Lynn Chen

Dbmier A4 LED Lightbox Review

Or, “So, I needed a new lightbox.”

For more than a decade, I used a glass-topped drafting table with a flourescent ballast mounted underneath as a lightbox. As my process transitioned more and more to digital, keeping a table-sized lightbox became difficult to justify.

A host of LED based, thin, and cheap lightboxes have hit the market. One such unit, the Dbmier A4 LED Lightbox, landed on my desk last week for review. I was skeptical at first. Would it light evenly? Would it be bright enough? Would it be sturdy?

Dbmier’s timing was good. I’d just taken my old light table out of the studio. Nostalgic pangs aside, I was ready to give one of these new LED and acrylic panel based lightboxes a shot.

The unit is light in hand, but rigid. It doesn’t bend or flex when held up or moved. I was surprised at how solid it felt. The power button is mounted flush with no indentations. T-squares and nibs won’t hitch on any part of the lightbox’s surface.

Lighting is accomplished with LEDs and dispersed through a sheet of thick plexi. Multiple presses of the power button cycle between dimness settings. Even at the lowest setting, tracing over pencils while inking was easy. I found the effect of the backlight similar to that of a Kindle Paperwhite–mostly even and a lot more consistent than the flourescent tube based units I’d used in the past.

I opted for a medium-sized unit. A4 is big enough for the small bits and bobs that I still ink traditionally. If I still worked entirely analog, I might spring for one of their bigger options.

When not in use, these new style lightboxes are thin enough to toss into a drawer or slide under a desk. That’s a huge plus. My old light table weighed a ton and took up around sixteen square feet of my studio. That alone is worth the price of entry to me.