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I love the new SP4 pen, but I've noticed the pen pressure is not consistent. The biggest problem is that paint brush strokes in Photoshop don't taper smoothly when drawing. I tired using the SP4 pen on my Surface Pro 3 and it doesn't have any problem. Here is a screen capture of what I'm talking about.
Since the pen isn't the problem I'm assuming it's a calibration issue with the Surface Pro 4. I downloaded new Wintab drivers to see if that would solve the problem (got the idea from this thread about pen problems).
It's not just Photoshop. The actual Surface pen pressure app has the same problem. It's harder to see because the brush strokes are thinner, but there is a much faster tapering happening than there is on the Surface Pro 3. Here is a screen cap:
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hey Everyone!
Thanks for all the feedback!
As some of you have already noticed, on July 14th, 2016, we released an update to the Surface Touch Driver that should significantly improve the pen tapering and pressure experience that this thread talks about.
For more information on the 7/14 update, you can go here.
If you experience any difficulty downloading or installing updates, please check the Troubles installing Surface and Windows updates article for assistance.
Thanks!
Zachary
Thank you so much for posting that video. It was really awesome, and I'm hoping that it's going to bring their attention to this issue. Even though you aren't an SP4 user anymore, I really appreciate you going out of your way to make some noise for us!
I have the same problem but with my wacom bamboo tablet, both the one in my home and the one at work(they are different models) so maybe is not a problem with the surface pro 4 pen and is more of a problem with Photoshop and tablets that have 1024 levels of pressure because I been having this problem since I became a professional illustrator 9 years ago and sadly I have always used tablets with 1024 levels of pressure and is the one thing I see in common with the surface pro 4 pen.
I actually know exactly what you are talking about and this is definitely not it. I also use a 1024 intuos on my Mac and the "taper" I see with it is not even close to the strength of taper that exists with the surface pro 4. Not to mention that the taper is universal, not only in photoshop. If it had to do with the levels, we would not see taper with the pro 3 pen, yet there is definitely taper with it. So the tablet issue is something entirely different.
Also, for all the people who are interested, I've contacted Microsoft again about this issue and they are now escalating this case. Because of language barriers, I could not exactly get out of the rep what an escalated case would mean. But overall, they are going to wait until the pen arrives and see what happens. If it doesn't work, I have to email the rep who was working for me and let them know the pen has failed. Then we're supposed to take the next steps.
The pen should be getting to me in the next few days. As soon as I get an update about what this "next step" is, I will update everyone.
For all the people that didn't bought the tablet yet: buy a Companion (2)! I have that device for one month now, and it's so cool not to have to struggle with the hardware anymore. I even stopped using a keyboard which is so cool for nomad purposes. In all honesty, there is only one big problem if you like to draw in bed with someone near you: the sound it makes when using photoshop. (No problems with fan sound when drawing in Toon Boom Harmony for exemple)
Two exemples i made this week from my sofa ( i can't imagine myself doing precise work like that on the Surface or another super-wacom tablet pc...)
Now for the others that already bought a Surface product: there seems to be some hope for you: Microsoft and Wacom made a deal for developing a new pen. So with that in mind, i don't think you have to wait something more from this thread. Microsoft seems to search for an ...alternative... solution.
http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2016/03/31/microsoft-wacom-teaming-make-universal-pen-pcs/
