Maintaining your drawing tablet
Introduction
With a little care and light maintenance, your tablet will keep working for a long time. Here are some basic tips.
Do not lose your pen!
They are surprisingly expensive to replace. They can cost from $40 USD to $120 USD for a Wacom Pro Pen 3.
Because drawing tablet pens usually have a black plastic body, they can be hard to see in some lighting conditions. They can also be mistaken for other pens. To make them easier to spot, I use masking tape to add some color and make the pen more visible. It also works as a label.
Here is an example:
Do not drop your pen!
Pens have sensitive components. Dropping them can permanently damage the pen. More here: Avoid dropping your pen
Do not place excessive pressure on your pen tip!
Normal drawing is fine. But do not mash it or hit it against a surface. You can damage the pressure sensor or break the nib. Use it for drawing on your tablet and nothing else.
Do not let your tablet drop to the floor!
A pen tablet has fewer moving parts, and most of the time nothing bad will happen to it.
However, if you drop a pen display, you will almost certainly cause significant damage that cannot be repaired. For example:
The pen display will not turn on again
The screen will crack
The display panel will break and not show a full screen or will show random color patterns
The ports can be damaged, preventing it from getting a display signal
Do not get your tablet or pen wet
Keep water away from your tablet and pen. If they get wet, consult this guide: Dealing with water damage.
Cleaning your tablet
Clean your tablet periodically. Some people recommend lightly cleaning pen displays before drawing. More here: Cleaning a drawing tablet.
Storing your pen safely
In general, store your pens so you avoid pressure on the nibs. More here: Storing your pen.
Surface wear
Your tablet surface stays in contact with the pen. That contact, and the friction it creates, will cause some wear. It helps to understand what that wear looks like and how to control it. Read these two pages:
There are also ways to protect the surface from damage. See Surface protection.
Safely transporting tablets
If you are carrying your tablet with you, consider extra protection such as a case. More here: Tablet cases.
See Transporting your drawing tablet for more on this topic.
Maintain your nibs
Monitor your nibs and replace them when they get too worn down. Nibs worn down to a flat surface may scratch your tablet. See Nib wear.
To remove a nib, see this guide: Removing a nib.
Don't void your warranty
Avoid doing any of these things:
Disassembling the tablet
Disassembling the pen
Using metal nibs with the pen
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