Illustrator Calligraphy Pen Pressure not Working

[#1]

Hello,

my computer lost it's battery during the night yesterday, and when I went back onto Illustrator after recharging my computer to draw, the calligraphy pen tool that I was using did not respond to any pressure from my drawing pen, and it would only create a line of just one thickness, just like in that 5pt. or 15pt. pen default mode. I restarted my Wacom pad, and also tried the calligraphic pen tool in Photoshop, which worked by the way, but still did not work on Illustrator. I have also tried opening and closing the file again. I am working on a time sensitive project, and it's really frustrating that this issue is happening to me now.

I'd appreciate any help,

thanks.

[#2]

Hello,

my computer lost it's battery during the night yesterday, and when I went back onto Illustrator after recharging my computer to draw, the calligraphy pen tool that I was using did not respond to any pressure from my drawing pen, and it would only create a line of just one thickness, just like in that 5pt. or 15pt. pen default mode. I restarted my Wacom pad, and also tried the calligraphic pen tool in Photoshop, which worked by the way, but still did not work on Illustrator. I have also tried opening and closing the file again. I am working on a time sensitive project, and it's really frustrating that this issue is happening to me now.

I'd appreciate any help,

thanks.

[#3]

Hi there,

Not all of the drawing tools offer pressure sensitivity so it may be that the wrong tool is selected? Which tool do you have selected when drawing your lines? If you want to use pressure sensitivity with a Calligraphic style brush I recommend using the Blob Brush tool. This gives you a huge amount of control over size, angle and roundness of brush. In Illustrator, double-clicking on a tool will open up the options for that tool. In here you can adjust the pressure sensitivity for the tool if they exist.

[#4]

Hello,

I tried the blob brush with the same settings that you used in the screen shot, but it still didn't work. Here's the screenshot of my two test lines, both have had pressure applied on it. The top line is the calligraphic pen line, and the bottom is the blob brush line. My calligraphic pen was working fine, until yesterday which is a mystery to me.

Thanks!

[#5 · Accepted solution]

You could try if resetting the preferences helps in this issue.

How to set preferences in Illustrator

Use the method of renaming the folder in order to be able to reverse the action.

[#6]

As Monika suggests, try resetting the preferences. You may also need to check your Wacom preferences too.

[#7]

Hello,

I re-setted my preferences, and it worked.

Thanks a lot guys!

[#8]

I tried that but it didn't work. I have Illustrator CC 2018 and Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 and I can get the pressure work on calligraphy brush.

[#9]

  schrieb

I tried that but it didn't work. I have Illustrator CC 2018 and Wacom Cintiq Pro 13 and I can get the pressure work on calligraphy brush.

On which system?

Which Wacom driver?

[#10]

MacOS Mojave 10.14 and Wacom driver 6.3.31-6

[#11]

You might need to check the accessibility options in Mac OS. A couple of other tipps in here: Pen Pressure in Mojave

[#12]

Than you

[#13]

To fix this problems you must install your tablet driver. I hope this help you

[#14]

Why pen pressure do not woking at Ai?Plz help me..

[#15]

sol90267262  schrieb

Why pen pressure do not woking at Ai?Plz help me..

Does the solution in this thread help you?

If not, please create a new thread and tell us, which system, which version, which graphic tablet this is.

[#16]

Mam 

i also have same problem when i want to create calligraphy brush pressure shown as desable i am using on Windows 10 asus laptop

[#17]

me too I hade the same problem how can I fix it

[#18]

  schrieb

me too I hade the same problem how can I fix it

Which version, which system, which tablet?

What have you already tried?

[#19]

I have same problem

I`m using CC 2018 in window.

THANK YOU!

[#20]

lyp33924251  schrieb

I have same problem

I`m using CC 2018 in window.

And which graphic tablet?

[#21]

can we use it without graphic tablet?

thank you!

[#22]

lyp33924251  schrieb

can we use it without graphic tablet?

thank you!

Yes, but then it's not pressure sensitive.

You might want to take a look at variable width strokes as an alternative.

How To Use The Width Tool in Illustrator

[#23]

Hi Monika. I realise that the majority of people on here are having this pen pressure issue with Wacom tablets, but I am using a XP-PEN Star 06, on Illustrator CC 2019 (Mac OS). Someone suggested that I tried creating a new Calligraphic brush and setting the size to 'pressure', but didn't work and remains greyed out. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the tablet software, but didn't work either.

I am having no problems at all with pen pressure in Photoshop.

Thanks in advance.

[#24]

markymark2000  wrote

Hi Monika. I realise that the majority of people on here are having this pen pressure issue with Wacom tablets, but I am using a XP-PEN Star 06, on Illustrator CC 2019 (Mac OS). Someone suggested that I tried creating a new Calligraphic brush and setting the size to 'pressure', but didn't work and remains greyed out. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the tablet software, but didn't work either.

Please try and install a Wacom driver on top of the original one.

This is a hack. It might or might not work. Please report if it does.

[#25]

Hi Monika, thanks for the response. Yeah, I reinstalled the Wacom software, but to no great reward. It now gives me the 'Pressure' option when I'm creating a new brush, but it doesn't make any difference. I have been using Illustrator for years and when I decided to buy a pen tablet recently for vector-based artwork I made sure that it was compatible. The XP-PEN product I opted for is compatible and I have already spoken (at length!) with them about this and they ultimately advised me to approach you.

Can you suggest any other alternatives? Am I the first person to have encountered this issue?

Thank you in advance.

[#26]

Can you please show a screenshot of the calligraphy brush dialog box?

You have moved the slider higher than 0?

[#27]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for reaching out. According to this page Star 06 Wireless Painting Drawing Pen Graphics Tablet|XP-PEN, this tablet should work with Illustrator, however, the version is not specified.

As Monika suggested, I would request if you can try increasing the slider value and let us know if that helps.

Regards,

Srishti

[#28]

Hey Mark,

you might have to change the variation of the size. When you select the presure option it appears on its right, increase it to the maximum and try. I faced the same problem too.

[#29]

Hi, 

I'm new to using Illustrator and I do not have much knowledge about exactly how it works but I have been troubleshooting for a few hours with no positive results. I am using a Macbook Air with another tablet and I downloaded the appliction from the Adobe Creative Cloud application and there are no Wacom files that i can find to reset or fix in any way. I will very much appreciate any type of help with this dilemma. Thankyou

[#30]

First of all: Pleaase create a new thread. Don't answer in this one. I could hardly find your post in this utter mess (which is not your fault).

Please tell us which version and system you have

Which graphic tablet it is

Did it ever work?

[#31]

Hello Monica 

I'm having the same problem my tablet is xp pen g640s and i am using illustrator 2020, win 7, the pressure option isn't available as in the photo above can you help me

[#32]

Have you tried everything that has been mentioned in this thread?

[#33]

I know this is 2 years too late, but i had the same problem, and i found that if i just restarted illustrator it fixes it. I plugged in my wacom tablet after i had illustrator opened and it didnt recognize it so then it wouldnt give me the pressure option. but restarting illustrator fixed it.

[#34]

restarting illustrator worked for me too, and I have the star G430s tablet

[#35]

I had the same issue when creating custom calligraphic brushes, but later realized I had “Variation” set to zero. You (of course) need to set a value greater than 0, as well as size to “pressure” in order for it to work.

[#36]

The solution to this problem is to make sure the application you are using is added to your tablets settings. I have a Wacom Intuous Pro,  as soon as I added Adobe applications to the tablet settings I was able to change the pressure sensitivity of brushes through Illustrator.

[#37]

Maybe I liked this response a bit prematurely as I haven’t tried it yet, on laptop with no tablet connected, but my gut tells me that this is a eureka moment to a common issue for many Wacom users. One solve has been just to restart Illustrator, which sometimes worked, sometimes not, very frustrating when it didn’t. This must be it ...

[#38]

It really works. Thanks!

[#39]

hi im using the hp spectre laptop and pen and the pen pressure on the calligraphy pen wont work im not sure f its just the model of the laptop but ive looked at the preferences and pressure is grayed out

[#40]

How do you get to this screen?  Where is it?

[#41]

"How do you get to this screen? Where is it?"

This thread is 3 years ols and unfortunately it's not possible to tell to who you replied.

So please tell us your system, version and the model of your Wacom and then tell us the nature of your issue.

[#42]

MacOS Catalina, version 10.15.6

MacBook Air 13-inch, Early 2015

Memory 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics Intel HD Graphics 6000 1536 MB

Wacom Cintiq 16 (1660)

I'm trying to create a new calligraphic brush with pen pressure sensitivity (like I'm seeing in a you tube tutorial where a person is actually creating it and it's actually working), but when I try to do it, pressure is greyed out.  I've tried:

Restarting, reinstalling the cintiq drivers, putting illustrator into the wacom pen settings application box

[#43]

Did you properly install the latest Wacom driver?

Did you set it up according to the Wacom documentation (which includes some system settings)?

Did you in the Illustrator preferences try and to deactivate "Wacom" and activate "Live Preview" (I know that sounds weird, but it helped some people).

Does it work when you use the brushes from the Wacom 6D brushes library?