you access to support and driver updates, Wacom’s Desktop Center software allows you to customize, back up, and restore tablet and pen functions. In the pen settings, for example, you can set the tip feel or pressure sensitivity. This is like choosing between a soft 2B pencil, which leaves a lot of graphite on the page, and a harder 2H pencil, which leaves lighter, cleaner lines and requires more force to make a mark. You can also adjust the pen’s double-click distance or how far away the pen can be before it registers with the tablet. On other tablets, you can often program pen sensitivity but not the more subtle tip feel.

You can map each of the pen’s buttons and the tablet’s keys to zoom in, right-click, erase, or switch applications. And you can even customize those options by individual program, so the top-left key on the tablet, for instance, could start the “Save for web” action in Photoshop (to replace the awkward Command+Alt+Shift+S keyboard shortcut) or cycle through brush attributes when you’re working in Corel Painter.

Wacom Intuos Pro sets a new standard for professional pen tablets. The new Wacom Pro Pen 2 features impressive pressure-sensitivity, tilt-response and virtually lag-free tracking. Get natural creative control while you illustrate, edit or design digitally with Intuos Pro.

For artists and designers who want to work completely digital from start to finish, Wacom Intuos Pro lets you illustrate, edit or design with more natural creative control than ever before.

The new Wacom Intuos, updated in 2018, is the latest model in Wacom’s entry level lineup of drawing tablets. This is the ideal model for beginner artists or users looking for the maximum portability, as it is much smaller and lighter than a comparable Wacom Intuos Pro or similarly priced products from alternative brands.

Having used most Wacom models and tried various alternative brands for the past 20 years, and after replacing my Intuos Pro Medium with this one for a few weeks, I can vouch on the Intuos Medium model as the best pen tablet for beginner artists. It is also an excellent travel companion for users that already have a Pro model on their main setup and would like a more portable alternative for traveling.

Working with a pen tablet is faster and more efficient than with a mouse. Your hand can travel from point to point on the screen in a single movement instead of repeated slides. More importantly, it also allows for more natural input in activities such as drawing and photo retouching.

All drawing tablets work with absolute positioning, while mice and trackpads are relative positioning devices. This means that instead of dragging the cursor across the screen, on a tablet all you do is move your hand and position the pen tip on the corresponding point of the tablet surface. For example, the top right corner of the tablet corresponds to the top right corner of your screen.

Touching the tip of the pen on the tablet surface is the equivalent of a click, and the pen pressure (plus tilt, on more feature-rich models) can be used to vary stroke width, opacity, effect intensity, and other attributes.

This requires some hand to eye coordination – the same as a mouse – but it is much less expensive and can be more flexible than drawing directly on the screen, like on a pen display (Wacom Cintiq Pro) or a tablet computer (iPad). Drawing directly over the digital canvas makes a lot of sense for illustrators, but is a moot point for most other use cases. For photo retouching and design, for example, placing the hand directly on the display obscures the work and feels less natural than using a pen tablet.

Holding a pen is also much more ergonomic than using a mouse, and most users with repetitive strain injury (RSI) or tendonitis suffer less pain when using a tablet. Working with a mouse requires repetitive wrist movements while the rest of the hand keeps still, creating uneven muscle fatigue. A pen, on the other hand, allows you to work in a more relaxed position and eliminates the forearm twisting that strains muscles and tendons.

At the end of the day, working with a pen tablet feels much more natural and relaxed than using a mouse or trackpad and can be a productivity boost even for general computer usage.

Well, it’s really, really good. So good, actually, that Wacom had to remove multi touch input from this version in order to differentiate it from the more expensive models.

It now has a smaller overall footprint but keeps the same active work area which now extends closer to the tablet edges. The drawing surface has a subtle texture and feels closer to paper in use, but users with heavy pen strokes say it wears nibs faster. I personally don’t have any problems with it and my nibs typically last for more than a year on my other Wacom tablets.

The new pen offers more pressure levels – 4096, double than its predecessor – and has a rubber grip similar to the Wacom Pro Pen 2 used on higher end models. The added pressure levels don’t really make a difference in real world – it’s marketing speak for new and improved – but the better grip and construction feels much better in hand.

Pro pens have two exclusive features that are not available on the regular Intuos: tilt support and an eraser on the other end of the pen. Eraser? Eh. But tilt support is necessary to correctly simulate the shapes of natural brushes, making it a must-have feature for illustrators working in programs that reproduce natural media.

The biggest difference between Intuos and Intuos Pro lineups is that the new Intuos doesn’t offer multi-touch input. I personally miss it a lot, but Wacom may know a little bit more than I do about their own market.

Trading touch input for Bluetooth makes a lot of sense since all cool kids are using laptops nowadays and old curmudgeons like myself, who are still attached to their desktop computers, work on professional environments and can afford the Pro models. For a laptop user, losing multitouch is no big deal, specially considering that it has never matched the quality of a really good trackpad. To be fair, while I regret not having touch support on my desktop computer, I hardly missed it when working on the road with the laptop.

On the other hand, losing multi-touch input means this product is now closer to the competition than ever, making it harder to justify the price difference. The XP-Pen Deco 03 offers a similar work area, battery-free EMR pen, Bluetooth wireless, better pressure sensitivity and resolution specs and good build quality for roughly half the price. Between the two, the Intuos sets itself apart by having better software integration and drivers that are supported for a longer time, making it a lasting investment.

Keep in mind that some of the differences between the Pro and regular models are irrelevant depending on the use case. Photographers, for example, won’t notice the lack of tilt support when retouching their images. Laptop users already have a good multitouch trackpad in front of them all the times, so losing touch support on the tablet itself won’t matter much.

Wacom has switched to an unified driver architecture a couple years ago and this helps to bring pro and regular models closer in software. It is even possible to use multiple tablets at the same time, which is how I worked during the weeks of testing that preceded this review.

The Wacom control panel is similar for both models. Aside from hardware differences, like tilt and touch support, the Pro model offers deeper customization of the pen pressure profile curve, while the regular model only changes the overall pressure sensitivity. Other than that, driver features are the same for both models, albeit with a slightly different interface design.

I tested an Wacom Intuos M on a variety of monitors, ranging from a 13” MacBook Pro to a Dell 30” display running at 2560 x 1600 resolution and it performed admirably in all configurations. Compared to the Intuos Pro Medium that I use daily, the resolution difference only became apparent when switching to dual displays or a single 4K one. In those cases, the Pro’s extra resolution becomes apparent and the regular Intuos feels a little less precise and jumpy.

The mark of a good product is that we don’t really think about it, it just works. This has been my experience with the Wacom Intuos 2018. I don’t miss a thing, except when I reach for a touch gesture. On the laptop, it’s easy to remap your brain to aim navigation gestures at the trackpad, but my desktop doesn’t have one and in those moments I feel the extra $100 for a Pro model on sale is worth it, even for less demanding use.

The Wacom Intuos is available in three different models – Small, Small with Bluetooth and Medium with Bluetooth – each with a selection of bundled software.

Note that the small Intuos models are not among our recommended buys for creative work. The smaller surface area combined with the lower resolution makes it hard to achieve the necessary cursor precision for creative work, specially on higher resolution displays. Those models are more suitable for general computer usage, handwriting recognition and for educational uses.

Losing multi-touch input matters less to laptop users since virtually all laptops have trackpads and some even offer touch screens. On the other hand, the smaller form factor, built-in battery and Bluetooth connectivity more than makes up for it. This is the perfect travel companion for creatives that need to take their work on the road.Photographers, designers, video editors and any creatives, except for illustrators that rely on natural media simulation and users with 4K or multiple displays. For those cases, the Intuos Pro M is a better option.

If you could stretch your budget for an Wacom Intuos Pro, which is often found on sale for about $100 more than this one, I’d recommend it as the best model for illustrators, specially artists who work with programs that simulate natural media. In those cases, having pen tilt support is necessary for more realistic results and a better painting feel.

Event though the regular Intuos offers great bang for the buck, there are a few differences that set the Pro model apart. If you’re choosing between both and have the budget to afford the Pro model, take some time to understand if any those features would be an important asset for your particular use case.Tilt support

Required to correctly simulate the shapes of natural brushes, making it a must-have feature for illustrators working in programs that simulate natural media. Tilt gives much more natural results in those cases and there’s no software workaround for that.Multi-touch input

If you’re a desktop computer user, chances are that you’re going to miss having touch support for OS gestures and navigation. The quality of touch input on an Intuos Pro isn’t up to the best trackpads, but is still very good and comes in handy for zooming, scrolling and switching between windows while working.Higher resolution

Wacom didn’t stand still as computer displays increased in resolution. Current pen tablets offer really high resolution and even the regular Intuos can handle large resolutions with excellent cursor precision. The Intuos M model, for example, can address up to 2540 lines per inch, which translates into 21600 by 13500 points on its surface. Pro models have double the resolution at 5080 lpi and a slightly larger active area. Compared to a typical display resolution, that is plenty.

In practice, I felt comfortable using the Intuos M tablet up to a single 30” display with 2560x1600 pixels. At that resolution, the Pro model felt a bit more precise, but the regular one was still plenty useable. That’s higher than the actual resolution of a 5K iMac running on its native Retina scaling, which is equivalent to a 2560x1440 display.

Users with 4K displays running at their native resolution of 3840x2160 or multiple display users should invest on an Intuos Pro M model, as the resolution difference becomes very apparent in those cases and the regular Intuos M model doesn’t deliver enough accuracy for critical work.Build quality and accessories

The Intuos Pro is better constructed and feels like a luxury product in hand. It’s built like a tank and should last for years of professional use. The Pro lineup also offers more accessories, like optional pens, nibs and surface sheets in difference textures.

Wacom still offers the best pen tablets on the market, but the competition has been heating up on the past few years and now we can find viable competitors from a variety of brands.

Wacom sets itself apart on offering better pen precision, with improved pressure transitions and less wavy diagonal lines than the competition. Driver quality is also better and Wacom tablets tend to be supported for a longer time and have better third party integration than competing brands.

Generally speaking, Wacom products tend to last for more time, not only because of the better hardware quality, but also because the company offers updated drivers for longer than competing brands.

If you’re a beginner illustrator or someone who loves to draw on the road, take a good look at the 6th generation 9.7” Apple iPad with the Apple Pencil. It works really well for illustration, with no pen lag, pen tilt support, imperceptible parallax and a ecosystem of innovative applications like Procreate and Paper by FiftyThree. Getting a super portable computer, top quality monitor and pen for a total of $429 is an unbeatable deal.

On the traditional pen tablets front, there are two brands that set themselves apart as serious Wacom competitors. If you’re on tight budget and cannot stretch it to the $200 range for an Intuos Medium, consider these alternatives below. All of them will give digital artists a better overall experience than a small Intuos model and can cost less than half of the Intuos M with Bluetooth recommended in this article.

None of those products offer pen tilt support, multi-touch or pens with erasers, but the Wacom Intuos also doesn’t and those features are reserved for Pro products on Wacom-land.

Huion offers dozens of products with little differentiation, but has amongst them some good hardware with modest prices and decent performance. Their latest models, like the H1060P, use a battery-free pen with EMR technology similar to Wacom for half the price of an Intuos M.

XP-Pen, a Taiwanese company with Japanese roots, is going straight after Wacom and is their strongest competitor – quality-wise – on this market. Their latest Deco 01 and Deco 03 models are highly rated, offer better specs and really good hardware build quality for less than a comparable Wacom product.

Wacom pen tablets don’t work on the MacOS login screen due to limitations on how input device drivers are loaded on the latest OS versions. Thankfully it’s possible to login using the keyboard alone. It also won’t work during driver or pen firmware updates – on both MacOS and Windows – requiring a mouse so you can complete the process. I use a Wacom pen tablet as my sole input method, but keep an inexpensive wireless mouse in a drawer for those situations.Bluetooth is great but USB is bulletproof

I don’t feel any extra Bluetooth delay and never had any problems with it, but you mileage may vary as wireless connections are always less reliable than a cable, specially on environments with lots of radio frequency interference. USB 3 hard drives are notorious for interference on the 2.4Ghz frequency used by Bluetooth. Symptoms include lag and spotty connections.Don’t drop your pen

Wacom pens work with electro-magnetic resonance technology and contain inside a small ferrite core with a coil wound over it. Ferrite is as hard as ceramic and breaks easily when dropped. Replacement pens can be expensive. A Wacom Pen 4K for the Intuos models costs $30, for example.Take your time to customize the ExpressKeys

The ExpressKeys can be set up with a custom configuration for each program. It’s a tedious process, but a real productivity boost when you get it right. Thankfully settings can be backed up and exported using the Wacom Desktop Center application.