Controling line thickness with a Wacom tablet

stephen · Post by **stephen** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:10 am

Last night I did my first serious drawing with my new Wacom tablet. I was using the freehand drawing tool and I had auto outline, auto fill and auto close on.
I got variable thickness lines around my shapes, but the lines were very thick overall.
Is there a way to control how thick the lines get?

Thanks
Stephen

myles · Post by **myles** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:33 am

Hello Stephen,

I haven't used this much myself - however, for what it's worth:

When you choose the freehand tool, there's a drop-down dialog above the main workspace labelled "Freehand Options" which includes a "Max width" setting (defaulting to 8 ). To close the dialog, you can, for instance, click again on the freehand tool in the tools panel.

Does lowering that setting help?

Also, the Wacom control widget thingy in the Windows Control Panel lets you set the sensitivity of the Wacom pen (for light and heavy-handed users).
I think by default they are usually configured to be fairly sensitive.

Regards, Myles.

bupaje · Post by **bupaje** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:35 am

Hey Steve,

I just tried the Wacom after reading your post and I see the Min Width and Max Width options at the top in the Freehand Options tab; it seems to work for me when I set the line width to Random and the Taper check boxes -but I get an even line with no variable widths if I use "Use Pen Pressure" (maybe I need to set a Wacom setting somewhere.

bupaje · Post by **bupaje** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:36 am

oops, Myles is a faster 'poseterer' than me.

stephen · Post by **stephen** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:45 am

I feel so embarrased. I did not even see the freehand options pulldown until you two pointed it out to me. Thanks!
Yes, setting the max line width down works great for me.

Stephen

Post by **Lost Marble** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 5:21 am

You might also be able to adjust the hard/soft settings on your tablet to make it more or less sensitive. But that can be a little tricky to get right - that's why the min/max line width was added to the Freehand tool.

JCook · Post by **JCook** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 2:50 pm

I find the variable line in the Freehand tool works fine with the pen and the Wacom tablet. The only problem is that you don't see the effect until you assign a shape to the line. That can be a little disconcerting. But it works great.

I'm wondering if any of you Mac users (I'm using OS 10.3.

have been able to get the Wacom tablet buttons to work with Moho. I'm talking about the buttons at the top of the tablet that you can set to access tools and commands. I've added Moho to the applications list in the tablet software and set the buttons to what I want, but they just won't work. What's the secret, anybody know?

Jack

JCook · Post by **JCook** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 7:50 pm

I just downloaded version 5.1 and reset my Wacom settings for Moho, and now they work fine. Yay!

Jack