Photoshop changes my pen tablet settings from relative to absolute!

AM
Posted By
Angry_McDude
Oct 13, 2003
Views
1169
Replies
14
Status
Closed
I use an Aiptek graphics pen tablet, in windows XP with Photoshop 7. The drivers for the tablet came with a little program to change the settings for the tablet, including the sensitivity of the tablet and whether the tablet is in "absolute" or "relative" mode. As I am lazy and would rather move my wrist a little instead of my entire arm, I prefer relative mode with a high sensitivity.

Life was good until I installed Photoshop: ever time I run it, it has its way with my system and changes my graphics tablet settings! Then, if I try to change the setting with the aforementioned, provided program, it will not work unless Photoshop has first been closed. I don’t under stand why it would do this. Is this supposed to be a ‘feature’? Retards! Anyway, before I get all worked up…

Is there any solution to this? Is this the proper way to bring the problem to the attention of adobe?

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CC
Chris_Cox
Oct 13, 2003
Before you get all worked up, you should realize that Photoshop doesn’t change ANYTHING in the tablet driver.

Either YOU changed it, or the driver has some bugs.

Yes, the solution is to either not do what you are doing to change the setting, or contact Aiptek and ask them to fix their driver bugs.
MA
Mark_Allen
Oct 13, 2003
As Chris says, it’s the tablet at fault, or get a decent pen. I used Aiptek for a while, and found them using a high degree of sewerage. Go and spend the money on quality. ie "Wacom"

This is NO reflection on Chris, Adobe, OR ANY associated products

Regards

Mark
AM
Angry_McDude
Oct 14, 2003
Well, Chris, I have brought the issue up to Aiptek, and am now waiting for a response. I don’t know about your assessment of the situation; I am definitely not doing anything to change the setting besides running Photoshop, but whatever; we shall see. You may very well be right about the driver. To clarify:

1) At first, everything works fine. My tablet is in "relative" mode.
2) I run Photoshop. The tablet is now working in absolute mode, much to my dismay. Attempts to change back to relative mode using the provided application are completely unsuccessful.
3) As soon as Photoshop has exited, the tablet resumes operation in relative mode, as it was before Photoshop was started, regardless of whether or not the setting was manually changed back during the course of Photoshop’s execution.

This does not happen when I run MS Paint or Adobe ImageReady. It also does not happen if I use the default driver that is installed by winXP Pro, but in that case there is no pressure sensitivity. When I tested it with ImageReady and my tablet retained its "Relative" status, pressure sensitivity was also not working(I don’t know whether this is a problem with ImageReady, unsupported by ImageReady, or I just hadn’t enabled the feature, but for whatever reason it was not making pressure sensitive brush strokes at the time). This leads me to wonder whether the issue (whether a problem of Photoshop or the driver) has anything to do with pressure sensitivity.

Has anyone out there been able to use Photoshop with any graphics tablet in relative mode (also called "mouse mode") and still been able to make pressure sensitive brush-strokes?

Has anyone out there ever been able to use an Aiptek tablet (especially one with the model number T-6000U) in relative mode with pressure sensitivity in any program of any kind?

Thanks.
CC
Chris_Cox
Oct 14, 2003
Angry – yes, many people do that all the time.

But most Photoshop professionals use Wacom tablets, not Aiptek.
AM
Angry_McDude
Oct 14, 2003
Could you please be more specific? What do many people do all the time? Do they use Photoshop with a graphics tablet in relative mode while making pressure sensitive brush strokes, or do they use an Aiptek tablet in relative mode with pressure sensitivity in any program? Or did you mean both?

Thanks.
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Oct 14, 2003
I use the inexpensive Wacom, and I have no problems with retaining settings. It is interesting that it runs fine with Image Ready, but not PS.
AA
Another_Angry_User
Oct 14, 2003
You are not on your own. I have just installed PhotoShop 7 for use with a Genius Tablet. It shows the EXACT same problems as experienced by angry McDude. If i try and modify the settings back to ‘Relative’ with PhotoShop open, it shuts down.
More a problem with PhotoShop, not the hardware. PhotoShop should not modify your default hardware settings unless YOU specifically choose to do this. Unfortunately it appears that PhotoShop does this, but offers no dialogue box to change it back.

Anybody got any solutions/suggestions?
KV
Klaas_Visser
Oct 14, 2003
If i try and modify the settings back to ‘Relative’ with PhotoShop open, it shuts down.

Photoshop shuts down, or the tablet settings program? If it is Photoshop, then your driver has a problem – a well behaved driver should not shutdown an application when settings are changed.

Are there per application settings available in the tablet driver? It’s entirely possible that the driver is designed/written such that when Photoshop is started, the driver changes itself to absolute mode (maybe the tablet manufacturers thought that this is what users wanted).

There are plenty of folks using tablets and Photoshop, who don’t have this problem. When I was using a Wacom tablet, I certainly didn’t have any issues, with both version 6 and 7 of Photoshop, and using either relative or absolute modes.

EDIT: just thought – what mouse are you using with the tablet? Could there be some sort of conflict between an installed mouse and the tabelt driver?
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Oct 14, 2003
I have that problem. I use a Logitech wireless mouse, which I like because it "learned" my hand. When I installed Wacom, I lost some of the mouse functions, primarily the thumb button. I had to use an MS driver to recover that function, not the Logitech, which both Wacom and logitech acknowledged.
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Oct 14, 2003
I have a Wacom Graphire 2 on my system (Win 2000 pro, Dell Dimention, Photoshop 7.01), and it works ok. I have changed the mode for the pen into relative, and still no problem.
Rob
CC
Chris_Cox
Oct 14, 2003
Angry, and another angry:
Let me repeat this one more time for those not paying attention: Photoshop DOES NOT change your tablet settings in any way. Photoshop reads data from the WinTab interface, but does nothing to change the tablet configuration. That is a fact, not an opinion, not a rumor, but a FACT.

Photoshop does request coordinates in absolute values (as do most applications using tablets), but that only changes the way they are read, it doesn’t change the user visible behavior or the UI of the tablet driver. If you are seeing a user visible change, then either you configured it to do that, or the tablet manufacturer has a problem with their driver that causes it to change when it should not.

Once again: this IS a problem with your third party tablet driver. Please check your tablet driver settings, and if you can’t find the problem, take it up with the tablet manufacturer.
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Oct 15, 2003
Another idea:

In Wacom’s config screen you can tag a setting to a certain application. I hadn’t done this, but for the sake of this thread I made a seperate set of settings for Photoshop. In this set I configured the pen to be relative in stead of absolute. (Quiet contrary to my preference; relative almost gets me seasick).

Now my pen is absolute except when launching Photoshop.
When I next pretend to not know anything of the above and go into preferecies (of the Wacom) to see what the heck is doing this, I see my pen in absolute mode. This is because prefs defaulted to show me the "general" settings, rather than the extra one made for Photoshop.

Maybe a source of confusion there…
Rob
BL
Berit_Larsen
Oct 16, 2003
Hi From Denmark my name is Berit Larsen and I don’t understand way I can work with Papyrus in Adobe photo shop on one computer and when I get home to my own computer in Adobe Photo shop 7.0.1 I can’t write with Papyrus because it is not there?? do any of you know what I’m talking about? and do you know the answer and what to do? please write to me…
L
LenHewitt
Oct 16, 2003
Berit,

I assume you are talking about a font called "Papyrus".

It sounds as though that font isn’t installed on your home machine.

"Papyrus" is an Esselte Letraset font. The font files are 70968___.pfm and 70968___.pfb

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