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"Santa" was asking me what I want for Christmas and I could really only think of a digital tablet and stylus.  Sadly, I was unable to give "Santa" the exact model I wanted so I wanted to see what others were using and how they like them.  I know Wacom has the bamboo which works with Adobe products and I'm assuming that it would work with Designer as well.  If anyone has some suggestions please let me know.  

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XP-Pen Deco 03 is a very good tablet for the price.

It depends what Santa has allowed you for a budget too. I use the XP-Pen Artist 12 which is a drawing display and very good, you need good eyesight though. 

 

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

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I've always gone for Wacom: Intuos 5/Pro at the moment but I've basically worked with their entire line of products going back to the late 90's. Has always worked as advertised for me. It's also the only brand I've ever encountered in the workplace.

Whichever brand and model you end up choosing - the tablet will function as a general input device for your OS across all applications.

 

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Yes, XP-PEN Deco 03 is a very good choice. I have not found a better quality/price ratio. It has a size bigger than Wacom Medium. Which is the minimal size I recommend for actual drawing. The XP-Pen Deco 03, for around 100$ in Amazon, oficial XP-PEN shop, is... well, not just a bargain, a steal.

I'm a Wacom person...I believe one does not need a Wacom Intuos Pro. You are good to go with Wacom Intuos Art or the like, IF is the Medium size. My own, personal preference is Wacom, despite how much praise I have for that Deco 03. I see two golden, "best purchases" in Wacom line, depending the budget range:  Wacom Intuos Medium (no pro) I believe for around 250$, but don't quote me on that, or, my fav tablet right now (I use an Intuos Pro 4 XL, 800$ EVEN NOW, is still sold, tho never produced, because people keep wanting it!! HAHA. But u need a swimming pool size table. And long arms. LOL ) would be the L. The Wacom Intuos Pro Large. XL is excessive, L is a dream come true for an illustrator. Is the right size. Also for comic inking, etc.  I definitely wouldn't go for an Intuos Pro Medium. Makes no sense to me, tho is probably the one most purchased. It has pro features, yep, but a lot of us don't use tilt features, and a lot of the most convenient pro things have been moved to the "basic" (how can it be called so, if is good for a pro...) Intuos gamma. You spend quite some money (near to 500, I believe) while you get virtually almost the same core functionality and active area than with the wonderful Intuos Medium. That said, I like precision in the brush lines. I so am only happy with L and + sizes. One thing to mention, though, these days most packages have some sort of line stabilizers, and AP and AD ones are good. This makes most medium sizes workable, good enough tools. I wouldn't go with Small size (A5 and A6, I believe) just in very specific cases/uses. I work in a bunch of areas/fields, so I'll tell you what I find the best size for each use. Is a bit of common knowledge among a few pros, but there's disparity of opinions : A lot of people would not agree with any of what i am saying, but here goes the list :

- Comic, specially if inking regularly ---> Wacom L. Or any cintiq alternative, non wacom brand. Even the cintiq 16 (imo 13 is too small for comfort) is way too pricey for the usual comic artist indie/pro.  XP-PEN has an amazoing 22 Pro model at around 800 bucks. Huion has more variety , with models like 191 v2, which is VERY interesting in price, yet a nice size. I'd only go for a 22, but that's me. The Wacom L also gives you the Paper edition, that allows inking on Paper. It might worth it for inking, but I have not tired that yet.

- Pixel art --> You are good to go with even a small size. Wacom has a very nice price no this, and if want a durable piece, IMO, the only thing really tested in that regard is WACOM, no matter the size. Is the deluxe brand for something (just look at the number of test labs each product pass! Is crazy. And those tests cost them a lot of money. A lot of people that complain about its pricing don't consider things like this. That said, I believe their cintiq line is highly overpriced, just for market dominance. But the averag jane//joe tablets are priced almost right for what they provide with.

- Digital painting, if not doing comic inking(which I do :( ) , or, heavily line-art based illustration (my case), I mean, if one is just doing digital painting illustration, concept art... Then a medium does the deal. For the eventual rare line art, or precision detail that needs the line perfect in a row, instead of multiple brush actions, well, one could always activate at low level the line stabilizer. So, for this one imo, if willing to save bucks, and/or need all the desktop table space for other things, the keytboard, mouse, etc. Then yep, Wacom Medium / Deco 03 is the way to go. That said, IMO, a Wacom L is BETTER also for digital painting. But that's go with each person's preferences. Indeed, the best solution for this field is imo a hybrid: A pen-tablet for being able to stay painting very long hours sessions, but a pen-display (cintiq alternative) for medium sessions to speed up, as is faster than a pen-tablet. I don't believe in a cintiq only workflow for peopel with 8 -10 hours sessions a day, during years...but that's me. Bottom line: You can do in this category quite well with just an Intuos (non pro) Medium or a Deco 03. So, is a "cheap category".

- Photo retouch only. You are good to go with a Wacom Small. You will want to focus on fine tuning very well all the pressure settings, both in the driver panel, and in each app you use. As is key to have a lot of control on how it reacts to the actual pressure. I might go Wacom here. When you are using a tablet in the way is used for photo retouch, you probably don't want it to be an XL. But a device that plays well with all other devices, doesn't grab a large amount of space. That said, a lot of photographers prefer a cintiq alternative at 22" inches Bosto, yiynova, Huion or the like. Which is probably dangerous : You need a lot of color accuracy. Of course this people will have a pro or semi pro monitor were they can check the colors, and not rely on the pen-display image, but imo is a very cumbersome workflow. In this regard, I only see a good shot going for the Pro 16" version of XP-PEN, or the pro 16" version of Artisul. They have a 92% and 94% Adobe RGB coverage (and of course, ful sRGB). For some reasons, not seeing this level in the 22 inches of any brand. Must be a tech limitation reason. Although XP Pen 22 PRO version supports a 88% of NTSC, which is quite much. So, in this category, imo best bet is a small ("Small") regular tablet, and if going cintiq-like, be sure to get one with an amazing screen, which is very very rare in the alternatives. Those two 16" models would be my bet, if I wouldn't hate any screen size lower than 22". Good news is that if going the regular tablet path, your putting 100 and sth bucks if the A5/A6 is Wacom, and alternative brands are as cheap as 50-60 bucsk. If going non wacom, PLEASE, get a batter-free pen. Chances of jittery lines with the battery based alternatives are high. At this price range, it does not worth it imo to risk it with a non Wacom. At small size, go Wacom, that's my advice. 

- Vector works. Unless it's illustration with line art, or comic (I'd refer to previous comments), I think it's fine a small tablet. Again, Wacom offers the tested reliability, so, to each his own. I recommend Wacom here again because we're considering here low prices, even with big differences. But it's really low money. A Medium would give you better control, but if really is only for some works, and you have been doing fine with vectors with only the mouse, the small is not a bad bet. It depends enormously in what is your exact workflow, tho. For many, in this category a Medium size is a must.

- 3D works. Good to go with a Small or Medium. You need also comfortable distribution as you are using keyboard commands constantly, also typing numbers, etc. And you probably need to use the mouse a lot. My usual distribution with all tablets is keyboard at the left, tablet in the middle, mouse at right (I'm right handed, just invert if not).  This is amazingly good distribution specially with small and medium tablets. Great for productivity.(worked so in a bunch of game companies, tho I did all, 3D-2D with this distribution)

- 2D animation....IMO, in many cases a medium size is good. Also, in the cintiq-alternative zone, seems a lot of flash animators find the 16" size quite good (ie, the artisul and xp-pen models). I'd go 22 or L, but I've found a majority of flash animators preferring the 13-16 pen-displays. For traditional tablets, well, if using the stabilizers CC Animate (Flash) has, or, any other app with line stabilizer, then I guess Medium sizes are fine. For very accurate in line, despite absolutely nothing beats yet pen and paper ( a lot of studios still use this), I'd quite go with a large cintiq, cintiq-like,  being a very nice bet a Dell Canvas 27 (1700$) ,or at least, a Wacom L. But for flash-web animation, heck, good to go with a medium or 16".

 

But those are my opinions. For just playing around a bit.... if mostly for photo retouch and vectors (AD), a Wacom Small does the deal. If illustration and drawing is involved, I'd go for Wacom MEDIUM, or the XP-PEN Deco 03. These two make the deal with practically any category, which make them very attractive. There's literally nothing you wouldn't be able to do with these two (and in some cases, the line stabilizer help).

 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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