Electronic Drawing Pads

What is an electronic drawing pad?An electronic drawing pad is a tablet type of input device that can be used in place of a mouse or other pointing device. An electronic drawing pad consists of a flat surface for drawing, a stylus, and a pen that are programmed to work with the electronic drawing pad. Some drawing pads will come with a cordless mouse that will work on the tablet surface. A potential buyer may end up choosing an electronic drawing pad over a standard mouse because it can help reduce the chance of developing a repetitive strain injury.The size of an electronic drawing pad is one of the first factors that you may want to think about when choosing a tablet, a bigger pad isn't necessarily better. The most common size pad are 4" by 5" and 6" by 8". Artists, engineers and technical illustrators may wish for a larger surface area, but the price increases substantially as the size of the electronic drawing pad increases. The larger your drawing pad surface is, the more you'll need to move your arms. An illustrator or artist who is used to drawing or painting with a natural wide sweeping motion may feel more restricted with a small pad, many people, however prefer to use a smaller dad in order to limit arm motion. One thing to keep in mind about the size of an electronic drawing pad is that the dimensions given almost always refer to the input surface area of the pad. The footprint of the drawing pad can be as much as 3 to 4 inches larger than the input area. The popular sizes of electronic drawing pads are usually 4x5, 6x8, and 9x12 which conveniently matches up to the 4:3 aspect ratio of standard computer monitors. It is, however, not necessary that your drawing pad match the aspect ratio of your monitor. Your drawing pad software will take care of the mapping. Your interface will be the medium between how your drawing pad connects to your computer. The electronic drawing pad you'll be shopping for will more than likely have a USB interface.A USB input is ideal due to the fact that most computers support USB. You will be able to move the drawing pad back and forth between computers more easily.You'll need to find an electronic drawing pad with a serial interface if you have an older computer that does not support a USB interface. You'll want to be sure your computer has an available serial port that does not conflict with any other of your computer's devices. Bluetooth is another alternative for connecting a graphics drawing pad to your computer, a great wireless option. Bluetooth is a wireless protocol frequently used for connecting electronics devices. Currently, there aren't many manufacturers of a Bluetooth-capable electronic drawing pad, Wacom is the only manufacturer in the industry as of the publishing of this article that offers a Bluetooth compatible drawing pad.An electronic drawing pad should come with a pen that feels comfortable and natural in your hand. The pen or stylus may be bound to the pad or free. If the pen is free to roam you will definitely need to be more careful about losing or misplacing the pen. If the stylus is bound to the pad, make sure you can choose which side of the pad to attach the pen. Many pens will also have buttons situated on the pen, and some pens even have an erasing end, an excellent feature because the buttons can be programmed for common functions such as a right-click or double-click, and the erasing tip can execute a delete function.Finally, you'll need to review the pressure level of your electronic drawing pad. Pressure level refers to the sensitivity to pressure on the surface of the drawing pad. The higher the pressure sensitivity, the more responsive your drawing pad will be and the more control you will have. Common drawing pads have either 256, 512, or 1024 pressure levels. Pressure sensitivity can control line thickness, transparency, and/or color. Electronic Drawing Pads

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