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HLCarleton
Participating Frequently
June 5, 2013
Question

How do I set up photoshop to work with a touch screen?

  • June 5, 2013
  • 22 replies
  • 286050 views

Hi,

I just bought a 15.6" Asus Q500A touchscreen laptop with Windows 8. I downloaded photoshop and the 'touch app plug-ins' through the Adobe Application Manager for creative cloud. When I open a file in PS and select the brush(or any other) tool if I use the touch screen to drag it accross the canvas nothing happens. It still works with my mouse though.

How can I get this to work properly?

      22 replies

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      C
      cravnsn
      Participating Frequently
      September 12, 2016

      It would be great for Adobe to add this capability...

      JJMack
      Community Expert
      JJMackCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 12, 2016

      Photoshop Brush type tools have support for pressure sensitive input devices like tablet pens like surface pro pens.  If touch screen start supporting finger pressure perhaps the adobe will support one finger touch pressure for brush control. Adobe Photoshop supports touch gestures with current touch support and mouse for brush support without pressure sensitivity. Touch support is like having up to ten input location at once. You can not tell which location is which finger. You can only tell when only one finger is being used. I find with my fingers and 75 year old hands I get too many ancient touches to do fine work. Even using a web browser with touch I fine I go to many pages because of ancient touch.

      Maybe some one will invent digital finger implants for pressure sensitive control.  Currently When digital pen come into close proximity to a touch screen touch is turned off and only pen control works. Pens are not supported by touch a feature. A Stylus can be use as a finger substitute with devices that only support touch. They may look like pens but are support like a finger no tilt or pressure is registered.

      The problem I face is there is no way I can become young again.

      JJMack
      AnZanov
      AnZanov
      Participant
      August 30, 2016

      Following this discussion hoping in a fix: it's a pity we cannot use some features in PS (as spot healing and cropping): the same features work in Camera Raw

      B
      BlueDancer
      Participant
      July 13, 2016

      I am trying to creat an miniapp as a temporary solution for all of us. Will let you know as soon as I know more.

        A
        Anonymous
        May 18, 2016

        Seems as if I'm not the only one pulling my hair out as to finding a solution. My the old version of Photoshop I previously had installed was for the most art compatible with my VAIO touch screen. As for since I've updated to Adobe Photoshop CC I'm no longer able to use this feature ,which I find extremely frustrating and resorted to downgrading to an earlier version of Photoshop. Adobe please for love of technical difficulties make this feature compatible for all later versions of possible.

        C
        Cazz xxx
        Participant
        November 19, 2017

        Looking here for an answer to the question, How do I set up photoshop to work with a touch screen... it seems we are waiting on Adobe to add this facility.. then I noticed the date on the first post. June 2013! Really adobe, for a talented bunch of people this is perhaps taking a tad to long....

          JJMack
          Community Expert
          JJMackCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          November 20, 2017

          Photoshop is an image editor not a painting application though many may use Photoshop for painting with Pen devices.  IMO Adobe will never add a finger painting feature to Photoshop.  The is no way to tell which fingers are touching the screen in each location being touched.   There is no good reasons to add finger painting IMO. Adobe has touch application you can finger paint with you should check out Adobe Photoshop Sketch | Sketch and paint app

          If you want to paint images use a painting Application.

          JJMack
          TellyBee
          TellyBee
          Participant
          March 17, 2016

          I was having the same issue recently after photoshopcc 2015 update. Luckily i still have photoshop CS5.1 and it seems my stylus and touch screen work perfectly well on that version. Adobe probably has to update the touch plugin or tweak something in photoshopcc.

          X
          x23x23x23
          Participant
          February 19, 2016

          Same issue here, with a brand new Lenovo Flex 3 and an Adonit Jot Pro capacitive stylus. The stylus and trackpad can both draw in GIMP and other programs. The trackpad can draw in Photoshop, but not the stylus. The weird hack that shouldn't work, dragging the stylus in from the edge of the canvas, can also draw in Photoshop. But just placing the stylus itself on the canvas can generate right-click menus, but no actual left-click drawing.

          So it really seems as if something in Photoshop is *blocking* the touchscreen drivers from some *specific* functionality within Photoshop.

          I engaged in conspiracy theory for a bit, wondering if this was Adobe trying to look out for Wacom and their tablets. But that seems a bit of a stretch. Touchscreen laptops are a pretty small part of the overall market, and Wacom is even smaller, with not much from that going back to Adobe that I am aware of at all.

          Then I saw someone else in this thread had success with a registry edit. So it seems much more likely it's some accidental thing with Photoshop's own drivers that they haven't bothered to address yet.

          In any case I have Windows 10, which appears to have a different registry to edit than the posting above - so that solution didn't work for me. Until a capacitive stylus works then I'll just have to use GIMP to actually be able to draw on my touchscreen. It's just so weird that it works in every other program than Adobe's. !

            M
            michaelb97145108
            Participant
            February 16, 2016

            I just had the same issue with a Lenovo touch screen, but just double tap to "click the brush down and release and the screen stays still and the finger paints. takes a bit of practice to not keep messing it up but it works without editing my registry !

            _
            _Ony
            Participant
            July 11, 2014

            Hi, I just recently started struggling with this problem, and I think I found the solution for you! This isn't really Photoshop giving you problems, more like windows trying to be too helpful without enough user controls. You have to use a registry edit. There are tutorials on how to get to it and how to change settings. Caution: This may have side effects since its a Windows wide change (such as pages or programs not panning anymore). However this seems like a easy toggle on off thing so if you don't like it, change it back to 0, restart, and you should be fine. 

            HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch PanningDisabled=1




              S
              Sarah Northway
              Inspiring
              June 29, 2014

              Looks like the CC 2014 version of Photoshop added support for touch gestures (pinch zoom), but not touch painting. So, are there any alternatives to Photoshop that DO support touchscreen displays/the future? Besides MS Paint of course, which does 10-point touchscreen drawing just peachy-fine and is considerably less laggy than PS on large displays.

              FYI the new touch gestures are hidden under experimental features, along with 200% UI scaling for 3200x1800 displays. From the release notes:

              Photoshop now ships with the following experimental features that you can enable and try out:

              Scale the UI 200% for high-density displays

              Enable multitone 3D printing

              Touch gestures

              These features are not production-ready yet, so exercise discretion while using them. Do the following to enable an experimental feature:

              Select Preferences > Experimental Features.

              Select the experimental feature that you want to enable. For example, select Enable Multitone Printing.

              Click OK.

              Restart Photoshop.

                D
                Divenire81
                Participant
                May 8, 2014

                The irony is that Adobe Photoshop's 5.1 worked just fine with touch on my ACER touchscreen laptop. I can't get the newest cloud version of Photoshop to behave the same way however. I'm having the same issue as you. Which REALLY sucks bc there are so many things I just can't do with my mouse. Would love to find a solution.

                  H
                  henss13404559
                  Participating Frequently
                  May 23, 2014

                  Same problem with our Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro ultrabook. Still, there's a way to draw using the touch screen. You have to press down the left button on the touchpad (or mouse), then you can start to draw anywhere on the document using your fingers or a pen.

                  That is, however, very uncomfortable and the fact remains that you cannot utilize the tablet mode this way.

                  We hope to see support for this soon, as touch screens are becoming more and more important nowadays.

                  //edit

                  Just found an article that seems to solve our issues, or at least for Surface 3 Pro users. Seems like someone from the staff got his hand on this thread. Looking forward to it - hope it won't take that long to get shipped!

                  http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/20/adobe-touch-friendly-photoshop/

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