Illustrator 2025 Wacom Tablet Bug with Animated Zoom

The source of the problem is likely Windows Ink. When Windows Ink is disabled in the tablet driver the tablet will function normally, but without any pressure sensitive capabilities. When Windows Ink is enabled in the Wacom tablet driver it can lead to all sorts of problems.

One giant problem involves press and hold. Many actions in Illustrator require the pen tip to be pressed on the tablet surface and dragged. In order to move objects on the art board the pen tip has to be pressed and dragged. The same goes for moving sliders in a CMYK color mixer panel. Just moving an application window requires pressing and dragging. In Adobe Illustrator you have to press and drag the pen tip to use animated zoom. For reasons I can't understand Microsoft decided to hijack that simple movement and turn it into a shortcut for right-clicking. But even that function doesn't work. Rather than see a context-sensitive flyout menu the only thing that appears is an animated white circle.

Another big annoyance with Windows Ink: when it is enabled it often wants to display a handwriting pop up box whenever a text cursor is clicked into a text object, the URL bar of a web browser window or anything else text-related. Most computers do have physical keyboards attached to them. But Windows Ink wants to treat every computer as if it's a Samsung Note phone or an Apple Newton from 1993. It's just so unbelievably stupid.

These problems have existed for at least the past several years. Microsoft apparently has zero interest at all in fixing the infuriating problems with Windows Ink. I don't know if it is possible for Wacom and other graphics tablet makers to develop drivers that totally bypass Windows Ink. For now the only functional alternatives are a Wacom tablet connected to a Mac-based computer or using an iPad with an Apple Pencil.

I've tried on numerous occasions to get Windows Ink to work in a manner that wouldn't make me quickly lose my temper. I've gone through all the settings in the OS and have even tried various hacks in the Windows registry. None of that works. The only thing that does is just disabling Windows Ink in the tablet driver and living without pressure sensitivity in the graphics tablet.