design tools to create graphics

One of the most popular brands in drawing tablets, XP-Pen has officially launched its flagship product Deco Pro Small and Deco Pro Medium on 17nd May 2019. These smart tablets captured the market in no time as both the tablets are highly compatible with Android OS, which has never been seen before in the entire tablet industry.

XP-Pen Deco Pro Creative Pen Tablet is an amazing device special made for professional sketchers, drawers and illustrators. The XP-Pen Deco Pro Series graphic tablet is a brand new product that can be connected not only to a PC / laptop but also to an Android phone / tablet to use. Besides, OTG connection is another feature of Deco Pro that will further facilitate drawing outdoors.

The XP-Pen Deco Pro Drawing tablet works with most graphics software like Windows Paint 3D, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Painter, Autodesk Sketchbook, Manga Studio, Clip Studio, Zbrush. It’s also compatible with the Sketckbook ,MediBang Paint , Deco Draw Android Drawing App Since it’s a tablet aimed at those who draw digitally, it has a pretty good variety of hotkeys – 8 of them: undo, change brush size, pan, zoom, erase and many more. Deco Pro offers one Virtual wheel ( touch ring ) and one Mechanic wheel that allows you to zoom in and out, use brushers, and scroll up and down. Double Wheel Design helps a lot to improve your working efficiency and save your time.

Deco Pro is equipped with the battery-free pen, which sets you free from the charging issues. Together with 8192 levels of pen pressure sensitivity and ±60° tilt support, you can enjoy more accurate and natural strokes, bringing you a more real paper-like drawing experience.

Because the work area of a PC/laptop is different from a phone/tablet, so the work area of the Deco Pro graphic tablet will be different according to the different connection way you choose.

266PPS helps to sense the pen movement agilely, with almost no delay lines. 5080 LPI high pen resolution makes the pen stroke more delicate and natural, which can easily achieve pixel-level painting display. Thanks to these configurations, your working flow is greatly improved.

It is compatible with Windows 7 or later, macOS 10.12 or later, and Android 6.0 or later (OTG supported devices).

XP-Pen Deco Pro Creative Pen Tablet Specs

Model: Deco Pro Small / Deco Pro Medium
Application： illustration / animation / graphic design / industry design / image retouching / anime gaming, etc.
Express Keys: 8 Customized Press Keys and Double Wheel
Technology: Battery-Free Electromagnetic Resonance
Active Area: 9 x 5 inch / 11x 6 inch
Resolution: 5080 LPI
Report Rate: 266PPS
Pen Pressure: 8192 Levels
Pen Tilt : 60 Degrees
Reading Height: 10mm
Interface Support: USB-C
OS Support: Windows 7 or later， macOS 10.10 or later Android 6.0 or later
Compliance: CE / FCC / CCC
Color: Black
Official site: https://www.xp-pen.com/product/432.html

I have been professionally retouching photos for 8 years, full time. I have been using a Wacom intuos tablet (non-display) for that long. The hardware is great. I just replaced an indestructible old tablet that didn't keep up with modern technology. But thanks to that I found myself in the situation of needing a new tablet and I learned about the XP-Pen Deco thanks to various reviews on YouTube.

XP-Pen has established itself as a good drawing tablet manufacturer over the years. It has a good list of options for beginners and professionals alike. I'd like to introduce you to the Deco Pro Medium. their most advanced graphics tablet . Let's see if it's worth getting.

Design

The design of the tablet is very eye-catching, The tablet is very lightweight and beautiful, which I really like. The XP-Pen Deco Pro tablet is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, The back and the top of the tablet made of aluminum as it is cold to the touch,This is one of the few screen-less tablets on the market which uses a metal back, so it was most certainly built to last.

XP-Pen Deco Pro is built using premium materials . The result is a pen tablet that feels reassuringly strong but is a mere 7mm thick.

The surface sheet is smooth texture . On one side of the tablet you will find eight customizable express keys and the roller Wheel , offer the perfect amount of custom functionality .

The tablet comes with the latest generation pressure pen, which feels and looks nice; and a housing for the pen which also hides about 10 replacement nibs which is very cool.

The Tablet Itself

The physical machine Deco Pro Android Drawing Tablet is nice and sturdy. It uses a USB-C to connect, and the USB-C cable detaches from the other end, which is useful if you need to transport it so you don't have to coil the cord around it like some older xp-pen star tablets.

It seemed to work on my Dell PC just fine, I use it on a wired connection, and it seems to pick that up just fine anyway. the active drawing area is adequate yet still compact and portable. the smooth surface will allow the nibs to last longer.

Interaction With The Computer

The port itself is a standard USB type-C port with no tunnel in front of it. The use of USB type-C is really good here as it allows for the user to plug in the L-shaped cable whichever direction they need to, depending on whether they are right or left-handed.

Once you've gotten it plugged into your computer you'll need to spend a bit of time with the drivers to get it to work on your computer. I'm installing it on a Windows 10 desktop. It was extremely easy to setup, download and install drivers from XP-PEN's website,

The driver is packed with features. You can set sensitivity for pressure. Any of the buttons with any keystroke you want. You can set for different programs so when you're in that program, the keys automatically start functioning differently depending what software you're using. It has absolute or relative options and you can set for use with two screens or just one of the two that you have, and on and on. TIP-eliminate all other drivers, restart computer and then install this tablet's driver otherwise you'll have glitches.

First up, driver I must say instantly even before any tweaking I could feel just how smooth, and responsive this tablet was, with an unprecedented depth in pressure sensitivity, there is a nice curve editor right in there driver so you can fine tune and find the sweet spot you desire. It took me about 30 seconds to get the feel of a 2b pencil. A left-hand right-hand configuration switch, my self, being left-handed is a must, as well as aspect ratio and drawing field changes. You can also set up the dial, express keys all with user-defined commands.

I then ran the gambit software test, Adobe Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Zbrush, Maya, and Blender. It all registered and performed beautifully across the board. The Express keys and wheel are responsive and have a home key registration so you know where your hand is with out looking. I must same I am very happy with this purchase and believe XP Pen will have a long future with me and my graphical needs I hope to be able to try out one of there Artist Series Pen Displays in the future as soon as I can save up the money to invest in a new one, and review that as well.

The pen support pen tilt and pressure

Another great feature is the pressure-sensitive pen tip, that is designed to recognize 8192 levels of pressure and detect tilt up to 60 degrees. the pen tilt on the Deco Pro is quite smooth. The vast degree of pressure responsiveness in the Pen is something I really appreciated, The pen also has two buttons click on the side that gives users the ability to click, right-click, or double-click.

The pen has a great feel in the hand, and that it doesn't require batteries or need to be recharged has been a convenience for sure. Sensitivity levels are amazing, though I have found myself decreasing the range to accommodate my own pressure preferences. Its exceptional sensitivity and responsiveness gives me the control I need to take my work to the next level.

The drawing experience!

I prefer the Deco Pro Medium version because it has a better large drawing surface and I can rest my hand on other parts of the tablet when I am working. In addition, there are more express keys and the Double Wheel .

I'm using it mostly for Photoshop and Lighroom and other Drawing or Sketching apps and it's the perfect size for everything I need a tablet for. The sensitivity/pressure settings are amazing and it really does give a true feel for the pressure applied. I've experienced no lag while in the wired setting for work. In fact, for most applications I end up mapping a small area of the tablet to correspond to my full 27 inch monitor screen and it allows me to control my entire screen without moving my hand.

The Double wheel is responsive and a really distinct aspect of the table, it really gives it personality. The fully customizable buttons on the side are one of my favorite features of this tablet. I've set it to work in conjunction with my Photoshop key shortcuts, and it makes my life so much easier when editing photos, digitally painting and doing any touchups on any application.

I really like that it came with a drawing glove, I have never used one and now I see that it can really help to keep your tablet clean. The surface of the Deco Pro really likes to get dirty with fingerprints, so the glove helps it look pristine. Not to mention, this comes with a pen stand, and the pen stand optimizes storage space so well with a selection of different pen nibs inside the stand.

Conclusion

Highly recommended for anyone looking to get started in digital drawing tablets or those who've been it in for a while and just want a solid, affordable digital pen tablet to add to your workforce. It gets really close to the experience of using a $300 Wacom Intuos Pro for only a fraction of the price.

No CONS for now...and hopefully I wont have any in the future.

I will really recommend it to anyone looking to start drawing digitally. Especially if XP-PEN continues to improve and support this product in the near future.
I really appreciate what they have here and feel like its appropriate to support Wacom's competition so that we can all enjoy better products in the future.

There are a few main reasons why I chose this over other tablets in the same market.
1. Great price
2. Size of work area on tablet
3. 8000+ levels of for pressure sensitivity
4. battery-free stylus support pen tilt function
5. Slim and light weight
6. Pen is smaller than other models, closer to size of actual ink pens, not too bulky in hand
7. Back to price when factoring all of the above in compared to other models/competitors

Places to buy the tablet

XP-Pen Deco Pro official Store: https://www.storexppen.com/buy/deco-pro.html

I own a XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro Drawing Tablet With Screen . I recently bought a Surface Pro 6 to use as a laptop / e-book reader / sketchbook. For what I can tell, I am happy with both devices (I'm only going to be comparing the Surface Pro to the 15.6" XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro) .

The Microsoft Surface Pro 6 is one of the most popular 2-in-1s on the market. XP-Pen is a professional drawing tablet brand and is pretty ok, ok price plus stable driver (I'm using XP-Pen tablet), no problem software-wise so far. Color display right out of the box is good. XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro is their most advanced pen display product, if you want to get into digital drawing , xp-pen provides drawing tablet for beginners ,professionals of artists , their products are friendly and of good quality , you can have a look at them .

Lets compare specs first:

Surface Pro 6 Tablet Computer:

Up to 1 TB of HDD

Up to 16GB of RAM

Integrated Graphics

12.3" screen

Mini Display port for external

1 Full size USB for USB things

N-Trig digitizers

XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro Drawing Tablet Monitor:

88% NTSC Color Gamut

1920x1080 FHD Resolution

Has 60 degrees tilt and 8K pressure sensitivity

Uses electromagnetic resonance

15.6" bigger screen size

Has an fully laminated IPS screen

USB C

General Comparison

The advantages of the Surface Pro are portability, and more usability outside of art stuff. Surface Pro can be used both as a laptop and a tablet. Being that it can be used as either makes it extremely convenient to those that want power on the go.

The screen looks better and I believe gets brighter. The stand also has way more variation in angle, but it also doesn't lock into any specific angle so if you push really hard it can sink lower. Most people are saying that you would have to be very heavy handed for that to matter though. With this device you're going to need to buy a keyboard and mouse separately.

N-trig pen feels like a real pen and is natural to hold. There is a top button on the pen that allows for an eraser function as well as use for a wake up function.

XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro is just a monitor with drawing capabilities , But you'll like the feel of working directly on your computer screen. I was never able to get fully used to using the XP-Pen Deco 03 Wireless Drawing Tablet without a screen. I could definitely get by with it alright, but I never felt like my drawing on it came naturally. The advantages of the 15.6" XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro are slightly bigger screen real estate, side buttons, and a textured screen. The edges are also thicker, so you can rest your hand on the edges a little better as well. But I believe the screen is pretty susceptible to glare, and the device is larger and significantly heavier.

The XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro's 16.7m color screen is capable of rendering vivid life-like images. This combines with an excellent resolution of 1920 x 1080 and 88% NTSC Color Space to make it a tool more than capable of handling the delicate and precise needs of illustrative work.

This XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro device's screen has 8192 levels of pressure and 60 Degrees tilt sensitivity. The Artist 15.6 Pro is easy to use and intuitive. Its pen feels comfortable and using it is fluid.

Drawing Experience Comparison

N-Trig has historically been less accurate then EMR. Unless they've done something about this (Which Im going to doubt they have) it doesn't matter.

NTrig digitizers are not very good compared to EMR ; even the surface studio has the problem with "hooks" at the beginning and end of a stroke because the screen detects the pen and starts the stroke before it touches the screen. Be wary of that.

The only thing that matters is accuracy, which has been always worse on N-trig. The surface is as much as a competitor as it was with the surface 2, 3 and 4. Most artist will prefer EMR .

Photoshop on mobile still sucks, the UI is not conducive to small screens or designed with touch in mind. I much prefer using procreate on the iPad that's photoshop on the surface.

With the Surface Pro you're going to get the new pen, which only has one side button, but comes with an eraser (which I believe also has a button). You'll get less pressure stages (I have heard no one can tell the difference between 4k vs 8k at this point), but less lag with this pen (the lag for both pens doesn't seem to be a big deal to artists either). But this pen requires a little more activation force than the XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro pen (although it is considered much improved compared to the last Surface Pro pen). This pen also has a rubbery tip to give it a bit more resistance to make up for the fact that the Surface Pro does not have a textured surface.

The XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro Stylus has a lower activation force, and more pressure levels, but it has no eraser. I using this device for serious art work. Normally I work on a Artist 15.6 Pro and am very picky with pen accuracy. I am able to draw smooth line art without having to enable a stabilizer .

However, one thing you will not get with a regular Artist 15.6 Pro is portability. A surface Pro is not only a drawing tablet but also a pretty great laptop. I've seen a lot of great art from people who use surface products. It's ultimately up to you and how you plan to use it. I think the surface is absolute great as a Portable drawing tablet . Just keep in mind that if you want to work on your XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro, you'll have to bring your Laptop along.

Neither device has parallaxing and both seem to have slight jitter issues when drawing slowly. Both have tilt support. But surface Pro have an issue with the palm rejection and the pen tilt that makes the pen cursor go offset , but I was able to kinda work around that. It's a notable minus for the drawing experience either way.

Keyboard randomly freezes once in a while, but always unfreezes eventually. Surface Pro Touch screen can interfere with stylus drawing (solution: disable driver in device manager when drawing). I recommend getting an external keyboard for photoshop hotkeys and a real mouse.

The XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro feels more natural to draw on. I'm not sure if surface Pro is like this, but the surface book doesn't feel as smooth to draw on. Which is a shame because the surface prowas great to draw on. surface Pro has a bit of resistance and I can never get the pressure quite right. I still enjoy it, just a bit of an inconvenience, and a little unfair as I'm comparing it to a XP-Pen , I suppose.

This is a Art Work I made by xp-pen Artist 15.6 Pro Screen Drawing Tablet -

Conclusion

From everything I can gather, it sounds like the drawing experiences are pretty similar. Both are professional quality, portable devices, but with the XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro you'll get a slightly larger screen with a slightly better feel (and built in keys). And with the Surface Pro you'll get much more portability at a higher price with the option to expand with more accessories.

The Surface Pro 6 has good battery life especially compared to prior models. Do you travel a lot? Or commute on a bus/subway? Then a surface is definitely nice to have. If you stay more at home but like to have the freedom to move around, it's a great tablet for that. If you already have a Painting Tablet , and you just need something for quick sketching, then the Surface Pro is more practical.

XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro has a much better interaction with the stylus and screen. It has less parallax (lag or gap) with the stylus contact on the tablet surface because of fully laminated display . That you can run Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, Corel, Krita, everything work with a powerful pc ...run games...do so much more - makes it much better value imo.

Since I do 3D work, The integrated Intel GPU's in the history of Surface Tablets have been okay for basic art needs but not powerful enough for a bit more dense/complex 3D work. Photoshop will definitely see an improvement with layers, fx, and anything using the GPU features especially with the newer Adobe products...not to mention 3D products Autodesk, Modo, Blender, etc. I also use Zbrush a lot which tends to use more of the CPU.

The new XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro is the best Wacom Cintiq alternative yet. It's a full step up from the Artist 15.6 , which was already considered a top competitor. you can get more details about this product from XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro official site ： https://www.xp-pen.com/product/65.html

I've written here a number of times extolling the virtues of all things XP-Pen. Chances are if you're reading this, you're familiar with the XP-Pen line of products. I've been using XP-Pen Artist 15.6 (interactive pen displays) since 2017 or so, and frankly don't know how I'd finish the majority of ad or magazine jobs I do on time without them. If you're not familiar, Read more about them here...

XP-Pen release new products often. What I like about them is they release something new when the technology is there and they've perfected it. Case in point, I've had the Artist15.6 art tablet with screen for something like 2 years. It's been that long since a comparable device has been unveiled. They did release a 21.5" device Artist 22E Pro a few months ago, and I bought one to upgrade. This is a sturdy desktop device .

Now, they've just released the latest iteration of the product Artist 15.6 , the Artist 15.6 Pro . Eventually I'll get around to doing a video review of that, but in the meantime, I thought I'd write about a new review that goes along with this new drawing monitor .

XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro is the newer model of the Artist 15.6 , but with pen tilt Support , The tilt function ensures that the accuracy of the pen remains the same when tilted, offering a real and natural drawing experience.

Artist 15.6 Pro has been used 120% sRGB ( 85% adobe rgb color accuracy) in the device to give you more vivid, clear and sharp color quality that also enhances the accuracy of any image. the Artist 15.6 display tablet is 75% adobe rgb color accuracy .

It has greatly improved on parallax, New optical bonding process that greatly reduces parallax , becuse of new Technology their has No Air Gap.

Compared to the Artist 15.6,the Artist 15.6 Pro features 8 fully customizable shortcut keys and 1 Red Roller Wheel which puts more customization options at your fingertips to suit you preferred work style, allowing you to capture and express your ideas easier and faster for optimized workflow.

In case you don’t want Pen tilt function, or want to save few bucks and get the Screen drawing tablet for cheaper, it may worth it to check out the previous Artist 15.6 model. Which have similar features, like the 8192 level of pressure sensitivity, the HD screen, the 3-to-1 cable. And the pro pen with 8 replacement nibs.

Where can I buy a XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro

XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro is an ideal choice among professional artists who love drawing and painting. This device is the best way to step into the digital canvas world as it mainly focused the professionals and allow them to give their best in whichever environment they are. Now you don’t have to worry about colors, brushes, sheets, and pencil anymore, just pick this piece, keep it in your bag and move ahead to the world of art.

Artist 15.6 Pro Screen Drawing Tablet is available in XP-Pen Globe official Store https://www.storexppen.com/buy/artist-15_6pro.html on January 25, 2019. The sale starts from January 25 , you can use coupons & promo code SuperBowl (10% off) to get one till February 04, 2019 .

Notable specifications:

Display Size: 15.6″
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Native Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Product Dimension: 443 x 280 x 12.6 mm
Active Area: 344.16 x 193.59 mm
Shortcutkeys: 8
Roller Wheel: 1
Color Gamut: 88% NTSC (covers 120% sRGB color gamut)
Display Colors: 16.7 Million 
Viewing Angle: 178°
Pressure Levels : 8192
Report Rate: 266 RPS
Pen Tilt Sensitivity:- ±60
Supports Multitouch: no
Resolution: 5080 lpi
Response Rate: 25ms
More details: https://www.xp-pen.com/goods/show/id/394.html

What’s in the box?

The tablet comes in a nice looking white box with a unique design. There isn’t anything particularly important on the back of the box aside from a repeat of the specifications.

The things that come in the box:

XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro tablet
XP-Pen P06 battery-free pen
Pen case
Combined cable (USB type-C to USB type-A, HDMI, and USB type-A for power)
USB type-A extension cable (for power)
USB power adapter
Outlet adapters for international power outlets
HDMI to Mini-DisplayPort adapter
Pen nib replacements x8
Anti-fouling glove
Screen cleaning cloth
User manual
Warranty policy and warranty card
“Thank you” card
AC 41 Stand

Design

The tablet comes in a nice looking white box with a unique design. There isn’t anything particularly important on the back of the box aside from a repeat of the specifications.The XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro sports a fairly simple design overall.The tablet comes with a pre-applied screen protector which has a very minimal amount of texture.

This tablet has 3 buttons along the side which are for power, brightness up, and brightness down. The tablet itself does not have an OSD settings button, but you can change the screen colours through the XP-Pen driver software.

The power button will glow with a dark blue light to indicate that the tablet is powered on.

The IPS Screen

The new XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro has a 15.6-inch IPS display with full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080) . It can produce 88 per cent of the NTSC colour palette (85% Adobe RGB colour gamut or 120% sRGB colour gamu ) with 16.7 million colors which means more colour accuracy, you can do photo or image-editing at a pro level, you’ll need this more pro version.

Virtually No Parallax : The display has been outfitted with full laminated technology that seamlessly mingles protective glass and screen glass, giving better picture quality.

The space between the glass and the screen (which was noticeable but manageable on earlier Cintiqs) is virtually nonexistent now. It no longer feels like I’m drawing on top of a monitor on top of my artwork. For the first time ever, there’s no separation between my pen and my artwork, and it’s an amazing feeling. I would say that it matches the iPad Pro’s accuracy in terms of pen-to-screen distance.

The screen is awesome, clarity and colors look nice. Using the default plastic nib works great on this new surface, and feels more like a traditional pencil on paper to me. I hope that XP-Pen sticks with this surface for their future products, it is brilliant.

The Stylus

XP-Pen is offering an ultimate pen with this device that enlightens the inner creativity of any individual. A very big thanks to the new elastic pen nib! This nib actually enhances your creativity by eliminating parallax of broken lines on the stunning display of the tablet.

With the pressure of 8192 levels, 5080 LPI and 10mm sensing height- the pen is very sleek and makes your drawing natural on the screen as it intensely senses and analyzes every movement.

The tilt by the P05R as it tilts 60 degrees ensuring better drawing quality and user experience. With smoothing drawing experience on this tablet enhances your productivity, skills and ensures that you stay ahead of your competitors.

What’s more, it’s a battery-free device and the lag, even with large complex Photoshop brushes or sculpting with high res stamps in 3D, is minimal to the point of non-existence.

Improved Pen Design : The pen P05R keeps all the great features of the P05, namely the rubber grip ( makes it more comfortable to hold ) , and the two toggle buttons, which I use constantly, and really find myself missing when I use the Apple Pencil.

Just like the XP-Pen Artist 15.6 , there is no lag or slow-down when you are drawing lines. A lot of this may be more dependent on your hardware (I’m using a iMac), but I think it’s worth mentioning. The rendering of the pixels themselves is incredibly sharp and smooth. It rendered the lines as fast as I could throw them .

To touch or not to touch?

IMHO, I would say no touch is better because of the additional cost. But if you have a child and want him/her to try drawing on your expensive Cintiq, you can consider getting a touch.

The Adjustable Stand

Well, XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro is also eliminating the pain of holding the tablet because holding it and drawing on it can make things complex. Therefore, it has introduced an adjustable stand that is viable and powerful. You can set your tablet on that stand and enjoy your drawing without worrying about holding, falling of device from your hand and a lot more.

The 3-to-1 Cable

The XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro has a USB type-C port on it to connect to the combined USB/HDMI/power cable. The included cable is a combined cable which goes from USB type-C on the tablet to USB type-A and HDMI on the computer. The tablet can be powered solely by the computer if the USB port can provide enough power, but if it can’t, the extra red USB type-A connector will need to be connected to another USB port on your computer, or a power outlet using the included power outlet to USB adapter.

The Roller wheel and 8 express buttons

There are 8 programmable buttons and a Roller wheel. which are magical. These are available at your fingertips enabling you to roll on, zoom in, and a lot more- saving your time to accomplish your delicate design in no time.

The buttons are amazing, as with all Artist series . the round ring in the middle, The scroll wheel can be programmed to control three different parameters (such as zoom, brush size, etc). And the customize-able physical buttons have nice tactile feel. You get spoiled with this buttons, and it's sometimes hard to go without them.

the buttons are completely customize-able to whatever hot key you want, and with the conjunction with custom on screen buttons, you'll be able to work comfortably without a keyboard..... at least with programs that are designed to be simple for tablets, like Sketchbook or Painter. Even with these keys, I don't think you can get away using Photoshop, or zbrush etc. I think some programs are just too frustrating without a keyboard.

Tablet drivers

The XP-Pen tablet drivers are extremely easy to install. Just go download the latest version directly from XP-Pen’s site and remove all other tablet drivers you have on your computer before installing it.

Once you’ve installed the driver and plugged in your tablet, the XP-Pen driver icon should appear in the system tray in the bottom right. You can access the tablet settings by clicking on that.

If the installer doesn’t prompt you to restart your computer after it finishes, I wholeheartedly suggest restarting your computer anyways to allow Windows to properly update the files necessary for the driver to run smoothly.

The XP-Pen driver is a simple one page driver with all the important settings in just one window. Here you can set the pen buttons and pen pressure, and choose which monitor the tablet maps to.

I did not need to change any of the default settings as the tablet worked very well with the defaults. I also did not need to calibrate the pen because the cursor properly appeared directly under the pen by default (which surprisingly isn’t the case for some tablets).

To date, the updated drivers have worked fine with the programs I use most: Adobe Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint. This was actually a pleasant surprise for a product this new – I hope this continues.

Drawing Experience

Artist 15.6 Pro was fantastic. It occupies less desk space and the colours were slightly closer to my macbook display. Although smaller, the screen had good resolution and good enough for Manga Studio EX (program that I use to draw comics). It was also very portable so I could bring it with me to libraries and give demonstrations. I was also very happy with it until I gradually suffered from stiff shoulders and neck.

The pen's sensitivity is buttery smooth . I'm not sure how many people noticed, care, or can justify the difference between 2048 levels of pressure vs 8192 levels, but I do. I particularly notice the low end levels of pressure. Don't get me wrong, 2048 levels is more than enough to work with, I'm just spoiled by 8192 of the Artist 15.6 Pro . It is mostly because I have a very light hand when it comes to sketching, and notice the ultra low end levels. Even at the lowest level of a 2048 level stylus, it just doesn't feel light enough, once you get used to a Artist 15.6 Pro . If you have a heavy hand, I don't think this level difference will make any difference to you. The differences are minor, and it's more of a "feel", maybe I'm the only person who care..... but it does make a difference for me.

On Photoshop , the program recognizes stylus tilt. This allowing you to vary opacity with pressure, but line thickness with pressure tilt. It took me a good hour to get used to using it, it's a bit different than using a real pencil, but I now love it. The line weights, and the look of the pencil lines, makes it feel more like traditional pencil and paper. In fact, as I was trying to get used to drawing with the Photoshop pencil, I would instinctively worry about smearing the pencil lines under my hand, before remembering that I was working digitally.

Conclusion

Finally, I’d like to talk about one of the main reasons behind switching to a smaller display: portability. The XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro is overall physical dimensions are 443 x 280 x 12.6 mm , which makes it ideal for being carried back and forth between company and my studio at home. It fits in a carry-on bag just fine, even with the machine zipped in its soft case. Although, keeping in mind the above-mentioned connectivity issues, I wouldn’t go as far as recommending taking it to the field.

it is a fair statement to make that the Artist 15.6 Pro is the best compromise in XP-Pen’s current display line regarding size and portability. While the price of the 16-inch Artist 15.6 Pro takes some serious commitment, you can be sure that your purchase will be a largely satisfying one, with the added confidence that you are acquiring a high-quality professional level tool that will be there with you for a long time coming.

What can be the most important conclusion for epigraphers/artists working on the Artist 15.6 Pro is that it removes most of the psychological barrier between artist and machine, resulting in a more natural drawing experience, the closest I’ve encountered to pencil on paper so far.

I highly recommend the Artist 15.6 Pro 15.6″Screen Drawing Tablet to any professional illustrator, animator, or graphic designer. It’s the best digital drawing tool I’ve used by far.