Ваком: История и продукция японского производителя графических планшетов.

Japanese company specializing in graphics tablets and related products
the electronic manufacturer

is a Japanese company headquartered in Kazo, Saitama, Japan, that specializes in manufacturing graphics tablets and related products. As of 2012 Wacom generated sales of approximately 40.7 billion yen with 785 employees. The company's shares are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The company was founded in 1983. The name Wacom came from an abbreviated variation of World Computer (ワールドコンピュータ, wārudo konpyūtā), with the syllable "wa" (Japanese for harmony). Its products were initially targeted at professional artists, but by the late 1990s it aimed to expand to home users as well. In 2001, the company partnered with Sony to introduce a Vaio laptop with built in touch functionality.

Wacom produces two categories of graphics tablets: those with a screen ('pen display') and those without ('tablet'). Some pens have an eraser on the rear end.

Wacom's professional pen displays are under the Cintiq line. They allow for drawing directly on the screen, like drawing on paper, and are more expensive than other Wacom products. The Cintiq Companion is a portable variant of the Cintiq displays. The first version was introduced in 1999, replacing the earlier ArtZ line. It is available in an entry level version and the more advanced Intuos Pro. In 2018, The Verge called the entry level models a "great introduction to digital art."

The One series of products is targeted at beginners, and features versions both with and without screens. The One tablet, released at CES 2020, has a 13 inch, 1920x1080 display. The Verge labeled it as Wacom's "most affordable tablet to date," being priced at $400.

Wacom also makes the MobileStudio, a pen display with an inbuilt computer. In 2011, the company released a tablet less pen, which allowed for drawing on any piece of paper, but was criticized for being inaccurate compared to a normal photo scan. In 2018, they partnered with Magic Leap to create collaborative mixed reality design tools at CES.

The tablets use electromagnetic resonance (EMR) technology, a type of faint radio signal. this avoids the usage of separate batteries in the pen.

Wacom has been criticized for their high cost of professional displays. The company has also received criticism for collection of user data, which Wacom says is "for quality assurance and development purposes," where the data is anonymized. In early 2024, the company was criticised by artists for using AI generated images in its advertising material. The company replied in a post on their blogs on January 9, stating that "using AI Generated images in these assets was not" their intent.