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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
Okay I just tryed with the H one and it didn't change anything at all
so 2 posibilities
1: You have THE pen that dosn't have the issue (unlikely)
2: by using an hard tip you draw differently wich make the taper effect less visible for you (not my case)
and scince my sp4 pen have the taper effect on the sp4 and not on the sp3 it proves that it is either a software problem either an hardware one but of the surface pro 4 and not the pen
the pen have no problem by itself
(btw surface pro 3's pen have the taper issue on surface pro 4 too)
so as I said we have 2 option
1: it is a software problem of the surface pro 4 and the fix would be to update the drivers
2: it is an hardware problem of the surface pro 4 (not the pen) and we couldn't fix anything unless microsft include some kind of pressure stabilisation to it's drivers
option 2 would explain why we still don't have a fix but I doubt
it must be a software issue
so it's a shame that after nearly 4 month microsft still didn't fix the problem knowing that the sp4 is a 1000 to 2.5k dollar computer wich is made by one of the bigest company in the world it's even a shame that we have those kind of issues
so microsoft you have great devlopers so just moove your ****
will try it asasp but if you look on amazon you can find nice screen protector for 5 bucks but usualy the glass being different you won't have the same feel than without
adding that after 4 mont hof use i don't have any scratch on the screen and i use it at least 5 to 10 hours a day so you don't need a screen protector
previously i bougth one (a glass not a film) and then the feel was so bad compared to the vanilla screen that i just take it of
the weird thing now is that when you use the sp4 pen on sp3 you don't have the taper issue
Well i purchased a second surface pen to have a spare and to play with the different tips. Well guess what. I switched the pen tip to H which is a harder tip and well id say all the problems were solved by just changing the tip. No more issues making figure eights with parts skipping. No more weird tapering issues either. I think the problem is that the core of the "softer" tips is rubber which is absorbing some of the pressure and causing a skipping problem. I would suggest getting a pen tip kit and see if it helps you guys. I know changing the tip in my case was like night and day. I still like the feel of the softer tips that grip the screen more but a trade off is the pressure and skipping areas where you think it should be drawing. The harder tip just does not have this problem. I would suggest the softer tip maybe for controlled lines that you are going to have a little pressure behind them and i would suggest the harder tip for fast light strokes as it does not seem to skip a beat with the harder tip but you do loose that fine grippy detail you can do with the softer tip. So now that i have 2 pens i have one with a hard tip and one with a soft tip. This way i can just swap pens depending on the work i am doing. Hope this helps you.
Thank you for your helpful comment.
Now I really want to try it :)
I've heard that using a screen-protector may help with the "sliding-on-glass" effect, and now I wonder if the H tip + a screen protector could be the perfect combo.
Sadly the screen protector from microsoft costs around 50 bucks, so I am not sure I will ever try that.
I will certainly buy the pen tips though.
Thank you so much! I will share my experience as soon as I get some as well :)
Well i purchased a second surface pen to have a spare and to play with the different tips. Well guess what. I switched the pen tip to H which is a harder tip and well id say all the problems were solved by just changing the tip. No more issues making figure eights with parts skipping. No more weird tapering issues either. I think the problem is that the core of the "softer" tips is rubber which is absorbing some of the pressure and causing a skipping problem. I would suggest getting a pen tip kit and see if it helps you guys. I know changing the tip in my case was like night and day. I still like the feel of the softer tips that grip the screen more but a trade off is the pressure and skipping areas where you think it should be drawing. The harder tip just does not have this problem. I would suggest the softer tip maybe for controlled lines that you are going to have a little pressure behind them and i would suggest the harder tip for fast light strokes as it does not seem to skip a beat with the harder tip but you do loose that fine grippy detail you can do with the softer tip. So now that i have 2 pens i have one with a hard tip and one with a soft tip. This way i can just swap pens depending on the work i am doing. Hope this helps you.
