How Does a Graphic Tablet Work?

Graphics Tablets

Graphics tablets are input devices not unlike a keyboard or a mouse. Instead of translating typing or clicking, the tablet becomes a digital page or canvas upon which one can draw, as if drawing on paper with a pencil. The tablets capture the image as data which can be stored as a file or document. Graphics tablets can be used like a large marker board to take notes on or create outlines during a conference or lecture event where the images are viewed by the audience or they can be used by individuals as drawing surfaces.

Parts of a Graphics Tablet

Graphics tablets are flat surfaces that are drawn upon using a stylus or pen-like device. The tablet is attached to the computer and the stylus to the tablet. The tablet reads the marks made by the stylus and puts them on the screen or display being used. The drawing does not show up on the tablet. Sometimes whole monitors become the writing surface and the user interacts directly with the display instead of drawing on one surface and viewing on another. This is called a touch screen. Other products are designed to use the drawing tablet to navigate the computer screen. These devices replace the mouse completely and use the stylus to point and click as well as draw.

Ways Graphic Tablets Work

There is not one accepted working standard for how a graphics tablet works. Modern forms of the graphics tablet began appearing in the late 1950s and each iteration has brought about a myriad of technologies. Included are the passive tablets, which use the idea of electromagnetic induction between the tablet and the stylus, the active tablet, which uses an electronic battery operated stylus that transmits signals to the tablet, and optical tablets, which use digital cameras inside the stylus and then pattern-match the images drawn.

Graphics Technologies

The angle or tilt of the stylus, the pressure being placed on the stylus and the distance from pen to tablet are interpreted by the tablet. A hand-held device called a puck has been designed to use in place of the stylus. The puck looks similar to a mouse but is different in that it knows its absolute position on the drawing tablet.

Graphics tablets are meant to retrieve the details of architectural drafting, sketches, drawings and artistic renderings and thus precision and accuracy are important. The graphics tablet is not usable without a proprietary stylus or input device like a puck.