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Problems with pen operation, input in Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.

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6 comments

  • João

    Hi Hubertus Leischner

    That is a long list. 

    I'll try to tackle all the issues in order. 

    1. Try deactivating Windows Ink from the Wacom driver.
    2. Are you using the computer Keyboard, or are you assigning these shortcuts to ExpressKeys on the Intuos Pros? Your description sounds like the Photoshop "Spring Loaded tools" feature is being used. You can disable this from the Photoshop Preferences/Tools menu. In any case, this is not something the driver can control. 
    3. How are you switching between applications? Are you using Alt-tab, clicking on the app in the Windows bar or? If you click directly on the canvas after switching apps, doesn't the pressure return to normal? 
      Either way, this seems more like an issue from photoshop since the pressure data being sent from the tablet to the Wacom driver and then the Operating system is always the same regardless of which application is active. How the application then reads the pressure data is something we cannot control. 

    The other issues will also be fixed by disabling Windows Ink. 

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  • Hubertus Leischner

    Hello João.

    Thank a lot for your detailed answer (... and sorry about the long list - I just wanted to be as precise as possible - and also to test all possible options ... ;) ) 


    Re 2  

    This with the jumping keys worked! After switching off the "Spring Load Tool" the problem seems to be solved. Great! 

     

    Re 1 

    x  I had already deactivated the "Hold right-click" function in Windows - that didn't change the behaviour unfortunately.

    x  "Windows Ink" actually seems to be the cause of the misbehaviour!  But - deactivating it is just not a solution unfortunately. But it does provide a clue to the cause.

    - As soon as I deactivate "Windows Ink" in the Wacom driver, the sliders and input fields behave completely normally and are usable again.

    - The same applies to the settings tools and input fields in Lightroom and Indesign (strangely enough, Illustrator does not seem to be affected by the problem either positively or negatively)

    - Libre-Office and Calc in Libre-Office, as well as Firefox and Thunderbird also work perfectly with the pen again when Windows Ink is deactivated!


    However - none of this helps me at all, because as soon as I deactivate Windows Ink, brush printing in Photoshop is no longer available! :(


    Although printing is available with Windows Ink, other parameters such as the brush size can no longer be adjusted correctly in the brush settings panel. 

    The same applies to all tool input fields of other tools (e.g. tone value correction adjustment layers). This also applies to sliders and / or text input fields in Lightroom, Indesign, Libre Office, Calc, Firefox and Thunderbird.


    Re 3 

    Loss of pen pressure when switching between programmes. Ok - I will continue to monitor this! As soon I switch off Windows Ink, printing basically stops working. (see above)

    I usually work on a document in Phoshop. I often have to insert images that I select in Lightroom and edit there. When I switch from Photoshop to Lightroom and back again (either by clicking in the windows or the taskbar / programme icons) - the pen pressure is often no longer available in Photoshop.


    So the master question arises - how can brush printing be made available in Photoshop without Windows Ink? Do you have an idea for this?


    Best regards, Hubertus

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  • João

    Hi Hubertus Leischner

    Sorry. I didn't meant the post was long in a negative way.

    I actually really appreciate that you provided all the data in a condensed and clear way. That really helps. 

    This is strange. Adobe should be fully supporting Windows Ink so there should be no issues with the pressure. See: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/tablet-support-faq-photoshop.html

    The fact that turning Windows Ink solves some problems while raising others means there's something going on on the software side. 

    Please try the steps here and see if this works better.

    https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/enable-optional-extensions-photoshop-cc.html#Howtoenableextensions

    https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/enable-optional-extensions-photoshop-cc.html#turn_off_system_stylus

    If the issue persists, I kindly ask you to check with Adobe for further advice. 

    Cheers

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  • Hubertus Leischner

    Hello João

    Thank you very much for your new answer. You really are a competent expert!

    I'll keep watching - but for now I'm really happy and very grateful after a long road of problems: finally, after switching from Mac to Windows, working with my Wacom tablets seems to work the way I've always been used to. From the beginning, I had these problems with Windows 11. 

     

    After switching from Windows Ink support to Win Tab in Photoshop, as you recommended, I was able to disable Windows Ink in the Wacom driver and Photoshop still has pen pressure support. 

    Now not only does everything work as it should - the other programmes (Adobe and others) can now also be operated correctly with the pen. In general, I have the impression that every operation with the pen in the system runs more smoothly and without any jerking.

    Really great!

    ...

    In fact, I have the impression that Photoshop and Adobe are not the cause of the problem.

    The current version of Photoshop supports Windows Ink. In fact, you normally HAVE to have it switched on for pen printing to work. But then other things (as described above in the threat) no longer work or no longer work properly. 

    However, since other programmes from Adobe (Lightroom, Indesign - I haven't yet installed and tested Premiere and After Effect), or Libre Office, Firefox and Thunderbird ( ... and I've just tested it too - problems also exists in Microsoft Edge: e.g. nothing can be marked with the pen in the browser line, only when Windows Ink is deactivated in the Wacom driver does it work there again), the basic problem seems to lie elsewhere.

    Presumably with Windows Ink itself - and the interaction with the Wacom driver?

    Perhaps this should be investigated and the interaction could be improved? Another idea would be to include an official option in the Photoshop preferences to switch from Windows Ink to Win Tab when working with Wacom pen tablets. This I will suggest this in the Adobe forum.

     

    Thx a lot for your help!

     

    Best regards from Berlin,
    Hubertus

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  • João

    Hi Hubertus Leischner

    Glad to hear that worked. To be honest, I was not aware this was still an issue. The sliders issue has been around for years but I haven't had any recent reports and assumed it had been fixed. 

    The main difference between Windows and Mac when it regards pen input devices, is that Windows natively supports this while Mac doesn't. 

    Windows has supported this already for a very long time through the Wintab API and more recently through Windows Ink. 

    The thing with Windows Ink is that the pen data transmitted is always the same but how the application uses the data is different. For most browsers, it is just setup not to select text, but to scroll or to emulate touch based gestures. When you turn Windows Ink off from the Wacom driver, the pen data is then transmitted to the Operating System using the much older Pen API - Wintab - which behaves differently, more akin to a standard mouse input device. 

    There are pros and cons to both API of course, but the pen data from the driver is the same. The coordinates for the pen position are the same and the pressure data is also the same. It's just how it is perceived by the system that changes when Windows Ink or Wintab is used. 

     

     

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  • Hubertus Leischner

    Hello João.

    I see. Thanks for the detailed explanation! I find that very interesting and very helpful to understand.

    So you could also say - in principle, the integration is better with Windows than with Mac (as it is native) - on the other hand, there are apparently still or now problems with the newer implementation by the Windows Ink API (in contrast to the previous Wintab). New updates are constantly being released for Windows 11 - perhaps something has changed in the meantime too.

    Perhaps the problems are particularly noticeable for me because I am constantly switching back and forth between drawing operations, graphics operations and text input. I like it to do all with the pen. I don't know. Its managing somehow, but with Windows Ink, everything with the pen is constantly disrupted. 

    Obviously, the various applications in their different windows and sliders don't interpret the same data supplied by the pen correctly or at all. Perhaps they assume typical mouse data at these points? Is that why it works perfectly if the pen data is also supplied as "mouse data" via Wintab? 

    So basically it would be best if Windows Ink would work with the pen data similar to the older Wintab, only finer or better? 

    In any case, I've reinstalled my system twice in the meantime, including a bios/UEFI update and updates of all the latest drivers for the chipset, graphics card, etc., and the problems didn't go away. 

    However, I'm happy that everything is running fine at the moment. I've just installed Topaz AI and the pen works perfectly there too! :)

    Cheers,
    Hubertus

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