Pen tablet help needed

Hi all,

I'm in no way a graphic artist, but I always had the issue, that I use the mouse with my right hand while I'm left-handed. This is for historical reasons. When I got my first mouse controlled computer (yes, I'm that old) there only was a right handed design, so I learned to use the right hand with the mouse. I simply can't control the mouse with the left hand.

On the other side, on a piece of paper I am only able to draw with my left hand. So I never could draw with the pc.

Now I am the proud owner of my very first pen tablet (yes, I am that slow). It's this one. But the handling confuses me. It covers the whole wide screen (24"), but I would rather prefer that it covers only a part of the screen that I define, so that I can use the right hand (and mouse) for the menus, palettes and such.

Is there any way to do so? The driver offers a tab called "projection" (I'm roughly translating the words from german). There I can select "All screens" or "Section". But it confuses me. When activating "Section" I have to define a rectangle, but I loose the widescreen ratio, if I do so, since all sides move independently. Also, there's an option called "Fixed ratio", but that doesn't affect the rectangle that I define. And last but not least, I also have to choose between a mode. Options there are either "Pen" or "Mouse". What does that mean? How will that change the behavior? And how do I set a widescreen ratio rectangle? And isn't there any possibility to have settings per application? For example, a setting for Photoshop, another for GIMP, another for Inkscape, etc.?

Would love to see some help here. Just imagine talking to a 4 year old child while explaining

Thank you!

specialfrieddice.com/TrustSlimli ... phicTablet

I haven't used a trust tablet before but normally when you install tablet drivers, you get a configuration program installed on your PC where you (depending on your brand) can choose screen or modify active area etc...

I believe this was the link BinaryPanda tried to post.

http://specialfrieddice.com/TrustSlimlineWidescreenGraphicTablet

based on the images from the website, you should have (if you have installed the drivers previously) "Pen Pad" somewhere in your Control Panel. I should note that the blog is 2 years old, so some of the steps might not be necessary or look the same.

Also no i do not believe that having different configuration profiles is possible, although sometimes program ie. Photoshop has its own panel where you can configure brush settings, sensitivity and such for your tablet. I am not sure but i believe GIMP has that too.

I haven't used a trust tablet before but normally when you install tablet drivers, you get a configuration program installed on your PC where you (depending on your brand) can choose screen or modify active area etc...

Yes, you're right. And it was that configuration, I was referring to. It's there where I have to set a rectangle that describes the active area. But this rectangle doesn't keep the ratio of my tablet, so that the result is biased, which makes it hard to draw (e.g. need to draw an ellipse when you want the result on screen to be a circle).

Also no i do not believe that having different configuration profiles is possible, although sometimes program ie. Photoshop has its own panel where you can configure brush settings, sensitivity and such for your tablet. I am not sure but i believe GIMP has that too.

Thanks for pointing that out! I will have a look at those configuration options in the applications.

specialfrieddice.com/TrustSlimli ... phicTablet

Thank you for the link. Unfortunately it didn't help me with the actual issue, since I have the newest driver, and I'm not working with multiple monitors. I was rather hoping for a solution to restrict the tablet to a portion of the view, not restrict it to one monitor (which is what I currently have).

BinaryPanda

CandyFace

Thank you both for trying to help

Some guys here

https://osu.ppy.sh/forum/t/106446

found a solution it seems. in the config file they refer to, you can specify region size.

Even though you might have the newest version, if the driver setup have not been modified too much, you should still have that aiptbl.ini config file lying in the driver folder which can be edited. You have to remove your current driver for the tablet, modify the file and install the driver. Repeat that action till you are satisfied with the active area. Normally when you get a tablet brand which is a bit more known, you tend to get such settings in the configuration program you receive with the driver, although it sounds like you do not have it. Maybe you could take a screen shot of the various tabs you have access to, then i can try to help?

also... If you should ever find need to get a new tablet, i can recommend Huion, they're cheap and the quality is really good, else get a Wacom tablet which is the State of the art of tablets but they are more expensive although the quality is also very good. I own a Huion tablet myself and it is everything i need, no issues and works on both PC and Mac.

Edit: Sorry i somehow missed your first two lines... so you say it does not keep the ratio? could you please take a screenshot and show me. You should be able to change the size of the active area as much as you like, that means it could be very wide or narrow, it should not depend on your ratio.

Take a look at my tablet configurations program for example, do have something that look similar?

CandyFace

Thanks so much for helping again! And sorry for the delayed answer.

Here are my screenshots:

[attachment=2:84ejx8yx][/attachment:84ejx8yx]

[attachment=1:84ejx8yx][/attachment:84ejx8yx]

[attachment=0:84ejx8yx][/attachment:84ejx8yx]

On the second screen you see "Monitorbereich" (= monitor area). Options there are "Alle Bildschirme" (=all screens), "Monitor" (greyed out, since I only have one monitor) and "Teilbereich" (=partial area). The last one is "Feststehende Größenverhältnisse", which means forced proportions or fixed ratio. Although I selected both, partial area and fixed ratio, you can see that the rectangle on the left, where my desktop is displayed, is far from keeping the proportions.

On the same screen you can also see that I can choose a "Modus" (=mode). Options here are either pen or mouse. But I still don't know what the difference is between penmode and mousemode. I can only say that in both modes the pen works.

Ugh yea i can see that... looks like a incompatibility issue of some sort, maybe because you use winXP. I know it is very unlikely but :3 have you tried holding "Left Shift" down and drag the red box? that usually locks to a fixed square, afterwards you could try to align it manually.

Oh sorry reading through your first post again i must have missed something

it sounds like you want to use the pen with your left hand and simultaneously control menus and such with your right hand, correct? That is not possible without some third party application that would enable a second cursor on your screen and even then, i am not sure the applications would support multiple actions anyway.

I can only suggest you to get comfortable with the pen and practice. Drawing with a tablet, looking onscreen is nothing like drawing on paper and it will require practice to master it.

Heureka!

The fixed proportions issue is solved. And the solution is so silly, that I am really ashamed. When activating that option, the tablet will always send proportinal info, completely seperated from the rect setting in the driver's configuration window. Stupid implementation, but at least it works now.

it sounds like you want to use the pen with your left hand and simultaneously control menus and such with your right hand, correct? That is not possible without some third party application that would enable a second cursor on your screen and even then, i am not sure the applications would support multiple actions anyway.

Yes, that was my intention. Well, I will try to get comfortable then with my left hand controlling the screen via pen. It's more difficult as I thought. Just like you said, drawing with a tablet to a display isn't the same as drawing on a paper. Unfortunately. But I will train hard!

Thanks once again, without you I would still try to figure it out!

I am glad you got it sorted

I draw on a small XP-Pen Star G430 Drawing tablet. (no pen display obviously) i've never tried seriously drawing something on mouse (i used to trace irl sketches on a trackpad though, ew) it just seems painful.

I also use XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro Drawing monitor that is bit expensive but worth the price for serious artists. this is one of the best rated tablets for drawing. This tablet work with PC and Mac too. The tablet is lightweight and has 15.6 HD display , Has a surface which is closely bonded to the display reducing parallax . support pen tilt , Pressure Sensitivity is awesome 8192 .I have found some good reviews from internet .