I've been experimenting with Inkscape for some time, and whenever I draw a curve on my tablet PC using the pencil tool in Inkscape, the whole curve appears as a pale green preview, until I lift the stylus. Then the curve is finalized, and appears as a freehand path.

However, while the preview contains the entire curve, the program always truncates the first little bit of the curve as soon as I lift the stylus off the screen (the precise amount cut off seems to vary with scaling). Thus, if I draw a 3 cm horizontal line segment on the screen, then I only wind up inputting, say, a 2.7 cm path, because the first 0.3 cm or so is entirely ignored by the software.

For months I tried to work around this, even though it makes accurate drawing impossible, because I thought it was a problem with my tablet/stylus. However, I've noticed that Windows Journal inputs curves perfectly, and so does Paint. Does anyone know if there's a hidden setting somewhere in Inkscape that is causing this problem? Thanks a million.

-Morgon (MrGoon)

It sounds as if your sketch mode is on for the pencil tool. This is usually accessed by holding down the alt key, which draws green lines on canvas until you release it and then draws the final line. Your pen might have alt + left click set for tip (who knows why) in its control panel, which might not affect other programs, but activate sketch mode in Inkscape.

Also make sure that 'spiro' mode is not on (pencil control bar) and that shape is "none".

you might also check that the mapping in the input devices dialog is set to 'screen' and not 'window'.

Thanks druban for your help! Good suggestions.

(1) Sketch mode is not on (I tested this by toggling it on and off). When sketch mode is on, I can make multiple lines before the path is finalized (I see why my mention of a "preview" made you think of this). But my problem is that even when drawing just one line in regular mode, the line ends up being truncated (by "preview" I just meant the way the curve looks before you lift up the stylus or let go of the mouse button).

(2) Spiro mode is also off, and shape is indeed set to "none"--just to be extra careful, I've reset pencil settings to defaults and double-checked these items.

(3) Hmm. When I click File-->Input Devices, the dialog says "No extended input devices" (even though the pen works fine). So there doesn't seem to be a screen/window option. But I should say that this problem (with the curves being truncated) also takes effect when I use the mouse instead of the stylus, so I don't think that's the issue. I probably should have said this in my OP.

Oddly, I don't have this problem at all with the calligraphy tool, just the pencil tool! Still trying to figure this one out...

Which version of Inkscape and what platform are you on? The newer bulds use a different renderer and some tools are slower. I note that the pencil is always slower-drawing than other tools. As draw more and more with the pencil continuously I am starting to notice some jumpiness in my curves. The problem seems to go away - if I draw with some other tools an then come back to the pencil - everything then seems up to speed.

Hello again, druban:

I was using 0.47 on a Windows 7 Home Premium PC. It was never jumpy or slow, but only the first little bit of every pencil curve was left off. However, when you asked me that question I realized an update might help, so I uninstalled Inkscape and downloaded version 0.48.1, which solved my problem perfectly!

Thanks very much for your tips--hopefully if anyone else has been having this problem, they'll stumble across this thread and they'll know what to do! Much appreciated.

-Morgon

It sounds as if your sketch mode is on for the pencil tool. This is usually accessed by holding down the alt key, which draws green lines on canvas until you release it and then draws the final line. Your pen might have alt + left click set for tip (who knows why) in its control panel, which might not affect other programs, but activate sketch mode in Inkscape.

There's a setting for Sketch Mode in Inkscape Preferences > Tools > Pencil, which I think is enabled by default. Could that be it?

Thanks very much, brynn.

I actually solved the problem by downloading Inkscape 0.48.1, as I mentioned in my reply to druban. I'm not sure if the fix worked because the new version addressed a known problem in the old, or just because reinstalling the program fixed my settings, or what... but anyway, the problem is now gone, and I can actually draw now! The only thing holding me back is incompetence--and I can work on that!

Thanks to all. This is a very handy forum, partly for the helpful suggestions, but also partly as a means of making yourself talk things through in an organized way. I'd never have thought to get 0.48.1 if nobody had asked me what build I had, for example.

0.48 fixed a lot of tablet issues, (including better pressure support, which you can play with now that you have upgraded - only in the calligraphy tool, but still...) so your problem was probably one of them.

Druban,

I recently downloaded Inkscape 0.48 to try and use with my Wacom Intuos3 tablet. Can I ask, did you get the pressure to work for you? I am on Linux Ubuntu 11.04 and I get pressure sensitivity in GIMP and MyPaint but not Inkscape 0.48 - confirming that at least the Linux tablet driver works outside of 0.48.

In 0.48 I can draw a line using my tablet pen and it works like a mouse with no pressure being produced on screen. Pressure is being sent to 0.48 (as per File > Input Devices > Hardware > Test Area). No matter what combination of File > Inkscape Preferences > Mouse > both tablet settings AND File > Input Devices > tablet checkbox (and set eraser and pen) ... all on, all off... the tablet still produces a line without pressure.

Am I missing a setting somewhere?

nmprofessional wrote:I recently downloaded Inkscape 0.48 to try and use with my Wacom Intuos3 tablet. Can I ask, did you get the pressure to work for you? I am on Linux Ubuntu 11.04 and I get pressure sensitivity in GIMP and MyPaint but not Inkscape 0.48 - confirming that at least the Linux tablet driver works outside of 0.48.
(…)
Am I missing a setting somewhere?

Tablet issues largely depend on the GTK+ stack used, and differ between the various ports of Inkscape (i.e. problems of tablet users with Inkscape on Windows vary greatly between 0.48.1 (GTK+ 2.16.6) and 0.48.2 (GTK+ 2.22.1) and do not necessarily relate to the issues linux users on recent Ubuntu releases are fighting with): your issue seems to be a regression in Ubuntu 11.04 (and not related to Inkscape's own code):

• Bug #790130 in Inkscape: “no pressure sensitivity with wacom tablet in inkscape”

Well, I guess it is back to Windows I go - using Corel Draw and Painter. I thought I would have a better experience on Linux, not the case.

P.S. If tablet is usable in GIMP & MyPaint and registers the pressure sensitivity correctly, and I cannot get the pressure sensitivity in Inkscape - I doubt the GTK stack is the issue. I get the same issue with Inkscape for Windows too.

P.S.S. My observations, this is why Linux is not more popular. Everyone "blames" the OS and never the people who make the software. Curios why Linux isn't more popular (said tongue in cheek). I'll have to calk this up to "distro" or "software" or "Wacom" issue... sounds like the road I travel on Windows 7.

nmprofessional wrote:Druban,

I recently downloaded Inkscape 0.48 to try and use with my Wacom Intuos3 tablet. Can I ask, did you get the pressure to work for you? I am on Linux Ubuntu 11.04 and I get pressure sensitivity in GIMP and MyPaint but not Inkscape 0.48 - confirming that at least the Linux tablet driver works outside of 0.48.

In 0.48 I can draw a line using my tablet pen and it works like a mouse with no pressure being produced on screen. Pressure is being sent to 0.48 (as per File > Input Devices > Hardware > Test Area). No matter what combination of File > Inkscape Preferences > Mouse > both tablet settings AND File > Input Devices > tablet checkbox (and set eraser and pen) ... all on, all off... the tablet still produces a line without pressure.

Am I missing a setting somewhere?

Please uninstall the overlay scrollbar package from ubuntu, go into the terminal and type:



Then rerun Inkscape with the tablet plugged in.

Gutesork wrote:

nmprofessional wrote:Druban,

I recently downloaded http://www.casesam.co.uk/ Inkscape 0.48 to try and use with my Wacom Intuos3 tablet. Can I ask, did you get the pressure to work for you? I am on Linux Ubuntu 11.04 and I get pressure sensitivity in GIMP and MyPaint but not Inkscape 0.48 - confirming that at least the Linux tablet driver works outside of 0.48.

In 0.48 I can draw a line using my tablet pen and it works like a mouse with no pressure being produced on screen. Pressure is being sent to 0.48 (as per File > Input Devices > Hardware > Test Area). No matter what combination of File > Inkscape Preferences > Mouse > both tablet settings AND File > Input Devices > tablet checkbox (and set eraser and pen) ... all on, all off... the tablet still produces a line without pressure.

Am I missing a setting somewhere?

Please uninstall the overlay scrollbar package from ubuntu, go into http://www.ourcase.co.uk/ the terminal and type:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge overlay-scrollbar

Then rerun Inkscape with the tablet plugged in.

That can solve the problem?