A digitizing tablet is a large format board on which a paper pattern is laid flat and traced point by point with a crosshair puck.
The result is accurate, but the board takes up a table's worth of space, costs accordingly and turns every piece into manual work. Photo based digitizing needs no dedicated hardware.

Digitize sewing patterns without tracing.
Test PatternScan Pro free for 14 days with the full feature set. You need your smartphone, a printer and one pattern you always wanted digital.