Best Tablet Pen For Drawing

Some of the questions I hear a lot — really, a lot — and some I think are very important for any commercial or digital artist working with a tablet, are:

• Which is the best Drawing Stylus Pen for an Artist?
• Which is the best Stylus Pen for Drawing on a Tablet?
• What Can I Use for a Drawing Stylus?

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Or, more specifically,

• What is the Best Stylus Pen for an iPad?
• What is the Best Stylus Pen for an iPad Pro?
• What is the Best Stylus Pen for a Microsoft Surface?
• What is the Best Stylus Pen for a Wacom MobileStudio Pro?
• What is the Best Stylus for Android tablet?
• What is the Best Stylus Pen for a Chromebook?

It would be nice if I could answer these questions with a simple and direct recommendation, and especially one single recommendation that would work for anybody and any tablet — like "just get the wonderful Apple Pencil and be done with it!" But alas, it isn't that simple.

In fact, the question of compatibility is a bit sticky, and there doesn't seem to be one single buyer's guide out there that really cuts through it all and helps to find the best artist pencils for all the various tablets —  Apple, Windows, Android and Chromebook.

So here we go, with my in-depth buyer's guide, explaining the different kinds of styluses available, what they work with and what they do, and which is the best choice for your specific tablet.

Be Warned! This is quite a long and in-depth article, which really explores and explains this whole subject, so if you want to cut right to the recommendations, here you go: The Best Stylus Pens for Artists in 2021

The Question of Compatibility

Wands? Yeah, I know… Maybe it's because I've recently been reading the books, but I keep thinking of the confusion towards the end of the Harry Potter series about which wand belonged to, and worked best for, which wizard — like why wands weren't working as well for Voldemort as he expected, and why the Elder wand ultimately belonged to Harry.

But I digress. Now that you know how much of a geek I am, let's get back to the best artist styluses and pens — where, to be fair, we do find very similar questions:

• Will an Apple Pencil Work on a Microsoft Surface?
• Will a Microsoft Pen work on an iPad?
• Can I use an Apple Pencil on an Android Tablet?
• Can I use a Microsoft Pen on a Chromebook?
• Are Styluses Cross-Compatible?

But as things stand now, digital styluses, stylus pens and pencils are not very cross-compatible, and if you really want to understand why  you will need to understand two things:

• The Most Important Features of an Artist Stylus
• The Four Types of Stylus Pens

The Most Important Features of an Artist Stylus

For full creative control and expressivity, and to really be able to fall fully into that zone and flow in which the best work can happen, the best pens for artist tablets need to do three things, and they need to do them automatically and intuitively, without any thought or fiddling on the part of the artist.

• Tilt Recognition — just like with a good graphite artist pencil, the angle of your stylus will determine the thickness of your line — crucial for shading, cross-hatching and detail, and, well, you know, drawing…
• Pressure Sensitivity — simply, when you press harder with the stylus, the line, shape or whatever you're making gets darker or more intense, and when you pull up and apply less pressure it gets lighter or softer.
• Palm Rejection — keeps your palm from leaving big old blobs all over the artwork — not that your, or my, palm is particularly big, or old. This is, for some, less important, as they don't ever let their palm touch the screen anyway — just like they wouldn't rest their palm on paper or canvas — but it's nice to have just in case.

The Four Types of Styluses

1. Capacitive (Passive Stylus) — This is the cheapest, most basic kind of stylus, which is really just a plastic or metal stick with a rubber nib. The capacitive stylus does the same thing your finger does, and does not offer any real expressive control other than making lines, dots and, more often than not, odd blobs — no tilt recognition, no pressure sensitivity and no palm rejection. If you use a capacitive stylus it's good to get one with a fine tip, and remember that you will need to stop drawing and use the software controls to change line thickness and darkness, and use a good drawing glove to prevent palm prints (see the section at the end for the best drawing gloves for artists).
2. Dedicated (Active Stylus) — A stylus with all of the great features, like pressure sensitivity, tilt recognition and palm rejection, and meant for a specific tablet, like an iPad, or a Microsoft Surface, but not cross-compatible — like the Apple Pencil, which works fully with an iPad but not a Microsoft Surface or Wacom tablet. You actually can use one with the other, but you won't have the basic control and features so important to artists — tilt recognition, pressure sensitivity and palm rejection — so, just like using a basic (and much cheaper) capacitive stylus.
3. Bluetooth (Active Stylus) — This just makes sense, since all tablets will have Bluetooth, and yet the execution and usability leave something to be desired. Specifically, while Bluetooth  pencils aim for fairly universal compatibility and have all the niceties — tilt recognition, pressure sensitivity and palm rejection — they don't always perform so nicely. Lags and lack of accuracy can snap an artist out of the flow again and again, and they count on the digital art software to be able to recognize them and their features. There are a few very good ones, though, which can be less expensive than Apple or Microsoft products.
4. USI (Active Stylus) — There is a new initiative, called USI — or Universal Stylus Initiative — which aims to have only one single type of stylus for all tablets and other touch screens, be they Apple, Windows, Android, Chromebook or anything else. But it is still a ways off, and as of right now mostly Chrome OS devices seem to be on board. This is probably the way forward, but now it is still pretty much every platform for itself and, as we know, Apple is not always so open to universal compatibility of any sort, so wait and see.

In the distant future there may be a great active stylus that works perfectly, and with full functionality, with all different tablets and operating systems, but not yet — for now, if you have an iPad you best look at styluses designed for and compatible with iPads, and likewise for Windows tablets, Android tablets and Chromebooks, or for the few Bluetooth styluses that actually work well.

How Can You Find the Best Artist Stylus for Your Tablet?

So, now that that is all clear as mud, the basic questions remain, don't they?

• What are the best stylus pens for iPad?
• What are the best stylus pens for Microsoft Surface?
• What are the best stylus pens for Wacom ProStudio?
• What are the best stylus pens for Android tablet?
• What are the best stylus pens for Chromebook?

I am going to make a fairly bold suggestion here — no matter how cheap they are, and how snazzy some of them look, you should not consider a basic capacitive stylus, and I am not going to recommend them (except in the Android and Chromebook sections). They just don't offer the three basic features which are so important for full expressive control while you're working, and so they just aren't right for artists.

If you do want the best capacitive stylus, though, it is probably the Meko Fine Tip Universal Stylus, which has a great feel, a very fine precision tip and will work with any touchscreen — just remember that you don't have pressure sensitivity,  tilt recognition or palm rejection (again, see Final Thoughts at the bottom of the article for another approach to palm recognition).

After trying a lo-ot of different pencils, pens and styluses, I am ready to recommend the best ones for each of the most common art tablets:

• Best Stylus for Apple iPad & iPad Pro
• Best Stylus for Microsoft Windows Tablets
• Best Stylus for Wacom ProStudio Tablets
• Best Stylus for Android Tablets
• Best Stylus for Chromebook

So, if you're looking for one wand to rule them all — oops, now I'm confusing Harry and Frodo — I mean one artist stylus that works with them all, it's probably not gonna happen. But if you just want the best stylus for your own tablet, with all of the features and expressive controls and a great creative flow, simply go to the correct section below and you will find a few perfect choices.

And at the end of the article, in the Closing Thoughts section, we will look at artist gloves, or drawing gloves — another great and important accessory that goes hand in hand, so to speak, with your new stylus.

Overview: Best Stylus Pens for Drawing in 2021

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Apple Pencil (2nd)



Second Generation Apple Pencil

Compatible with iPad mini (6th generation), iPad Air (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd, 4th, and 5th generations), iPad Pro 11-inch (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generations)

Buy Now on Amazon

Apple Pencil (1st)



First Generation Apple Pencil

Compatible with: iPad (6th, 7th, 8th generation), iPad mini (5th generation), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st, 2nd generation), iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 9.7-inch

Buy Now on Amazon

Wacom Pro Pen Slim



Compatible with Wacom MobileStudio Pro, Wacom Cintiq Pro and Wacom Intuits Pro

8192 levels of pressure sensitivity

Tilt-response and virtually lag-free tracking

Buy Now on Amazon

Wacom Pro Pen 3D



Compatible with Wacom Mobile Studio Pro, Wacom Cintiq Pro or Wacom Intuos Pro (2017 model) and with any Windows or Mac application

Three fully customizable pen buttons let you tumble objects, pan, zoom, model, sculpt or modify creative tools in 3D and 2D applications

Buy Now on Amazon

Penoval USI Chromebook Stylus Pen



Compatible with: Lenovo Chromebook Duet, ASUS Chromebook C436, HP Chromebook X360 12b, HP Chromebook X360 14b, Acer Spin 713, and all Chromebooks which support USI Protocol

4096 Levels of Pressure Sensitivity & Palm Rejection

Including AAAA Battery & Spare Tip

Buy Now on Amazon

Best Artist Stylus Pen for iPad

Apple Pencil

Apple Pencil (2nd)

Second Generation Apple Pencil

Compatible with iPad mini (6th generation), iPad Air (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd, 4th, and 5th generations), iPad Pro 11-inch (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generations)

Apple Pencil (2nd)

Second Generation Apple Pencil

Compatible with iPad mini (6th generation), iPad Air (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd, 4th, and 5th generations), iPad Pro 11-inch (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generations)

Far and away the best artist stylus for iPads, and in my mind the best artist stylus period, the Apple Pencil feels wonderful in the hand — natural and comfortable, with just enough heft and with a really premium quality feel — and flows absolutely perfectly on the iPad screen. Plus, performance is flawless and expressive control — including, of course, pressure sensitivity, tilt recognition and palm rejection —  is completely dependable and consistent.

While the newest 2nd generation does offer some benefits — especially wireless charging — please be aware that it is compatible with only a very few latest iPad Pro and Air models with the newest screen technologies. Anyway, whether 1st or 2nd generation, this is the best art pencil for an iPad you can get, and in my mind the best art stylus on the market today.

Alternative to Apple Pencil

Adonit Note+ Digital Pencil

With Palm Rejection, Pressure Sensitivity, Support Tilt Stylus for iPad Pro 3rd, 4th Gen (11/12.9 Inch), iPad 6, 7, 8th Gen, iPad Air 3, 4th Gen, iPad Mini 5th Gen

The Adonit Note Plus is one of the best art styluses for any more recent iPad, and the best alternative to the Apple Pencil. The Note Plus offers pressure sensitivity (2,048 levels), tilt recognition and palm rejection, as well as two programmable function keys. The Note Plus, which actually uses a combination of direct interface and Bluetooth pairing (for the pressure sensitivity), works flawlessly, feels great in the hand and on the screen, and has an overall premium quality feel. Please note, though, that again this is only for NEWER iPad Pro and Air models — the same compatibility as the Apple Pencil 2 above. If you have any other iPad model, I would definitely just stick with the Apple Pencil generation 1.

Before we move on, I think it's worth mentioning the Wacom Bamboo Tip stylus, since so many blogs and buyer's guides recommend it as the best Apple Pencil alternative. Well, it isn't — I love Wacom products, but this particular stylus is not up to snuff — reported quality control issues, low battery life, less pressure sensitivity, and much more expensive than the Apple Pencil. If you have a Wacom tablet, their styluses are the best and only choice, but in this case Apple for Apple.

Best Artist Stylus for Windows 10 Tablets

This is all just a big hot mess! Wacom, Huion, Microsoft Surface — all great art tablets for Windows 10 users, and all having their own nicely controllable and expressive art styluses, but no intercompatibility. So, if you are going to use Wacom, you need a Wacom stylus, and the same with the Surface or the others.

The Huion tablets — like the wonderful and affordable Huion Kamvas Pro 22, Huion Kamvas Pro 16 or Huion Kamvas Pro 13 — come with a fine digital pencil, so we won't include them here, And, if you need to replace your Huion Kamvas stylus, just stick with the original — Huion PW507 Battery-Free Stylus or Huion PW500 Battery-Free Stylus (see compatibility below).

But the Wacom and Surface don't, so let's consider the best stylus you can get for either of these premium art tablets.

Best Artist Stylus for Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Surface Pen

Best Stylus for Microsoft Tablets

Microsoft Surface Pen

For Surface Pro 7 Pro 6 Surface Laptop 3 Surface Book 2 Laptop 2 Surface Go Studio 2 Pro 5 Pro 4

4096 Pressure Points

Different colors

New Microsoft Surface Slim Pen

Sketch, shade, and paint with artistic precision and exceptional control with 4, 096 pressure points

Compatible with the New Microsoft Surface Pro X



The best all around pen you can get for a Microsoft Surface, the Surface Pen is smooth and expressive, incredibly controllable and precise, and very high quality, with a great feel in your hand and a great flow on the surface of the Surface.

There's a lot of confusion about this pencil, since on Amazon it is listed several times and with different model numbers and descriptions. To make things simpler I am including two links, both for the latest 4th generation Surface Pen — they will both lead to the exact same product, but with different colors (no, really, honestly, I have no idea why…).

They both have the same retail price, so please check both links to find the color you want, and to see if one is more discounted than the other. Either way, you are getting the best basic pen for the Surface, or for lots of other Windows 10 tablets, in its latest incarnation.

And now there is the Surface Slim Pen, and though the original Surface Pen was already excellent, and this pen costs quite a bit more, I have to say it is worth it, and even if you already have the first you might well consider the upgrade.

For one thing, the Slim Pen feels fantastic in the hand, smaller and more natural, with the same great premium feeling. But most importantly, the Slim Pen has a built-in rechargeable battery, as opposed to the AAAA (was that enough A's?) battery life in the original Microsoft Pen, and the Slim is rechargeable wirelessly.

Other than that, as far as I know, they perform exactly the same, with incredible control and responsiveness, and have the same nice programmable function key. If you are getting a new Microsoft Surface Pro X, however, you will need the newer Slim Pen, since the first gen is not compatible.

Alternative to Microsoft Surface Pens

While the Renaisser Stylus doesn't feel quite as good in the hand as the Microsoft Surface Pen, it is nonetheless a great basic stylus, with full pressure sensitivity, tilt recognition and a rechargeable battery which prolongs the battery life, for a third the price. It is also a very high quality product overall, which seems as if it would work reliably for a long time. Rechargeable via USB, the Renaisser Stylus also magnetically attaches to your Surface.

Best Artist Stylus for Wacom MobileStudio Pro

Wacom Pro Pen Slim

Wacom Pro Pen Slim

Compatible with Wacom MobileStudio Pro, Wacom Cintiq Pro and Wacom Intuits Pro

8192 levels of pressure sensitivity

Tilt-response and virtually lag-free tracking

An extraordinary artist stylus, with the very highest levels of sensitivity and control (an astounding 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity, for example) in a perfect size, like a paintbrush or good artist's pencil — the Slim has the best feeling in the hand of any pen I have ever used, and even artists I know with much bigger paws totally agree. Flow is perfect, without any lag ever, and the feeling on the screen is the ideal balance between flowing and controlled. The perfect pen, and it's battery-free — and no, I am not feeling pen envy; I'm perfectly happy with my Apple!

Wacom Pro Pen 2 (Alternative)

Wacom Pro Pen 2 with Case

Compatible with Wacom Intuos Pro, Wacom Cintiq, Pro, Wacom MobileStudio Pro

Features 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity

Wacom Pro Pen styluses are so great, in fact, that the only really meaningful alternative to a Wacom Pro Pen is another Wacom Pro Pen. In this case, the standard Pro Pen 2 still has the incredible 8,192 levels of sensitivity, the programmable keys, battery-free operation (with long battery life) and overall superb feeling and flow — yes, I prefer the Slim, but if you do like a little more heft this is the best Wacom stylus for you.

Wacom Pro Pen 3D (Alternative)

Wacom Pro Pen 3D

Compatible with Wacom Mobile Studio Pro, Wacom Cintiq Pro or Wacom Intuos Pro (2017 model) and with any Windows or Mac application

Three fully customizable pen buttons let you tumble objects, pan, zoom, model, sculpt or modify creative tools in 3D and 2D applications

Very similar to the above Wacom Pro Pens, but specially engineered for 3D rendering.

Best Artist Stylus for Android Tablets

Here we are in another tricky area, and it may be better to just recommend the best Android tablets for artists in 2021 — the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ (or you can check out my article Best Android Tablet for Drawing in 2021), with which you don't ever have to worry about styluses, since it comes with the wonderful Samsung S Pen.

Because, you see, other than the S Pen (which only really works with Samsungs) there aren't a lot of really worthwhile artist stylus for Android tablets. If you are using a Huawei, a Lenovo, an Amazon Fire, etc, you will have to turn to an aftermarket stylus, and as of right now there are no Bluetooth styluses for Android, which means no sensitivity, tilt recognition or palm rejection (for the best drawing glove, which will help with palm rejection, see my Final Thoughts at the end).

Now that I have you all worried and discouraged, if you still want to use an Android tablet for art I would recommend the following styluses, which will offer the best performance and reliability you can get, as well as the best feeling overall. These are all of the basic capacitive type, but keep in mind that you can still control line thickness, darkness and intensity in almost any art app — even freeware — so all is not lost!

Adonit Dash 3 Universal Stylus

Rechargeable Active Fine Point Digital Pens Compatible with Most Capacitive iPhone and Android Touch Screens Cell Phones, iPad, Tablets, Laptops.

MEKO Active Digital Stylus Pen

Universal Fiber Tip (1.6mm Fine Tip) 2-in-1 for Drawing and Handwriting Compatible with Apple Pen iPad iPhone and Andriod Touchscreen Cellphones, Tablets

Two more options, if you want to make great art on the Android platform, are to get a good dedicated art tablet which will also run all other Android software — like the remarkably inexpensive and fully capable Simbans PicassoTab  — or a great display tablet (a drawing tablet with its own screen that will plug into your Android phone or tablet, allowing you to draw and paint with incredible precision) — like the amazing Wacom One Digital Drawing Tablet.

Best Artist USI Chromebook Stylus

As our final stop in this 2021 buyer's guide to the best artist styluses we will look at the best digital pen for Chromebook.

The situation with Chromebook is not that different from what we find with Android, except for the promise of USI — remember USI, the Universal Stylus Initiative? Well, Chromebook seems to be taking to this initiative more than any other personal computers or operating systems, and if you are sure that your Chromebook is USI compatible, well, everything is all hunky-dory — you can select the best USI styluses on the market today, and have full creative control, a great feel and flow:

The finest, and best feeling, digital pen for Chromebooks, the HP feels just right in the hand, with nice heft and solidity, has not just full creative control but real precision and reliability, and allows for any artist to fall completely into the zone. A truly premium product, and my strongest recommendation.

Best Chromebook Stylus

Penoval USI Chromebook Stylus Pen

Compatible with: Lenovo Chromebook Duet, ASUS Chromebook C436, HP Chromebook X360 12b, HP Chromebook X360 14b, Acer Spin 713, and all Chromebooks which support USI Protocol

4096 Levels of Pressure Sensitivity & Palm Rejection

Including AAAA Battery & Spare Tip

A very basic art digital stylus pen for Chromebook, the Penoval does not have a programmable button or an eraser, but it does offer full creative control, including 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, feels great in the hand and on the screen, and is a well made and reliable product.

Now if your Chromebook is not USI compatible, you can still use it for digital art and work at the highest level — it's just like the situation with Android, in that you will need to adjust things like brightness, intensity and size on the app instead of doing it more intuitively with the movement of the stylus.

This also means that you can use a good, inexpensive capacitive stylus with great success, and I will make the same recommendations as I did for Android tablets:

• Adonit Dash 3 Capacitive Stylus
• Meko Fine Tip Universal Stylus

Bonus: What is the Best Drawing Glove?

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If you are using a high-quality digital art tablet, like an iPad, a Surface, a Wacom ProStudio or something similar, you actually do not need a drawing glove for the all-important function of palm rejection (the feature which allows you to rest your palm on the screen while drawing, painting, retouching or writing without leaving a palm-print or smudging your work) because your stylus and software will take care of it.

So why do you see so many digital artists still wearing drawing gloves when they work? It's all about feeling, I think, and I know for me that when I am in the zone, when the creative energy is flowing and the images are appearing almost as if by magic on the screen in front of me, I absolutely love the feeling that there are no problems, no blips, no lags, no snags, no anything to snap me out.

And a big part of this is the physical smoothness, the near-frictionless flow of the stylus and of my hand across the screen. In both cases — the pen nib and my palm — I want enough physical feedback, and the slightest friction, to have control and precision, but I never, ever want even that tiniest degree of too much friction to the point where my motion slows or gets stuck.

That is one of the most important things the best art styluses do for an artist, and it's also what the best drawing gloves can offer. When they are made of good material, are designed well and made well, the best drawing gloves can do a great deal to ensure, and even improve, an artist's working flow. And, of course, if you are using a basic capacitive pen, they still prevent palm prints and smudging while you are drawing or painting.

I've tried a bunch of them, and there are really a lot of good ones, and a ton of pretty good ones, but here are a few of my very favorite drawing gloves, which will work on either hand, are flexible and comfortable, won't harm your precious tablet's screen and glide perfectly across the surface.

Phew, we made it through! I hope you've enjoyed this article – Best Drawing Styluses for Art Tablets: An In-Depth Buyer's Guide for 2021 – and I also would love for you to visit my blog – Art Side of Life – for other buyer's guides, online courses, articles and lots of other resources.

Best Tablet Pen For Drawing

Source: https://artsideoflife.com/best-stylus-for-drawing/

Posted by: hamiltonwathre.blogspot.com

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