Up front summary: the XP-Pen Artist 12 has great screen quality, better than competitors
Gaomon PD1560 and Huion Kamvas GT-191, but it is small!
This video shows you how to set up and install the Artist 12, then gives an in-depth review
of this display tablet compared to others, plus top critiques.
This tablet is provided to me by XP-Pen.
Thank you!
The Artist 12 comes with a manual, drawing glove and screen cleaning cloth, HDMI USB
cables and an HDMI adaptor for Mac computers, pen case with pen, pen stand, and 8 extra
tips.
Use your fingernails or tweezers to pull out a worn out pen tip, then push a new tip in.
Last, a USB power adaptor with adaptor ends for international power outlets.
Remove the plastic wrap from the tablet.
Peel off the plastic packaging protecting the monitor.
The monitor has an anti-glare coating, which works well.
Now let’s plug the tablet in.
Take the cord with the red end on it, and plug the L-shaped end into the tablet.
Next, plug the HDMI end into your computer.
If you don’t have an HDMI port, use the white mini displayport adaptor.
Plug the black end of the USB cables into your computer.
Turn the tablet on.
The power button is on the side.
If the tablet doesn’t turn on (this might happen for laptops), now we need to do the
extra steps to give it more power.
Take the red end of the USB pair and attach the extension cord to it.
Put the extension end into the square charger.
Plug the charger into the wall.
If you need the other outlet types, slide them onto the charger when it is in the down
position.
Now your tablet will turn on.
It won’t work right until we install drivers.
First, uninstall any old tablets.
Next, go to xp-pen.com/download, find your driver, and download.
If you get stuck you can find a more detailed manual here too.
Extract all, then go into the folder and double click to install the tablet.
Restart your computer.
Now, very important or some art programs might not work: right click your desktop, choose
Display Settings, scroll down, make sure displays are set to extend.
Click the monitor that is your tablet and set applications to 100%.
If you don’t do this, you might experience something like your pen not matching up to
the cursor in SAI.
Let’s go over the tablet settings.
Click the icon in the system tray.
On the right, you can choose which monitor your tablet’s pen cursor shows on.
I want Monitor 2 in this case.
Click Display Settings below that to change the color temperature of your tablet.
The defaults are fantastic, so I left them.
If you are left handed, click the button to rotate the tablet screen 180 degrees, then
physically pick up the tablet and rotate it.
That will get the buttons out of your way.
The Express Keys button lets you program your shortcut buttons.
Click the dropdown and choose Function Key to pick your keyboard shortcuts.
Hit the “Dial” tab to program the slider.
The reason there are multiple options here is because you can set the bar to scroll,
zoom, resize the brush, and so on, then go to the “Keys” tab and make one of the
keys a KL/KR switch button.
Now, when you press that button it will switch which mode the slider is on.
Mine switches between scrolling - press button - zooming - press button - and brush resizing.
Also in tablet settings - change what the pen button does, adjust the pressure sensitivity,
and save/load your tablet’s settings.
If something isn’t working, try checking the “Windows Ink” option on.
Quick tip - there are buttons beneath the power button on the side to quickly adjust
brightness.
This is a nice feature.
With everything customized how you like, it’s time to draw.
The Artist 12 performed well in all of these programs.
The only feature that may not work is the wireless pen’s eraser end.
While the eraser may work in one program, it might not in another.
Works in Photoshop.
Doesn’t work in SAI.
Now, if you are programming savvy there are places to get 3rd party drivers that may fix
this issue.
I’ve only used the manufacturer’s drivers, so I don’t know anything about homemade
drivers other than they exist.
Regardless, you have to press hard to activate the pen’s eraser on the Artist 12.
I don’t like that.
I have the feeling it will wear on the tablet’s surface over time.
After these short tests and the tablet was off I could see where the eraser had been
on the screen, though the marks were temporary and disappeared after wiping the screen with
a microfiber cloth.
XP-Pen’s digital pens are hexagonal to give more of a pencil feel, but honestly I forget
they are different because my brain doesn’t register the difference once I’m absorbed
in drawing.
The one thing I do notice is the button is flush with the pen’s surface, which means
I lose track of where it is and have to look at the pen while turning it to try and find
the button.
Not a big deal and more of a personal taste issue.
You personally may prefer the flat button.
My top critique for the tablet is its short pen-distance sense.
What I mean by that is compared to other pen display tablets, the pen had to be close to
the Artist 12 for it to sense it was there.
If this is going to be your first tablet, you won’t notice this, but if you have used
a few tablets this one will take a short time to adjust to.
You can’t expect to make broad strokes while lifting your pen off the screen - it needs
to stay on the screen.
The Artist 12 is small.
Here’s a phone for comparison.
Based on my experience this is the limit on computer drawing tablet size - anything smaller
and it’d be hard to use.
If you want smaller than this for whatever reason, I’d suggest looking into standalone
tablets for drawing that are designed to be handheld and not plugged into a computer.
On the Artist 12 with drawing programs set to 100% size, the buttons are tiny and once
in a while you will click the wrong thing or accidentally drag a toolbar or window around.
Leaving your display settings above 100% helps with this, but it means you won’t be able
to use certain programs like Paint Tool SAI.
One last critique - the scroll bar is not as sensitive as I would like.
I had to flick a lot to scroll a little bit.
The literal scroll bar design is neat, but I find the wheel design on some of XP-Pen’s
other tablets more efficient for the artist.
Overall, none of these issues would stop me from buying the tablet.
Of the tablets I’ve had, the XP-Pen Artist 12 had the best out-of-box experience with
no need to customize screen settings, which I had to do with Huion, and no oily screen
underneath the removable screen protector like Gaomon.
It is also the only tablet that came with international power adaptors.
But, unlike its competitors, the XP-Pen Artist 12 does not come with a protective travel
sleeve or a tablet stand.
You would need to buy those separate.
Just from how the XP-Pen looks and feels, though, I’d say the money for those accessories
went into improving the quality of the tablet itself.
The buttons and pen don’t feel as cheap as some competitors.
If you can afford it you may want to look into a bigger screen size.
A screen with about 13.5” diagonal instead of the 12” of the Artist 12 is a great size
that is still portable.
For a slightly bigger screen, see the Gaomon PD1560.
Normally I would also recommend the XP-Pen 13.3, but from what I’ve heard from other
reviewers, you probably want to go with the XP-Pen 16.
The 12 that I tried here was an amazing experience and if you want that same experience from
the same company but bigger, go 16.
Find more tablet reviews at scribblekibble.com.