How to Simulate Pen Rotation (Like Procreate Azimuth) in Photoshop?

[LetterJack]

Hello everyone,

I’d like to ask if anyone knows whether Photoshop has a feature similar to Azimuth in Procreate.

I create brushes that simulate calligraphy pens, and pen rotation is a very important factor — both the rotation of the stylus and of the brush — to achieve the most natural result possible.

As far as I’ve researched, brush rotation in Photoshop seems only possible if you’re using a Wacom tablet that’s compatible with the Wacom Art Pen. I had to buy both a Wacom Intuos and then the separate Art Pen for it to work properly. That solution, however, is not very accessible — since it requires very specific hardware, and the Art Pen alone costs over $100 and is often out of stock on Wacom’s website.

On the other hand, Procreate users on iPad already benefit from stylus rotation: Apple recently introduced the Apple Pencil Pro, which includes a rotation sensor, but even before that, since around 2018 with the first-generation Apple Pencil, Procreate already offered Azimuth-based brush rotation.

As I understand it, Azimuth combines stylus tilt and stroke direction to simulate brush rotation very accurately — giving a much more realistic, paper-like experience.

So, my question is:

👉 Is there a way to simulate something similar to Azimuth in Photoshop?

Is there any workaround or setting that allows brush rotation to work without requiring the rare Art Pen, perhaps just using tilt detection (which most Wacom pens already support)?

If this isn’t clear, I also have a YouTube video where I explain how this works with my Procreate brushes. I’ll share the link below if you want to take a look.

- YouTube video: https://youtu.be/S9HWd-NbNY8?si=H-bDQUmzVBynA9ej&t=1020

Thank you very much for your help!
Jackson Alves

[Trevor.Dennis · Accepted solution]

That's an interesting question.   I have been playing with the idea but not getting anywhere unfortunately.  I wondered in brush roation with the cursor keys might work, but it would be clunky if it did, and you can't change the angle while the stroke is in progress.

You can actually set Angle Jitter Control to Pen Pressure, but I was way off from getting useful results.

Perhaps if you fine controlled the pressure curve with Lazy Nezumi Pro (if you are using Windows).  

I've got a bunch of dead Wacom styluses in a draw (mostly button problems) but never had the Art Pen.

I have an XenceLabs Pen Display, and wondered if that had rotation? It turns out that it doesn't but Google's Ai summarizer offered up some ideas.   See if anything there has possiblities.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Looking at the page the above hyperlink brings up, it suggests that XenceLans Quick Keys might be useful.  If that was possible (and my guts says that it isn't) then maybe the Wacom Express Wheel could do the same thing.  Their programing is near identical.