Graphics tablet
Encyclopedia
A graphics tablet is a computer input device
that enables a user to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way a person draws images with a pencil and paper. These tablets may also be used to capture data or handwritten signatures. It can also be used to trace an image from a piece of paper which is taped or otherwise secured to the surface. Capturing data in this way, either by tracing or entering the corners of linear poly-lines or shapes is called digitizing
.
A graphics tablet (also called pen pad or digitizer) consists of a flat surface upon which the user may "draw" or trace an image using an attached stylus
, a pen-like drawing apparatus. The image generally does not appear on the tablet itself but, rather, is displayed on the computer monitor
. Some tablets, however, come as a functioning secondary computer screen that you can interact with images directly by using the stylus.
Some tablets are intended as a general replacement for a mouse as the primary pointing and navigation device for desktop computers.
, patented by Elisha Gray
in 1888. Elisha Gray is best known as a contemporaneous inventor of the telephone to Alexander Graham Bell.
The first graphics tablet resembling contemporary tablets and used for handwriting recognition by a computer was the Stylator in 1957. Better known (and often mis-stated as the first digitizer tablet) is the RAND Tablet also known as the Grafacon (for Graphic Converter), introduced in 1964. The RAND Tablet employed a grid of wires under the surface of the pad that encoded horizontal and vertical coordinates in a small magnetic signal. The stylus would receive the magnetic signal, which could then be decoded back as coordinate information.
Other graphics tablets a commonly known as spark
or acoustic tablet
s, used a stylus that generated clicks with a spark plug
. The clicks were then triangulated by a series of microphones to locate the pen in space. The system was fairly complex and expensive, and the sensors were susceptible to interference by external noise.
Digitizers were popularized in the mid 1970s and early 1980s by the commercial success of the ID (Intelligent Digitizer) and BitPad manufactured by the Summagraphics Corp. These digitizers were used as the input device for many high-end CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems as well as bundled with PC's and PC based CAD software like AutoCAD
.
version of its BitPad which was sold by Apple Computer
as the Apple Graphics Tablet accessory to their Apple II
. These tablets used a magnetostriction
technology which used wires made of a special alloy
stretched over a solid substrate to accurately locate the tip of a stylus or the center of a digitizer cursor on the surface of the tablet. This technology also allowed Proximity or "Z" axis measurement.
The first home computer
graphics tablet was the KoalaPad
. Though originally designed for the Apple II
, the Koala eventually broadened its applicability to practically all home computers with graphics support, examples of which include the TRS-80 Color Computer
, Commodore 64
, and Atari 8-bit family
. Competing tablets were eventually produced; the tablets produced by Atari
were generally considered to be of high quality.
In 1981, musician Todd Rundgren
created the first color graphics tablet software for personal computers, which was licensed to Apple as the Utopia Graphics Tablet System.
In the 1980s, several vendors of graphics tablets began to include additional functions, such as handwriting recognition
and on-tablet menus.
Passive tablets: Passive tablets, most notably those by Wacom
, make use of electromagnetic induction
technology, where the horizontal and vertical wires of the tablet operate as both transmitting and receiving coils (as opposed to the wires of the RAND Tablet which only transmit). The tablet generates an electromagnetic signal, which is received by the LC circuit
in the stylus. The wires in the tablet then change to a receiving mode and read the signal generated by the stylus. Modern arrangements also provide pressure
sensitivity and one or more switches (similar to the buttons on a mouse), with the electronics for this information present in the stylus itself, not the tablet. On older tablets, changing the pressure on the stylus nib or pressing a switch changed the properties of the LC circuit, affecting the signal generated by the pen, which modern ones often encode into the signal as a digital data stream. By using electromagnetic signals, the tablet is able to sense the stylus position without the stylus having to even touch the surface, and powering the pen with this signal means that devices used with the tablet never need batteries. Activslate 50, the model used with Promethean Ltd
white boards, also uses a hybrid of this technology.
Active tablets: Active tablets differ in that the stylus used contains self-powered electronics that generate and transmit a signal to the tablet. These styli rely on an internal battery rather than the tablet for their power, resulting in a bulkier stylus. Eliminating the need to power the pen means that such tablets may listen for pen signals constantly, as they do not have to alternate between transmit and receive modes, which can result in less jitter.
Optical tablets: Optical tablets operate by a very small digital camera in the stylus, and then doing pattern matching on the image of the paper. The most successful example is the technology developed by Anoto
.
Acoustic tablets: Early models were described as spark tablets—a small sound generator was mounted in the stylus, and the acoustic signal picked up by two microphones placed near the writing surface. Some modern designs are able to read positions in three dimensions.
Electromagnetic tablets: Wacom
's are one example of a graphics tablet that works by generating and detecting an electromagnetic signal: in the Wacom design, the signal is generated by the pen, and detected by a grid of wires in the tablet. Other designs such as those by Pencept generate a signal in the grid of wires in the tablet, and detect it in the pen.
Capacitive tablets: These tablets have also been designed to use an electrostatic or capacitive signal. Scriptel's designs are one example of a high-performance tablet detecting an electrostatic signal. Unlike the type of capacitive design used for touchscreen
s, the Scriptel design is able to detect the position of the pen while it is in proximity to, or hovering above, the tablet. Many multi-touch tablets use capacitive sensing.
For all these technologies, the tablet can use the received signal to also determine the distance of the stylus from the surface of the tablet, the tilt (angle from vertical) of the stylus, and other information in addition to the horizontal and vertical positions.
Compared to touch-sensitive touchscreen
s, a graphics tablet generally offers much higher precision, the ability to track an object which is not touching the tablet, and can gather much more information about the stylus, but is typically more expensive, and can only be used with the special stylus or other accessories.
Some tablets, especially inexpensive ones aimed at young children, come with a corded stylus, using technology similar to older RAND tablets, although this design is no longer used on any normal tablets.
which allows the user to see the exact point on the tablet's surface targeted by the puck, for detailed tracing and CAD work.
, especially two-dimensional computer graphics. Indeed, many graphics packages are able to make use of the pressure (and, sometimes, stylus tilt or rotation) information generated by a tablet, by modifying the brush size, shape, opacity
, color
, or other attributes based on data received from the graphics tablet.
In East Asia, graphics tablets, or pen tablets as they are known, are widely used in conjunction with input method editor software (IME
s) to write Chinese, Japanese, Korean characters (CJK
). The technology is popular and inexpensive and offers a method for interacting with the computer in a more natural way than typing on the keyboard, with the pen tablet supplanting the role of the computer mouse. Uptake of handwriting recognition
among users that use alphabetic scripts has been slower.
Graphic Tablets are also very commonly found in the artistic world. Using a pen on a graphics tablet combined with a graphics editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop
, give artists a lot of precision while creating digital drawings. Photographers can also find working with a graphics tablet during their post processing can really speed tasks like creating a detailed layer mask or dodging and burning.
Educators make use of tablets in classrooms to project handwritten notes or lessons and allow students to do the same, as well as providing feedback on student work submitted electronically. Online teachers may also use a tablet for marking student work, or for live tutorials or lessons, especially where complex visual information or mathematics equations are required.
Tablets are also popular for technical drawing
s and CAD, as one can put a piece of paper on them without interfering with their function.
Finally, tablets are gaining popularity as a replacement for the computer mouse as a pointing device. They can be more intuitive to some users than a mouse, as the position of a pen on a tablet typically corresponds to the location of the pointer on the GUI
shown on the computer screen. Those artists using a pen for graphics work will as a matter of convenience use a tablet and pen for standard computer operations rather than put down the pen and find a mouse.
Graphics tablets are available in various sizes and price ranges; A6
-sized tablets being relatively inexpensive and A3
-sized tablets being far more expensive. Modern tablets usually connect to the computer via a USB
interface.
s offer high resolution wall size graphic tablets up to 95" along with options for pressure and multiple input. These are becoming commonplace in schools and meeting rooms around the world.
Touch screens like those found on some tablet computer
s and the Nintendo DS
are operated in similar ways, but they usually use either optical grids or a pressure sensitive film instead, and therefore they do not need a special pointing device.
The graphics tablet are also used for Audio Haptic products where blind or visually impaired people touch swelled graphics on a graphic tablet and get audio feedback from that. The product that is using this technology is called Tactile Talking Tablet
or T3.
Input device
In computing, an input device is any peripheral used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system such as a computer or other information appliance...
that enables a user to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way a person draws images with a pencil and paper. These tablets may also be used to capture data or handwritten signatures. It can also be used to trace an image from a piece of paper which is taped or otherwise secured to the surface. Capturing data in this way, either by tracing or entering the corners of linear poly-lines or shapes is called digitizing
Digitizing
Digitizing or digitization is the representation of an object, image, sound, document or a signal by a discrete set of its points or samples. The result is called digital representation or, more specifically, a digital image, for the object, and digital form, for the signal...
.
A graphics tablet (also called pen pad or digitizer) consists of a flat surface upon which the user may "draw" or trace an image using an attached stylus
Stylus (computing)
In computing, a stylus is a small pen-shaped instrument that is used to input commands to a computer screen, mobile device or graphics tablet...
, a pen-like drawing apparatus. The image generally does not appear on the tablet itself but, rather, is displayed on the computer monitor
Computer display
A monitor or display is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry, and an enclosure...
. Some tablets, however, come as a functioning secondary computer screen that you can interact with images directly by using the stylus.
Some tablets are intended as a general replacement for a mouse as the primary pointing and navigation device for desktop computers.
History and background
The first electronic handwriting tablet was the TelautographTelautograph
The telautograph, an analog precursor to the modern fax machine, transmits electrical impulses recorded by potentiometers at the sending station to servomechanisms attached to a pen at the receiving station, thus reproducing at the receiving station a drawing or signature made by the sender...
, patented by Elisha Gray
Elisha Gray
Elisha Gray was an American electrical engineer who co-founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company...
in 1888. Elisha Gray is best known as a contemporaneous inventor of the telephone to Alexander Graham Bell.
The first graphics tablet resembling contemporary tablets and used for handwriting recognition by a computer was the Stylator in 1957. Better known (and often mis-stated as the first digitizer tablet) is the RAND Tablet also known as the Grafacon (for Graphic Converter), introduced in 1964. The RAND Tablet employed a grid of wires under the surface of the pad that encoded horizontal and vertical coordinates in a small magnetic signal. The stylus would receive the magnetic signal, which could then be decoded back as coordinate information.
Other graphics tablets a commonly known as spark
Acoustic tablet
An acoustic tablet, also known as a spark tablet, is a form of graphics tablet that uses sound to locate the position of the stylus within the drawing area....
or acoustic tablet
Acoustic tablet
An acoustic tablet, also known as a spark tablet, is a form of graphics tablet that uses sound to locate the position of the stylus within the drawing area....
s, used a stylus that generated clicks with a spark plug
Spark plug
A spark plug is an electrical device that fits into the cylinder head of some internal combustion engines and ignites compressed fuels such as aerosol, gasoline, ethanol, and liquefied petroleum gas by means of an electric spark.Spark plugs have an insulated central electrode which is connected by...
. The clicks were then triangulated by a series of microphones to locate the pen in space. The system was fairly complex and expensive, and the sensors were susceptible to interference by external noise.
Digitizers were popularized in the mid 1970s and early 1980s by the commercial success of the ID (Intelligent Digitizer) and BitPad manufactured by the Summagraphics Corp. These digitizers were used as the input device for many high-end CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems as well as bundled with PC's and PC based CAD software like AutoCAD
AutoCAD
AutoCAD is a software application for computer-aided design and drafting in both 2D and 3D. It is developed and sold by Autodesk, Inc. First released in December 1982, AutoCAD was one of the first CAD programs to run on personal computers, notably the IBM PC...
.
Apple Computer
Summagraphics also made an OEMOEM
OEM means the original manufacturer of a component for a product, which may be resold by another company.OEM may also refer to:-Computing:* OEM font, or OEM-US, the original character set of the IBM PC, circa 1981...
version of its BitPad which was sold by Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
as the Apple Graphics Tablet accessory to their Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
. These tablets used a magnetostriction
Magnetostriction
Magnetostriction is a property of ferromagnetic materials that causes them to change their shape or dimensions during the process of magnetization. The variation of material's magnetization due to the applied magnetic field changes the magnetostrictive strain until reaching its saturation value, λ...
technology which used wires made of a special alloy
Alloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
stretched over a solid substrate to accurately locate the tip of a stylus or the center of a digitizer cursor on the surface of the tablet. This technology also allowed Proximity or "Z" axis measurement.
The first home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
graphics tablet was the KoalaPad
KoalaPad/Painter
The KoalaPad is a graphics tablet produced from 1984 by U.S. company Koala Technologies for several early 8-bit home computers, including the Apple II family, TRS-80 Color Computer , Atari 8-bit family, and Commodore 64, as well as for the IBM PC.Originally designed by Dr...
. Though originally designed for the Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
, the Koala eventually broadened its applicability to practically all home computers with graphics support, examples of which include the TRS-80 Color Computer
TRS-80 Color Computer
The Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer was a home computer launched in 1980. It was one of the earliest of the first generation of computers marketed for home use in English-speaking markets...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, and Atari 8-bit family
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...
. Competing tablets were eventually produced; the tablets produced by Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
were generally considered to be of high quality.
In 1981, musician Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
created the first color graphics tablet software for personal computers, which was licensed to Apple as the Utopia Graphics Tablet System.
In the 1980s, several vendors of graphics tablets began to include additional functions, such as handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
and on-tablet menus.
Operation
There have been many attempts to categorize the technologies that have been used for graphics tablets, some of which are listed below:Passive tablets: Passive tablets, most notably those by Wacom
Wacom
in Krefeld, Germany. Wacom is a Japanese portmanteau: Wa for "harmony" or "circle", and Komu for "computer". Wacom tablets are notable for their use of a patented cordless, battery-free, and pressure-sensitive stylus or digital pen...
, make use of electromagnetic induction
Electromagnetic induction
Electromagnetic induction is the production of an electric current across a conductor moving through a magnetic field. It underlies the operation of generators, transformers, induction motors, electric motors, synchronous motors, and solenoids....
technology, where the horizontal and vertical wires of the tablet operate as both transmitting and receiving coils (as opposed to the wires of the RAND Tablet which only transmit). The tablet generates an electromagnetic signal, which is received by the LC circuit
LC circuit
An LC circuit, also called a resonant circuit or tuned circuit, consists of an inductor, represented by the letter L, and a capacitor, represented by the letter C...
in the stylus. The wires in the tablet then change to a receiving mode and read the signal generated by the stylus. Modern arrangements also provide pressure
Pressure
Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...
sensitivity and one or more switches (similar to the buttons on a mouse), with the electronics for this information present in the stylus itself, not the tablet. On older tablets, changing the pressure on the stylus nib or pressing a switch changed the properties of the LC circuit, affecting the signal generated by the pen, which modern ones often encode into the signal as a digital data stream. By using electromagnetic signals, the tablet is able to sense the stylus position without the stylus having to even touch the surface, and powering the pen with this signal means that devices used with the tablet never need batteries. Activslate 50, the model used with Promethean Ltd
Promethean Ltd
Promethean World plc is based in Blackburn in Lancashire. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index...
white boards, also uses a hybrid of this technology.
Active tablets: Active tablets differ in that the stylus used contains self-powered electronics that generate and transmit a signal to the tablet. These styli rely on an internal battery rather than the tablet for their power, resulting in a bulkier stylus. Eliminating the need to power the pen means that such tablets may listen for pen signals constantly, as they do not have to alternate between transmit and receive modes, which can result in less jitter.
Optical tablets: Optical tablets operate by a very small digital camera in the stylus, and then doing pattern matching on the image of the paper. The most successful example is the technology developed by Anoto
Anoto
Anoto Group AB is a Swedish technology company which has invented, developed and licensed a product line of digital pens and a product suite to manage information capturing utilizing these . The Anoto Group has around 110 employees...
.
Acoustic tablets: Early models were described as spark tablets—a small sound generator was mounted in the stylus, and the acoustic signal picked up by two microphones placed near the writing surface. Some modern designs are able to read positions in three dimensions.
Electromagnetic tablets: Wacom
Wacom
in Krefeld, Germany. Wacom is a Japanese portmanteau: Wa for "harmony" or "circle", and Komu for "computer". Wacom tablets are notable for their use of a patented cordless, battery-free, and pressure-sensitive stylus or digital pen...
's are one example of a graphics tablet that works by generating and detecting an electromagnetic signal: in the Wacom design, the signal is generated by the pen, and detected by a grid of wires in the tablet. Other designs such as those by Pencept generate a signal in the grid of wires in the tablet, and detect it in the pen.
Capacitive tablets: These tablets have also been designed to use an electrostatic or capacitive signal. Scriptel's designs are one example of a high-performance tablet detecting an electrostatic signal. Unlike the type of capacitive design used for touchscreen
Touchscreen
A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
s, the Scriptel design is able to detect the position of the pen while it is in proximity to, or hovering above, the tablet. Many multi-touch tablets use capacitive sensing.
For all these technologies, the tablet can use the received signal to also determine the distance of the stylus from the surface of the tablet, the tilt (angle from vertical) of the stylus, and other information in addition to the horizontal and vertical positions.
Compared to touch-sensitive touchscreen
Touchscreen
A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
s, a graphics tablet generally offers much higher precision, the ability to track an object which is not touching the tablet, and can gather much more information about the stylus, but is typically more expensive, and can only be used with the special stylus or other accessories.
Some tablets, especially inexpensive ones aimed at young children, come with a corded stylus, using technology similar to older RAND tablets, although this design is no longer used on any normal tablets.
Tablet products
 |
 |
|
Puck
After styli, pucks are the most commonly used tablet accessory. A puck is a mouse-like device that can detect its absolute position and rotation. This is opposed to mice, which can only sense their relative velocity on a surface (most tablet drivers are capable of allowing a puck to emulate a mouse in operation, and many pucks are marketed as "mice".) Pucks range in size and shape, some are externally indistinguishable from a mouse, while others are fairly large device with dozens of buttons and controls. Professional pucks often have a reticle or loupeLoupe
A loupe is a simple, small magnification device used to see small details more closely. Unlike a magnifying glass, a loupe does not have an attached handle, and its focusing lens are contained in an opaque cylinder or cone. Loupes are also called hand lenses .- Optics :Three basic types of loupes...
which allows the user to see the exact point on the tablet's surface targeted by the puck, for detailed tracing and CAD work.
General uses
Graphics tablets, because of their stylus-based interface and ability to detect some or all of pressure, tilt, and other attributes of the stylus and its interaction with the tablet, are widely considered to offer a very natural way to create computer graphicsComputer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
, especially two-dimensional computer graphics. Indeed, many graphics packages are able to make use of the pressure (and, sometimes, stylus tilt or rotation) information generated by a tablet, by modifying the brush size, shape, opacity
Opacity (optics)
Opacity is the measure of impenetrability to electromagnetic or other kinds of radiation, especially visible light. In radiative transfer, it describes the absorption and scattering of radiation in a medium, such as a plasma, dielectric, shielding material, glass, etc...
, color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
, or other attributes based on data received from the graphics tablet.
In East Asia, graphics tablets, or pen tablets as they are known, are widely used in conjunction with input method editor software (IME
Input method editor
An input method is an operating system component or program that allows any data, such as keyboard strokes or mouse movements, to be received as input. In this way users can enter characters and symbols not found on their input devices...
s) to write Chinese, Japanese, Korean characters (CJK
CJK
CJK is a collective term for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, which is used in the field of software and communications internationalization.The term CJKV means CJK plus Vietnamese, which constitute the main East Asian languages.- Characteristics :...
). The technology is popular and inexpensive and offers a method for interacting with the computer in a more natural way than typing on the keyboard, with the pen tablet supplanting the role of the computer mouse. Uptake of handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition
Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or...
among users that use alphabetic scripts has been slower.
Graphic Tablets are also very commonly found in the artistic world. Using a pen on a graphics tablet combined with a graphics editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
, give artists a lot of precision while creating digital drawings. Photographers can also find working with a graphics tablet during their post processing can really speed tasks like creating a detailed layer mask or dodging and burning.
Educators make use of tablets in classrooms to project handwritten notes or lessons and allow students to do the same, as well as providing feedback on student work submitted electronically. Online teachers may also use a tablet for marking student work, or for live tutorials or lessons, especially where complex visual information or mathematics equations are required.
Tablets are also popular for technical drawing
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
s and CAD, as one can put a piece of paper on them without interfering with their function.
Finally, tablets are gaining popularity as a replacement for the computer mouse as a pointing device. They can be more intuitive to some users than a mouse, as the position of a pen on a tablet typically corresponds to the location of the pointer on the GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
shown on the computer screen. Those artists using a pen for graphics work will as a matter of convenience use a tablet and pen for standard computer operations rather than put down the pen and find a mouse.
Graphics tablets are available in various sizes and price ranges; A6
ISO 216
ISO 216 specifies international standard paper sizes used in most countries in the world today. It defines the "A" and "B" series of paper sizes, including A4, the most commonly available size...
-sized tablets being relatively inexpensive and A3
ISO 216
ISO 216 specifies international standard paper sizes used in most countries in the world today. It defines the "A" and "B" series of paper sizes, including A4, the most commonly available size...
-sized tablets being far more expensive. Modern tablets usually connect to the computer via a USB
Universal Serial Bus
USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....
interface.
Manufacturers
- Kanvus Co.
- Wacom Wacom Co.
- KYE System
- IBallIBall (company)iBall is a privately-held computer hardware company headquartered in Mumbai, India that develops and manufactures peripherals related to computer. It makes peripheral devices for PCs, including keyboards, mice, CPU Cabinets and webcams...
- Hanvon Co.
Similar devices
Interactive whiteboardInteractive whiteboard
An interactive whiteboard , is a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface where users control the computer using a pen, finger, stylus, or other device...
s offer high resolution wall size graphic tablets up to 95" along with options for pressure and multiple input. These are becoming commonplace in schools and meeting rooms around the world.
Touch screens like those found on some tablet computer
Tablet computer
A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen...
s and the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
are operated in similar ways, but they usually use either optical grids or a pressure sensitive film instead, and therefore they do not need a special pointing device.
The graphics tablet are also used for Audio Haptic products where blind or visually impaired people touch swelled graphics on a graphic tablet and get audio feedback from that. The product that is using this technology is called Tactile Talking Tablet
Tactile Talking Tablet
A talking tactile tablet or T3 is a graphic tablet with a touch surface that can be used as an input device that uses swell paper to create 3D overlays and connects audio-files to parts of the overlays. The device is connected to a computer and run with a programme CD, and has a tactile surface...
or T3.
See also
- Graphics tablet/screen hybrid
- Handwriting movement analysisHandwriting movement analysisHandwriting movement analysis is the study and analysis of the movements involved in handwriting and drawing. It forms an important part of graphonomics, which became established after the "International Workshop on Handwriting Movement Analysis" in 1982 in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. It would...
- Light penLight penA light pen is a computer input device in the form of a light-sensitive wand used in conjunction with a computer's CRT TV set or monitor. It allows the user to point to displayed objects, or draw on the screen, in a similar way to a touch screen but with greater positional accuracy...
- PantographPantographA pantograph is a mechanical linkage connected in a special manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen...
- Pen computingPen computingPen computing refers to a computer user-interface using a pen and tablet, rather than devices such as a keyboard, joysticks or a mouse....
- TouchpadTouchpadA touchpad is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on screen. Touch pads are a common feature of laptop computers, and they are also used as a substitute for a mouse where desk...
- Ultra-mobile PCUltra-Mobile PCAn ultra-mobile PC is a small form factor version of a pen computer, a class of laptop whose specifications were launched by Microsoft and Intel in spring 2006. Sony had already made a first attempt in this direction in 2004 with its Vaio U series, which was however only sold in Asia...