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Todditron
Participating Frequently
May 5, 2010
Answered

tablet + pen pressure + illustrator CS5 issue

  • May 5, 2010
  • 22 replies
  • 169547 views

Hello all,

   I just installed Illustrator CS5 and I can't get the brushes to recognize pen pressure from my graphics tablet (intuos3).

I have tried all the combos of brushes, strokes, etc.  It looks like all the 6D options (bearing, tilt, pressure) are greyed out. Thus, the ap doesn't recognize when I am using my pen.

Oddly, the pen works great in Photoshop CS5.

I am working on Windows 7.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

_Todd

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Francis92104

    Got it!

    At least I think I got it working on my iMac running OSX 10.6.6.

    I heard back from Greg, a Sr. Customer Care Technician@ Wacom and carefully followed his directions (I'm paraphrasing)..

    • Go to APPS > Bamboo folder (may be Wacom on your machine) > Bamboo Utility
    • Click REMOVE button under the Tablet Software
    • Restart computer
    • Download and reinstall latest driver from Wacom
    • Restart computer
    • Go to Illustrator and get busy with the brushes

    It may have worked earlier (see previous post), but I might not have noticed Illustrator reading pressure variances from the Wacom until I adjusted a specific brush's pressure settings enough.

    For example, when I set the Pencil brush width from FIXED to PRESSURE 150%, I didn't notice the change. When I changed PRESSURE to 300% I did notice. Similar situation with other brushes' diameter settings.

    Hope this can help someone out.

    -F

    22 replies

    Show previous replies
    E
    ehmahh12
    Participant
    December 23, 2010

    Hello all.
    I seem to be having the exact same problem! i cant use the pressure option on illustrator, i cant seem to get it to work on photoshop either. 
    I use mac, cs5 and bamboo fun & pen. Did anyone find a solution to the problem?

    F
    Francis92104
    Participant
    January 11, 2011

    I'm with Todditron and the others with lack of pressure problem.

    I'm on a Mac running OSX 10.6.6, with a Wacom Graphire4.

    Pressure works in Photoshop CS5. In illustrator, pen works-making lines and scribbles as directed, but no variation with increased/decreased pressure. In the Brushes panel, I can double click on selected brush, opening an Art Brush Options window, and change width, roundness, etc from "fixed" to "pressure," but those qualities remain fixed, regardless of my pressure.

    Wrote to and heard back from Wacom Help Desk. Followed their instructions..

    "I would recommend removing your current driver by opening your Applications folder and double clicking on the Remove Wacom tablet icon or the Wacom tablet utility icon found in the Wacom tablet folder there.  Inside that removal utility you’ll want to click on the remove tablet software button and then enter your password to remove your current driver.  Once the driver has been removed you’ll then want to repair your disk permissions before installing the latest.  To do this if you open your Utilities folder at the bottom of your Applications folder, in there will be an icon for Disk Utility that you’ll want to double click on.  In the Disk Utility you’ll then want to select your Macintosh HD on the left hand side and then click the repair disk permissions button towards the bottom.  Once the permissions repair is complete you can then download and install the latest driver for your tablet from our website."

    to no avail. Tried the process again, restarting the computer after repairing Disk Permissions and reinstalling newest tablet driver. No go.

    Wrote Wacom Help Desk again. Will follow up here once I hear back.

    -F

    F
    Francis92104Correct answer
    Participant
    January 12, 2011

    Got it!

    At least I think I got it working on my iMac running OSX 10.6.6.

    I heard back from Greg, a Sr. Customer Care Technician@ Wacom and carefully followed his directions (I'm paraphrasing)..

    • Go to APPS > Bamboo folder (may be Wacom on your machine) > Bamboo Utility
    • Click REMOVE button under the Tablet Software
    • Restart computer
    • Download and reinstall latest driver from Wacom
    • Restart computer
    • Go to Illustrator and get busy with the brushes

    It may have worked earlier (see previous post), but I might not have noticed Illustrator reading pressure variances from the Wacom until I adjusted a specific brush's pressure settings enough.

    For example, when I set the Pencil brush width from FIXED to PRESSURE 150%, I didn't notice the change. When I changed PRESSURE to 300% I did notice. Similar situation with other brushes' diameter settings.

    Hope this can help someone out.

    -F

    Larry G. Schneider
    Community Expert
    Larry G. SchneiderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 5, 2010

    Calligraphy brushes only.


    T
    TodditronAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    May 5, 2010

    Tried caligraphy brushes.  The 6D options are all locked and un-editable.

    Same computer, same pen, photoshop CS5 works just fine ...

    T
    TodditronAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    May 5, 2010

    I have an intuos 4 and pressure works just fine.  Maybe look into driver updates, other than that I don't know.  If you have the current driver, try reinstalling it anyway.  I have to do that at least once every few weeks because something goes squirrely on my system.


    Also Larry, with CS5 you can use pressure on brushes other than caligraphic.  It is fantastic.


    Thanks for the advice.  I re-installed the drivers, but still getting the same thing.  Pen works in Photoshop, but not Illustrator.

    I guess we will see if this is just an anomaly with my setup or if others have this issue.

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