wacom tablet + CS4 + No pressure sensitivity

I assume its a common mistake thinking a bigger tablet is better. When I finally get round to replacing my 9x12 serial Intuos (must be old I bought it when PS5 came out I think) I will go for a smaller Intuos 3.

Good to hear Frank.

I agree that most tablet work can be done successfully without resorting to a desk-hogging size.

I may replace my ageing Graphire with a Bamboo.

UPDATE:

Alright folks so i decided send back my Genius tablet, and went to a local BestBuy and purchased a Wacom Bamboo (pen & tablet only) for $69.99 ($10 more than the Genius one). I must say this thing is awesome! What it lacks in paper specs it truly makes up for in looks, ease of use, and well hell working correctly period! Been drawing for a bit w/ it now in Photoshop CS4 and any other graphics program i can get my hands on, no worries at all. Move the mouse, type text, hell use the mouse, all pressure settings etc... are still perfectly in tact.

I hope to see the other issues get resolved w/ the Intuos tablets as that's the next i'm planning on purchasing.

Thanks again for all the help from Chris & everyone else. For those of you who have a Trust and or Genius tablet, i would HIGHLY recommend sending it back and purchasing a Bamboo. Don't let the smaller drawing surface fool you, it's not an issue at all.

I'm off to enjoy drawing, Hope it helps,
Frank...

Chris,

Thanks again for your patience through this frustrating ordeal! After a couple Windows Vista updates the tablet became completely useless. I did solve that by reinstalling the drivers, however it's behavior in CS4 didn't change. That was enough for me, so i have no choice but to return it.

I just wanted to post so hopefully folks won't make the mistake i did. If anyone is thinking of purchasing one of these Genius Tablets be SURE their Vista (if you're using that) drivers are newer than Oct. '07 that is the current version and is apparently causing the incompatabilities. That aside these are fantastic tablets for the price, however Lightroom 2\CS4 is my workflow, i can't do much work if my tools don't operate to their full potential.

So i'm off to return this (thankfully Amazon.com is awesome about returns) and thankfully to keep it in my price range Wacom offers the "Bamboo" which every review has been positive. I do loose a bit of sensitivity (512 levels) and drawing real estate, but all reviewers say it's perfect for beginners and will last a while, exactly what i need!

Hopefully in a couple hours i'll be able to post an update that's much happier!

Frank...

Robert - again, the problem is NOT the same between different tablet brands. There are some similarities, but they do not have the same behavior. (we are looking into it, but so far none of the problems seem to be ours)

Wacom is working on fixes.

Other brands - you need to contact them and get fixes from them. Despite what Trust told you, they have to update their driver with every release we make - even when we don't touch our tablet code. I don't know why they have to do that, it shouldn't be necessary, but apparently there is something in their driver that is specific to each application version. Same goes for Genius (my guess is that some of those are the same manufacturer with different labels).

xrdbear,

"....but I've not tried Wacom yet."

If you've read the whole thread, the suggestion is to contact wacom.

I did and got the new driver but I still have some problems. This ends up being a tech vs. tech thing and usually Adobe is right.

The last note from Wacom tech:

" When you load Photoshop with the pen it then loads all
of the pressure sensitive options for the program, it you then switch to the mouse it doesn't know what to do with all of those items that it loaded. This can work in a reverse effect and it's something that I believe Adobe is working on at the moment."

It's that last line that I'm talking about. He 'believes' that Adobe is working on it... which implies an Adobe problem, yet Chris Cox implies that wacom should have the information from Adobe for a fix. So far, they don't. So as Chris has suggested, Wacom needs customer input on this, so contact them with your info.

Can someone else join in?

I've read this thread and there doesn't seem to be any consistant solution. Here's my experience.
I've just bought CS4 and there are a number of areas where the program is using the GPU that are less than satisfactory but I was not ready for the WACOM problems.
I am using Intuos 3 with the latest drivers after unistalling and reinstalling. I'm running XPpro SP3 with 4Gb on Intel dual core. The video card is Asus EN6800GT.

The problem with the tablet is that from *stroke to stroke* the pressure sensitivity comes and goes. Let's say I set a large size brush and then gently tap the pen on tablet multiple times in a straight line. 7 out of 10 dots will be the minimum size set but 3 out of 10 will be the maximum. If you continue to draw a line from the small dots you have pressure sensitivity, if you continue from a large dot then you do not.

I still have CS3 on the machine and the tablet works perfectly with that...

Any suggestions? Adobe just don't answer my support questions but I've not tried Wacom yet.

I have a Trust tablet, and experience problems only in CS4. A lot of what Frank says in his post is true, but I have also found that avoiding using the mouse is only part of it - using the keyboard also cancels the drawing ability of the mouse. Also, it is not just pressure sensitivity that is lost, as the straight line problem comes in to play.

I have been in touch with Trust, and they say it is not their driver at fault as there is no problem in other software.

Surely, since this problem arises in Wacom, Genius and Trust tablets, the indications are that there is a problem in CS4, not the drivers?

Frank - we're not seeing the same problems on different tablet brands. Wacom has a few problems, and the other brands have different problems (we are keeping track of the reports). Wacom has been pretty solid with their drivers, but we did change some things in CS4 at their request -- mostly to provide better support for their newer devices. But nothing we did should interfere with the tablet functionality, and nothing was specific to Wacom devices.

Every time we put out a new release, the other brands have to update their drivers (we have no idea why - best guess is that they have some version specific hacks).

Chris,

Thanks for the reply! Since my last post i actually have encountered a couple instances where the pen does become very unresponsive. So although not moving the mouse has apparently somehow solved the pressure sensitivity issues, it hasen't completely cured the problem.

Again i will note after using "The GIMP 2.6" for several hours today, i've still had no such issues come up. I also downloaded Corels Painter X to see if another big name product had similar issues. Through all the testing i did, it didn't have any.

So while i agree it /could/ be the driver, i wonder what's different from these programs to CS4 that they aren't having the same issues? Also this is happening on several companies (even Wacom who is the obvious giant in the tablet industry) tablets. Unfortunately i don't have another to test on, but it's unlikely ALL these tablet manufacturers are dropping the ball in the same area. Especially considering on other pieces of software the tablet functions 100% of the time as expected. It would be nice to see if any of this leads to an actual solution. I've emailed Genius with the hopes they'll get a driver update (latest was released Oct. '07) which if it is a driver issue, will hopefully be solved.

Thanks again, i'll keep my eyes posted for solutions and updates from both sides. Until then, i unfortunately have no choice but to use another piece of software.

Frank...