Graphics Tablets and Styluses

A graphics tablet is an input device used for drawing. You draw on the tablet with a stylus, and the tablet copies what you draw onto the computer screen.

How the stylus works

The stylus behaves like a mouse. Moving it over the tablet moves the pointer on screen, and resting the stylus tip on the tablet is like pressing the left mouse button: keep the tip down and drag to draw a line, or lift it to stop. This means you can sketch shapes and lines, annotate an image with notes and arrows, and select items in software. Tapping the surface selects an item, just as clicking once with a mouse would.

Pressure sensitivity

Some styluses have pressure sensitivity. In brush-based software, pressing harder can make a brush stroke thicker, while a lighter touch makes it thinner. This gives more natural-looking lines, especially when sketching. For example, when sketching a poster layout for your school's book swap, you could use light strokes for thin guides and press harder to make the title stand out.

Where it is useful

A graphics tablet suits pre-production documents that need drawing or annotation, such as visualisation diagrams, storyboards and digital mood boards. It is not the best tool for a script, because a script is a typed document and a keyboard is more suitable for entering text.

The stylus and graphics tablet are not the same device: the stylus is the pen-like tool, and the graphics tablet is the surface you use it on.