Question Digital drawing pad and pens, etc...

[Eamonn100]

I am researching what technology is current at the moment for drawing on your PC digitally.

(1). I've seen people using a pad device connected to the PC with a pen and just drawing on it as though it was a piece of paper and you see what's being drawing on the pad, on the PC screen.

(2). Also I've saw people just drawing on a pad/tablet like a piece of paper and you see it on the pad/tablet screen.

(3). Also I've seen pens suspended on an articulated arm, and used much the same as above.

Are there another's I haven't mentioned above? What are the design industries using? What's best practice in the design industries?

 

[NorbertPlays]

Option 2 (usually called a "pen tablet") is generally the norm. Option 1 is cheaper but drawing in one place while looking in another takes some getting used to, and option 3 is either a legacy product or has a specialised use. As far as pen tablets go, the Wacom Cintiq is the top end but other manufacturers aren't far behind - I use a Huion Kamvas Pro and have no complaints. Look up Brad Colbow on YouTube as he does a lot of reviews and comparisons of a wide range of them.

 

[Eamonn100]

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Option 2 (usually called a "pen tablet") is generally the norm. Option 1 is cheaper but drawing in one place while looking in another takes some getting used to, and option 3 is either a legacy product or has a specialised use. As far as pen tablets go, the Wacom Cintiq is the top end but other manufacturers aren't far behind - I use a Huion Kamvas Pro and have no complaints. Look up Brad Colbow on YouTube as he does a lot of reviews and comparisons of a wide range of them.

Excellent, thanks for that.

Can I ask what you do with your Huion Kamvas Pro?

 

[Eamonn100]

Also, what software can be used on them? Photoshop,Adobe, etc?

 

[NorbertPlays]

I do stuff like this. Pretty much every graphics program should work with pretty much every tablet - I mostly use a combination of Photoshop, Corel Painter, and Illustrator, and they make use of the full range of hardware features (things like pressure, tilt, and rotation) - and even software like Blender and Maya offer support.

Outside of things that specifically make use of a pen tablet, it also acts like a standard pointing device so pretty much any program that lets you use a mouse will also work, plus there's things like Windows Ink to offer handwriting recognition in any Windows application.