Participant

Question

Randomly losing pressure sensitivity in photoshop?

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
November 7, 2010
11 replies
38552 views

My tablet keeps randomly losing pressure sensitivity, like this:

Every few strokes it throws in one or a few strokes without pressure sensitivity. There seems to be no pattern to this.

The weird thing is that this seems to only be happening in Photoshop - I tried Paint Tool SAI and everything seems to be working fine there.

I use a Wacom Intuos3, Photoshop CS4 and Windows XP. My tablet is five years old and quite beat up, so its entirely possible that this is my tablet's fault, although I find it hard to believe, since it's never glitched on me like this.

Things I've tried and haven't helped:

Re-installing my tablet driver, changed nothing

Changing my tablet pen's nib, nothing changed

Downloading and using the trial version of PS CS5, same problem persisted.

Has anyone had a similar problem? What can I do to fix this?

This topic has been closed for replies.

S

Saskia22018032nswn

Participant

I'm experiencing the same problem. I hoped it would stop when switching to older photoshop versions (down to photoshop 22.0 v), but it didn't help. Updating graphics/tablet drivers and using the txt file with "UsingStylus..." isn't working either. It's just enoying ...

A

Anonymous

I found a link on YouTube which solved all lag and pen pressure sensitivity issues. It's just one line of script which is to be added in the main location file of Adobe Photoshop CC 20_ _ , a txt file in which you have to write " UseSystemStylus 0" that's all the issue will be solved !!

The link: https://youtu.be/sGi47EWEkuY

PECourtejoie

Community Expert

For all those having the issue on PS CC 2020, try updating to version 21.1.3: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/fixed-issues.html#photoshop-desktop-fixed-issues

keptlight

Inspiring

Thank you! I updated my computers and on my laptop, the pen behaved with no problems as I reported here. I would like to suggest, as a professor emeritus of marketing, Adobe considers becoming more customer-oriented rather than product-oriented. A little reply here all this time would have gone a long way. But, thanks for the fix.

B

briag33531132

Participant

Hi all - I think we fixed this problem.

In Photoshop, add a user config file like this:

1. Create a file that contains instructions to revert to the WinTab functionality.

2. Create a text file in a text editor such as Notepad.

Type in the following lines:

# Use WinTab

UseSystemStylus 0

3. Save the file as a plain text file named PSUserConfig.txt

4. Put (copy) the file into the Photoshop settings folder: C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2015\Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 Settings\

5. Restart Photoshop and check the pen pressure and overall performance.

Follow these optimization recommendations:

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html

Make your settings like this:

keptlight

Inspiring

Thank you, this is worth trying. But, Adobe is known to move the goal post on this kind of solution for some reason. I had a problem with QHD screen elements being too tiny to use and found a solution offered by someone on his site. I used it, sure enough, it worked. And, I even wrote about it on my own site. On the next update, it stopped working because of a registry change they made! Go figure! Here is my post, I hope this solution does not get tripped like the previous one:

https://www.keptlight.com/qhd-displays-and-photoshop/

By the way, should the new text file go into the settings folder under Adobe 2015 or 2020, or even 2019? All of them are there, I don't know which one takes precedence over the others.

keptlight

Inspiring

Until and unless Adobe engages in this conversation we will just be reporting and complaining about the same problem and provide material for the future visitors 10 or 20 years from now. Is there any way to get someone from Adobe to provide some insight on this matter? Otherwise, why call this Adobe Support Community? Or is this "ignore until they give up" kind of support which is getting quite prevalent these days?

H

HexArts

Participating Frequently

Totally agree, here are no support 😄 ..now, we can solve it by installing CC2019, but what we will do, if they remove it? 😄 Maybe we meet us here again, calling any support here for a whole month without answer.

B

bendador

Participant

I'm having this problem as well. happened always, but it became impossible to work now, probably because I recently updated to cc2020. the brush loses sensitivity when it recognized a rapid click, maybe a double click. I've played with all double click settings, from "off" to "max", nothing helps.

looking at the brush settings panel, under texture-> control:pen pressure, I can actually see the exclamation mark triangle sign appearing on and off while I'm painting. this is really absurd.

SirInkman

Participant

I had this problem for years. I tried every "solution" that I could find and nothing worked.
After years of working at it, I discovered that it might be related to the buttons on the pens. I had set the bottom button to disabled, and the top button to the hand tool. After disabling the top button as well and just using the space bar for the space bar instead, I have not had this problem again.

I can't understand why disabling the pen buttons would fix it, unless the OS, Photoshop, or the wacom device was constantly checking the pen for a mouse click event or something. Regardless, try disabling the pen buttons and see if it fixes this problem. I'll try to post this solution to other places so people can try it.

R

robotriot

Participating Frequently

What solved this for me was going to the Wacom driver settings, and sliding the double click distance slider all the way to "disabled". It seems that when painting and making brush strokes in quick succession, a double click is detected, which results in disabling pressure sensitivity for that stroke.

T

Tim Bye Illustration

Participant

I've had this issue on and off, but since the last Photoshop CC update it is happening every few brushstrokes, where the pen sensitivity will just drop for a stroke.

It is impossible to work around.

I've disabled both pen buttons abd turned the double click distance right down, I've reinstalled my graphics tablet drivers and removed all preferences and started again.

The issue is still present.

I'm at a loss as to how to fix this one!

Appreciate all the solutions posted, it has helped me to at least identify others have had this problem and found fixes. 🙂

H

HavokArts

Participating Frequently

You can try a plug-in called Lazy-Nezumo Pro, or you can try disabling Windows Ink. Either way, you’re going to put extra strain on your graphics card using these methods. This can cause Photoshop to become laggy, but your pressure issue will be solved.

I think what Adobe needs to do is create their own extended sensitivity mechanism within the API to avoid switching between the Windows interface. What it will do is sometimes hiccup, because it’s not reading stylus (but instead mouse) clicks within your program window.

Literally every other chain of graphics design software includes their own pressure recongition, brush tracking and curve mod system. I’m not sure why Adobe doesn’t, but until they do this issue will always exist. They should also maximize the potential of using powerful GPU’s to render strokes, effects, and 3D. Using the CPU for these tasks is not smart. They’ve made improvement, but nowhere near where I think they should be.

Unless youre a genius, and can work around these issues... I think it will be difficult to cope with using this software.

A

aszdgajg33165246hzha

Participant

I was about to lose hope... Turning off windows ink fixed it for me.

Exactly the same problem as described, it just randomly did strokes without pressure, and ONLY in photoshop.

I was under the impression that windows ink was a requirement for pen pressure to work at all, but nope. Turned it off and it's working again like the first day. Thanks a lot for this! ❤️