Let's take a look at the Gaomon PD1560 screen drawing tablet.
The tablet worked great in all five programs I tested, although in Paint Tool SAI if you
move your hand quickly like I do, everything ends up with tails on it, even if the stabilizer
is set to 0.
None of the other programs had this issue.
My top critiques are I needed to clean my tablet after I unpacked it, and I had to fix
some settings to get my pen to sync up to the screen.
If you're having these problems the solutions are in this review.
I'll also show you how to set up, install, and calibrate this tablet for right and left
handed people.
The PD1560 costs less than similar tablets from other companies.
The other tablets are a little bit bigger, yet they have few or no shortcut buttons.
On a Wacom you don't need to charge the pen, but there are only 2,000 levels of pressure
sensitivity instead of 8,000 from competitors.
Personally I don't notice much of a difference between 2,000 and 8,000, but the higher number
does perform a little bit better.
The PD1560 is about 17" wide and 10" tall, making it the smallest screen tablet I've
reviewed so far.
The screen has a protector over it.
You can leave it on or take it off.
I tried drawing with it off and the there was noticeable resistance between the pen
and the glass.
I'd be worried about the screen getting scratched over time without a protector.
My PD1560 had some kind of oily effect between the protector and the screen when I unpacked
it.
Wearing a glove helped reduce the oil look, but it still happened from time to time and
made it impossible to see the fine details of what I was doing.
I removed the protector, wiped the tablet with water and a microfiber cloth and did
the same to the screen side of the screen protector.
I wiped again with a dry microfiber cloth and let them sit for few hours in case there
was more moisture.
Then I put the screen protector back on.
Problem solved.
The tablet comes with a pen.
Pen holder filled with extra tips.
The bottom of the holder is a pen tip remover.
A USB to charge the pen once in a while.
A one finger glove and a two finger glove.
You get both so you can choose which kind you like.
You don't need to use a glove, but it keeps the oils from your hand off of the screen,
lets your hand move easier, and if you sweat, the glove helps with that too.
A combination HDMI-USB-power cable.
The power plug.
The stand.
A screwdriver and screws for the stand.
And the manual.
There's one more thing the PD1560 comes with, and that is a carrying case for your
tablet screen.
This is actually really cool, and I wasn't expecting it.
I've never had a tablet come with a case before and because the tablet has a screen
protector on it I don't feel worried at all about using the case.
You can't tell from the video, but this tablet is lightweight.
The stand is heavier than the tablet.
It's the most portable screen tablet I've used.
To attach the stand, flip the tablet over so the label on the back faces the direction
you can read it in.
Take your folded up stand and turn it so the long bar goes toward the top of the label.
Insert the bottom two screws into the holes.
Pull the slider at the back of the stand and insert the top two screws.
Now, before you put the stand down, if you are left handed, rotate the stand 180 degrees
so you are actually installing it upside-down.
Everybody else, carefully place the stand on the tablet as is.
You'll feel the screws line up with the holes.
You can wiggle the stand a bit to make sure they get in there.
Screw in the top screws, then the bottom screws.
Fold the stand up and finish tightening the bottom screws if you couldn't reach them
before.
Done!
The stand adjusts by pulling the lever at the back.
This stand has such a wide range the tablet can stand straight up, but if you end up doing
that for some reason be careful not to tip it.
Even this far up it's pretty stable though.
Next take your combo cable and plug the end with two pieces into the side of the tablet.
Take the three piece part and plug the power cable into the round end.
For the last step, plug the two remaining ends into your computer and plug the power
in.
Press the power button on the side of the tablet and you're ready to go.
You may need to charge your pen.
Put the pin end of the cable into the bottom of the pen, and then plug the USB end into
the computer to charge.
Time to install the drivers.
Go to www.gaomon.net/download.
Here's the manual for the PD1560, and here's the Windows driver.
There is a MAC version too.
Uninstall any existing tablet software you have and unzip and install the driver.
For computer experts only: you can get around having to uninstall other tablets by keeping
copies of wintab32 in System 32 for each tablet and swapping them in as needed.
Once you've installed, restart your computer.
Turn your tablet on.
For left handed artists, at this point on the side of your tablet you need to press
Menu, press the + button to go to Display, press menu for Disp Rotate, press menu again,
press + to select 180.
Press the Auto button until the menu is gone.
The tablet software doesn't start up automatically, so you need to to right click the tablet icon
and Run As Administrator.
Do this a second time to get into the controls.
Under Press Keys you can set the shortcuts for your ten buttons.
Under Stylus Pen you can change how sensitive your pen is.
You may program the two buttons on your pen on this screen as well.
The Gaomon PD1560 by default didn't understand where the cursor is supposed to be when I
was using extended monitors.
I didn't see artists having this problem in other reviews, but if it happens to you
like it did to me, there's a trick to fix it.
Go to your desktop on your main monitor, right click, Display Settings.
Choose your tablet monitor.
In my case it's 1.
Notice how the settings are upscaled to 150%.
Change the scale to 100%.
Close this and run the tablet again.
Go to Work Area.
Use the dropdown at the top to select your tablet monitor.
If you are left handed, check this 180 radio button.
Now everybody click Monitor Calibration.
Take your pen and press the red dots on the screen.
Then your pen will work.
I swear there's always one weird thing with setting tablets up and it's different for
each one.
The day after this when I turned the tablet and computer on, I had to reset displays to
Duplicate and repeat that whole process again.
It's been fine since.
If you want to change your tablet's screen settings, press the Menu button on the side
of the tablet.
Use the + and - buttons to navigate.
Press the Menu button to enter an option.
Press the Auto button to go back one step.
The PD1560 has a lot of options, which is nice.
When I started drawing the greys looked a little warm, so I switched the color temperature
to sRGB.
Other than that the default colors were rather good.
You'll notice that the side-to-side viewing angle for the tablet isn't as good as my
monitor.
The colors change a lot when you turn the tablet, versus a high quality monitor there's
not much change.
The only reason this would be important is if you plan to mount this tiny tablet on a
monitor arm.
The tablet screen needs to be facing you for true color.
Overall, if you're looking to get your first drawing tablet with a screen, the Gaomon PD1560
may be the way to go.
Drawing on it is the same experience as a more expensive model, with the exception of
those tails from moving your hand too fast in Paint Tool SAI.
The other screen tablet I've personally tried that I recommend you look into is the
Huion Kamvas GT-191.
It is more expensive, slightly bigger and much heavier, doesn't have any shortcut
buttons, and has terrible default colors compared to the Gaomon screen.
So… you'll have to think about whether you value better color quality, portability,
shortcut buttons, and cost savings of the Gaomon PD1560, or if you want a bigger drawing
area.
Here's the quality ranking for the tablets I've used as of this video.
Find more tablet reviews at ScribbleKibble.com/episodes and click the Product Review button.
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