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Question

Line thickness in graphic tablets

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
June 20, 2019
2 replies
3390 views

Hi all

I'm an illustrator and new to graphics tablets. I've started with a Wacom tablet.

The main question I am confused with is how to choose the right line thickness for my drawing.

I used to draw my illustrations using pencils and ballpoint pens. Now after drawing I scan them open it in Photoshop and starting to draw with my graphic tablet.

So how to choose the right line thickness in order to get my desired thickness after printing.

When i start my drawing directly in Photoshop without any sketches, the problem is more serious, because i'v no idea that how the final line thickness will look. No monitor can show the line thickness as same as the thickness will be after printing.

thanks in advance

This topic has been closed for replies.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

henrikkhach

Hi Henrik (do I have that right?) The process is generally referred to as 'inking' when it comes to digital drawing. In fact a lot of people still uses and scan pencil drawings, and then ink over them in applications like Photoshop. Because you can use multiple layers, the line thickness is a matter of personal choice, but try using a full hard round brush preset with size jitter set to Pen Pressure.

Brush smoothing makes the process easier, and that has been available for a long time for Windows users via the third party add-on Lazy Nezumi Pro. In fact, if you 'are' a Windows user, then Lazy Nezumi is a must have. If you are a Mac user, then Photoshop introduced its own version of brush smoothing a couple of major version updates ago. You will still find that it takes practice to place your line work exactly where you want it. In my opinion, there is no such thing as too much practice for this.

A good exercise is to try and draw intersecting lines. The way I like to do it is make a new layer, and 'Select All' (Ctrl A or Cmd A). You then just need to hit the delete key to clear the screen ready for your next set of lines.

It's good that you have a Wacom tablet as they are the most reliable from our experience answering questions here. I use the Express wheel on my Intuos 4 to adjust brush size. I have the Express Wheel set so that it effectively toggles between brush size and rotating the canvas

But almost always hold down the R key to rotate the canvas. Note I said 'Hold Down' as opposed to press. This is one of Photoshop's Spring Loaded shortcuts, which means when released, it returns to whatever tool you were previous using. Rotating the canvas is obviously the same as rotating a sheet of drawing paper, and a lot of people find this helpful.

BTW I used to think that a Cintiq type tablet would help with line accuracy, but I have a Cintiq Companion 2, and don't find my line work is any better with it.

This is the official trailer (as it were) for Lazy Nezumi Pro

As well as brush smoothing, Lazy Nezumi has 30 plus presets which I find invaluable for drawing. Vanishing Lines is my favourite. It lets you match a drawing's existing perspective. Great for Photoshop composites.

Vanishing Lines workflow

Search Youtube for Photoshop Inking and you'll find a ton of advice. We have a talented young lady here called Leslie Murray, (I would kill to have half her tallent!). Leslie made this illustration for one of our posters who had to go into hospital, and it apparently cheered him up no end.

You can see more of her work on Behance

henrikkhachAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi Trevor

Thank you so much for your time and great reply.

Yes, I used to draw my works by pencil or any kind of pen scan and ink them using Photoshop or Sketchbook. Your answer was very helpful but my problem is still the same. How to choose the exact thickness as I've drawn on paper to have the same thickness in the final output?

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

henrikkhach wrote
Hi Trevor
Thank you so much for your time and great reply.
Yes, I used to draw my works by pencil or any kind of pen scan and ink them using Photoshop or Sketchbook. Your answer was very helpful but my problem is still the same. How to choose the exact thickness as I've drawn on paper to have the same thickness in the final output?

I might be repeating what other posters have said, but depending on what printer you are using, and the paper size it uses, if I have that requirement I start with the relevant document size, so I use the Print tab in the New Document panel, and in my case, I would choose A4.

Looking at the Image Size for A4 I see that it is 21 centimeters wide and 2480 pixels,

so to print a 1mm line thickness = 2480/21 = 118 pixels

But why make it hard for ourselves? If we ignored the resolution when creating our new document, but instead used conveniently rounded pixel size. A bit of math shows that re-sampling our A4 image to 254 ppi, and that works out that 10 pixel brush will print 1mm line thickness

You are not going to see any difference in print quality with 254ppi instead of 300ppi

davescm

Community Expert

Hi

If you set your monitors actual resolution in Preferences >Units &Rulers >Screen resolution you can use View >Print Size to preview the width of your line as it will be printed at the current document resolution.

Preferences for screen resolution

View print size:

Dave

henrikkhachAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you so much for your reply

I tested your suggestion. I think this solution depends on the resolution your monitor, the resolution you set in the display control panel.

By changing that the monitor will preview different line thicknesses of the same stroke.

henrikkhachAuthor

Participating Frequently

Yes, that is why you need to set the actual resolution of your monitor.

Dave

Hi again.

I'm sending you my display, document and photoshop settings. Is there anything that I have to change to have the best result.

Was there anything I'de to change if my document had another resolution, for example, if it was 200 dpi?

Anyhow, I think there must be a golden rule which can help operators to have the same stroke thickness in their output files as they see on their screens not only when they're using photoshop also on another imaging and illustrating programs such as Sketchbook.

Thank you again

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