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DIGImend
Improving Linux support for graphics tablets.

Vocabulary

Huion

Huion (Shenzhen Huion Animation Technology Co., LTD) is an enterprise which designs and manufactures animation products and other handwritten input digitizer products. Huion’s main product line includes the USB Pen Tablet, Wireless Pen Tablet, Signature Pad, Pen Tablet Monitor and LED Tracing Board. The brand is present mainly in China (see their website in Chinese at www.huion.cn) but since Huion’s foreign trade department was founded in 2000 it sells internationally as well.

Cooperation

Huion was contacted in May 2013 via email with enquiry about Linux drivers for their model Huion 580. Jeny Chan from Huion replied mentioning that a driver exists for Linux 3.0 but didn’t specify if it has been ever publicly released nor provided any instructions how such driver could be obtained.

KYE

KYE (KYE Systems Corporation) is a DMS (design and manufacturing service) company specializing mostly in HID (Human Interface Device) devices, including graphics tablets. Established in 1983 and based in Taiwan, the company sells graphics tablets under its Genius brand name. Genius-branded tablets also include rebranded UC-Logic and Waltop tablets.

Cooperation

An attempt to contact KYE was done in the beginning of 2012, using the “contact us” form on their web-site. A message was sent asking for tablet samples and information. As of March 2012 no reply was received.

LPI

Lines per inch (LPI) is a unit used to measure tablet pen coordinate sensing resolution. It represents the number of distinct pen positions a tablet working area is able to sense within one inch in either direction. Higher LPI along with higher RPS allow more precise following of the pen movement and thus, smoother curves.

The tablets have the same resolution in either direction. However, some of them may limit pen coordinates to some number in both directions in compatibility modes, resulting in different resolutions.

PL

Pressure levels (PL) is a number of distinct tip pressure force levels a tablet pen is able to detect between no pressure and maximum detectable pressure. The higher PL is, the smoother the pressure-controlled gradients will be when drawing.

Rebranded tablets

Some of the graphics tablet-designing companies rarely sell them under their own names, but instead let other companies rebrand and sell them. Two examples are UC-Logic and Waltop. Rebranded models have essentially the same hardware, but different logos on them and sometimes slightly different cases. There are many companies selling rebranded tablets and they rarely reveal the original designer and model name, so there are more such tablets still to be found.

Identifying original model

In the past, the original model of a tablet was easily identifiable by looking at the USB vendor and product IDs it reports. Lately, however, some manufacturers, such as Huion and Ugee, have started re-using product IDs in different models. Still, very often, tablet identity can be guessed with high probability, by comparing appearance and specifications.

Many of the “sold as” models listed on the Tablets page and individual tablet pages have been guessed that way. Such models have “guess” mark after their name. If someone confirms the guess, the mark is removed. If the guess is disproved, the tablet is removed from the “sold as” list and then, if the correct original model becomes known, added to the appropriate one.

RPS

RPS (Reports per second) is a measure of tablet pen position report rate. It represents the number of pen position reports a tablet is able to send to the host PC per second.

Higher RPS along with higher LPI allow more precise following of the pen movement and thus, smoother curves. However, high RPS means more data to process in a unit of time and may result in drawing lag on low performance PCs running heavy-weight drawing applications.

UC-Logic

UC-Logic (UC-Logic Technology Corporation) is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) that specializes in designing and manufacturing graphics tablets. Founded in 1996 and based in Taiwan, the company distributes their products across the USA, Europe, Japan, China and other places. The tablets designed by UC-Logic are sold by many companies, including Genius, Aiptek, Monoprice and many others.

Cooperation

An attempt to contact UC-Logic was done in the beginning of 2012, using the “contact us” form on their web-site. A message was sent asking for tablet samples and information. As of March 2012 no reply was received.

Waltop

Waltop (Waltop International Corporation) is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) that specializes in designing and manufacturing graphics tablets. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Taiwan. The tablets designed by Waltop are sold by many companies, including Genius, Trust, Aiptek, and many others.

Cooperation

The DIGImend project has contacted Waltop in the beginning of 2012 and the company agreed to provide tablet samples and information. So far two samples were received with possibly more to come.