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How to...

Wacom Tablet Work

27/4/2019

2 Comments

 
As many of my colleagues, I use a tablet for editing my photos.
By "tablet" I don't mean something like an iPad or similar. Mine is a Wacom, a black surface and a stylus replacing the mouse (or rather complementing it as both are working). It's more like a touch pad on a notebook, but far bigger and more precise, 50 cm wide as it goes across 4 of my 5 screens.
My computer runs Windows 10, i7 CPU and 32 GB of RAM, and the latest Wacom drivers. It can be used via wireless as well as tethered connection.
And that's the start of things, the wireless. I can't tell if this happens to MAC users too, but combined with a Windows Operating System, the wireless connection works rather patchy. Means, the stylus actions sometime freeze, sometimes for the fracture of a second (which is annoying), sometimes for seconds or minutes (which makes work impossible). 
Coming from an IT background, I thought of driver issues etc, but found the culprit to be the wireless module itself. It gets obviously (even according to Wacom) interference from Bluetooth as well as WiFi routers, phones and other RC devices everyone has around. The USB port, the wireless receiver is connected to, seems not to be an issue. I got 6 USB buses on my mainboard, but those problems occur even if I dedicate the fastest one just to the receiver.
This isn't great, but a good workaround is to just use it tethered. If I knew this before, I could have saved the 50-odd Dollar on top of the tablet.
Another thing I noticed is a frequent reset of saved settings - this seems to have also stopped since I use it tethered.
The touch sensitivity of the stylus depends on the Microsoft Ink feature, but it has some annoying side effects when you move the stylus to other parts of the screen. Sliders in Photoshop react odd (or not at all), as the touch intensity obviously isn't enough to "hold" the slider, things like that. Easy workaround, switch off Microsoft Ink in the Wacom settings and do without touch sensitivity. It would be a great feature, but in that case Microsoft is the showstopper.
The touch pad feature is cool, generally, but if your Wacom is big and you naturally touch it often, it gets confused between your hands and the stylus. So I switched it off too.
The buttons to the left would be helpful, but they are in the way more often than not, and their programming is deleted frequently too - here the tethered use doesn't help.
All in all, I wouldn't give up my pad and stylus, but I find it disappointing that there are so many great features which are made useless because Wacom and Microsoft obviously refuse to talk to each other. - And No, I won't switch to a MAC! They might be great, but not for my type of use.
The last thing is another workaround, also for people with a larger tablet.
Human skin tends to be a bit sticky sometimes, which makes it difficult to draw straight lines or nice smooth curves with a stylus, when your hand needs to slide over the tablet surface. I found some white gloves, often used by museums or in archives (to protect paper in particular). Gloves make your fingers bulky though, so I just cut off thumb, index and middle finger of the glove I use on my stylus hand. This makes things much easier, and lines more smooth and the silly look might have some entertainment value.
​I hope this little article is helpful for some of you, now have fun taking photos!
2 Comments
rushmyessay link
2/9/2019 03:09:14 am

Amazing, what an incredible invention of technology, I didn't know that this type of tablet is available in the market. Surely, I am going o buy the Wacom tablet because I am impressed by its specs and design and I think I don't need my computer after getting this. Thank you for introducing this marvelous device.

Reply
Dhruv
10/9/2019 10:48:43 am

Thanks this read out was a great help!

Reply



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