I am using a Wacom Create tablet with Mac OS Lion and Inkscape 0.48. My problem is my cursors insertion point (the pen icon with the cross-hairs). When I draw with the mouse, the line insertion point is at the cross-hairs. When I use the tablet's pen, my line insertion point is off to the low left. Has anybody else had the same problem and if so, is there a fix?
Using Gimp or any other program, everything works as it should and I have done searches with no results.

GRScott wrote:(…) When I draw with the mouse, the line insertion point is at the cross-hairs. When I use the tablet's pen, my line insertion point is off to the low left. (…) Has anybody else had the same problem and if so, is there a fix?

Works fine for me with Inkscape 0.48.2 and Wacom Bamboo Pen&Touch CTH-470 on OS X Lion with X11/Xquartz 2.6.3 as well as the latest stable release of XQuartz (2.7.1).

Is the pen correctly configured to 'Screen' (not 'Window') in 'File > Input Devices > Configuration'?

I've tried everything. There is still the offset of the insertion point. Maybe I will try uninstalling and reinstalling Inkscape. Thanks for help.

GRScott wrote:I've tried everything. There is still the offset of the insertion point. Maybe I will try uninstalling and reinstalling Inkscape.

If you use the pre-compiled application package (from the DMG downloaded from sf.net), reinstalling it will not have any effect: Inkscape does not change any files inside the application bundle. All user settings are stored outside of the application bundle and - like with any other software - are not cleaned when you move the app itself (Inskcape.app) to the trash and drop a new app bundle from the DMG into '/Applications'.

If you compiled and installed Inkscape yourself (via MacPorts, Fink, Homebrew, or possibly jhbuild), it might be a different issue depending on some external build and runtime settings not strictly belonging to the Inkscape port. Especially if you tried to build and install Inkscape with the Quartz-backend of GTK+ (which has only the most basic tablet support in my tests and is prone to crash when drawing with the pen).

In either case I would recommend to first try and reset Inkscape's preferences instead [1], and those of the Wacom driver as well (can't check at the moment, but IIRC the Wacom preferences pane has an option to revert to default settings). A full shutdown/pause/boot cycle, or at least a "log out and back in" for the current user account might have an effect as well - at least for components outside of Inkscape (like e.g. after installing a newer version of XQuartz from xquartz.macosforge.org for the first time).


[1] Reverting Inkscape's preferences on (Mac) OS X:

1. quit any running instances of Inkscape
2. open a new Finder Window
3. in the Finder, use 'Menu > Go > Go to Folder…'
4. enter "~/.config" into the dialog asking for the folder name (without quotes)
5. rename (or delete) the folder "inkscape" in "~/.config"
6. restart Inkscape and configure the tablet/pen as needed

Thank you. I tried resetting the preferences in Inkscape and wacom bamboo tablet. It did not change anything. Must be a gremlin in my computer. Funny, but the tablet works great with all of my other software. I guess I'll have to get use to offset of insertion point. I did use the .dmg version of Inkscape 0.48.2. Again, thanks for the help.

I have the same problem in Snow Leopard with XQuartz 2.7.2_beta3 and _beta4, and Inkscape 0.48.2r9819. I think something changed in XQuartz that messes with wacom reporting of position. I downgraded to XQuartz 2.6 series and it works fine with that. The beta4 is particularly bad, it breaks my wacom pointer completely (it doesn't click and no matter what I've tried it can be activated... and believe me I'm a long time user/sufferer and know quite a few tricks). I sometimes worry that so much of what I do depends of these fragile components.

So... instead of "get used to the offset" (which would be a nightmare) just grab one of the XQuartz 2.6 old releases and go with that.

disposuka wrote:The beta4 is particularly bad, it breaks my wacom pointer completely (it doesn't click and no matter what I've tried it can be activated... and believe me I'm a long time user/sufferer and know quite a few tricks).

XQuartz 2.7.2-beta4 is bad indeed (it simply crashes when working with Inkscape and GIMP - at least when using "normal" input devices). The crash has been confirmed, the cause identified, and the fix already committed upstream by the main XQuartz developer: It will be included in the next beta ( 1 ). Possibly the same changes ("XQuartz: Automatically start our virtual tablet devices") will also address the other regressions with tablets in the latest beta versions ( 2 ).

disposuka wrote:I sometimes worry that so much of what I do depends of these fragile components.

Keep in mind that beta versions are unstable by nature, intended for testing and detecting bugs - do not use them (e.g. refuse to auto-upgrade XQuartz to a beta version when asked), if you don't want to cope with this and need more stable versions (XQuartz 2.7.1 works ok for me - with normal and extended input devices (Wacom)).

Thanks for the heads up, hopefully this will address the bug.

Keep in mind that beta versions are unstable by nature, intended for testing and detecting bugs - do not use them (e.g. refuse to auto-upgrade XQuartz to a beta version when asked), if you don't want to cope with this and need more stable versions (XQuartz 2.7.1 works ok for me - with normal and extended input devices (Wacom)).

So true, to be honest I didn't even realize that at some point I had moved to using betas, probably because the updater keeps trying to do it and it's too easy to just let it update (the heading on the update box just says 'X11 2.7.2' with no beta warning and it's only if you look into the text you see the 2.7.2-beta4). After your comment I tried 2.7.1 and it works fine with it, so I might have overreacted going to 2.6.x.

All that said, I'm immensely grateful to both the Inkscape community and the guys at XQuartz. It must be a bit of a nightmare to support all the Wacom tablet types, as it seems the fix for one can break another type of tablet pretty easily (beta4 addressed an issue exactly like OP's http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/ticket/555 and it seemed to fix it, only to break other tablets).

I had given up on a solution to this and for some reason decided to check here today. Well, that fixed my problem. I installed XQuartz 2.6 and everything is back to normal (I hope). I'm back in the Inkscape world. Thanks to everyone for their help.

GRScott wrote:I had given up on a solution to this and for some reason decided to check here today. Well, that fixed my problem. I installed XQuartz 2.6 and everything is back to normal (I hope). I'm back in the Inkscape world. Thanks to everyone for their help. :D

AFAICT the latest XQuartz 2.7.2_beta5 (xorg-server 1.12.1) fixes the regressions with normal and extended input devices known for earlier beta releases of 2.7.2.