With millions of students now attending school at home, affordable laptop alternatives like the Chromebook are more popular than ever. The cheapest price point comes with some disadvantages, including limited support for some software and hardware, but artists on a budget can now use a Wacom tablet with their Chromebooks to develop their expanding artistic skills.
Like noted on the Wacom website, while the basic functionality of some of the company’s oldest pen-powered drawing tablets may work on certain versions of Chrome OS, more advanced features such as pen pressure sensitivity and the use of Wacom tablet shortcut keys will not work reliably on a Chromebook. But that could change soon, as today Wacom officially announced that its One by Wacom tablet is the company’s first fully compatible Chromebook device and has received the official Works With Chromebook certification.
Since so many young students trust Chromebooks, One from Wacom—Which is the company’s most affordable design tablet with a $ 60 price tag– will have native support in the latest version of Chrome OS, which means that no drivers need to be installed and no Wacom software to be installed and updated regularly. The tablet can simply be connected to a USB port and used as a more accurate alternative to a mouse for drawing and editing images, although the Wacom One only supports basic pen functionality, including pressure sensitivity. More advanced features, such as tilt detection or programmable shortcut buttons, are only available on more expensive Wacom models.
Artists and designers who demand more advanced features and functionality on their tablets usually also tend to rely on software from companies like Adobe and Autodesk, which currently only support operating systems like Windows or Mac OS and machines with enough RAM and processing power to handle graphic intensive workloads — although there are versions of both Photoshop and Sketchbook Pro from Autodesk available via Android on Chrome OS. Wacom too confirmed to Gizmodo that all tablets and pen displays from the company will receive Chromebook certification. Support for Wacom’s One will be followed by Chrome OS support for other lines of Wacom tablets, including Intuos, Intuos Pro, Wacom One, Cintiq and Cintiq Pro.
Entering digital art may have gotten a little more accessible.
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