GIMP Version: 2.8.10
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: Windows 8.1
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

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Oi.

Apologies, as I'm a little miffed right now. For some reason troubleshooting for a few hours when I'd intended to do something else puts me in a bad mood.

So I got me a new Wacom tablet, hoping it'd resolve my previous issues with GIMP. I had an old Bamboo Splash before, just upgraded to a Pen and Touch. My life is pretty happy now. :}

But I'm still having the same issues with pen sensitivity; specifically, 2 issues:

1) I cannot activate any embedded UI elements or buttons, for the most part. This is using any device. It will select them, but not activate them. (Sometimes it randomly works.) On popups and menus I can press enter or space to activate them. Sometimes. Dropdown menus work. But tools, buttons, check-boxes, sliders, etc. are super buggy if they work at all.

2) Something's buggy with how it handles the tool settings according to which device is registering. As in, how it automatically switches to saved settings, based on what you are using? But I can't change those settings, at least, not until after I do it 2 or 3 times (or with problem number 1, 10 or 20 times) will it switch, and even then it will switch randomly and erratically. I can't find the option to change that again; I remember finding an option to change that once, but I can't find it any more. :/
This is 10 times worse when I try to use another pointing device, such as a tablet. To the point where it will change mid-stroke, you can even see it glitch back and forth between 2 different dynamics options.


Yes, I have gotten the device to register, and enabled the pressure sensitivity.
I just recently updated to the most recent (.10?) version, but it didn't help.
I'm planning on reinstalling GIMP completely, to see if that helps. I'm about ready to just reconfigure the whole thing rather than deal with this any more.

I really love GIMP, I want to use it, but it's pretty much unusable like this. Good thing this is for hobby, not for work. But I refuse to shell out a boatload of cash when there's a free, fully-featured, and fully-supported program right here. That I already know how to use.

Anyway. Any help is appreciated. If anyone's experiencing the exact same or very similar issues, please pipe up.
(Otherwise... please don't derail my thread. That's so annoying.)
Thank you for your patience.

Try this video.
Subject: How to Install GIMP, Install Themes and Configure your Wacom with GIMP.

Nope.
This is pretty basic stuff, if you can navigate settings and install programs you can do this stuff.

It's still bugging out, though, even from the stock settings.

Seems the issue is in how it's reading the pressure sensitivity; as in, it will switch settings (I think?) based on how much pressure I am using, or it will misread the pressure when I try to click buttons, or it will use full pressure automatically sometimes, etc.
>:/

Bump?

I have the Pen and Touch model myself, the Small size, and the same revision of GIMP. (2.8.10.) I haven't seen GIMP behave like this. I'm guessing your user settings are locked in read only, because it should be saving different brush and color palette settings for each input device. So deleting the .gimp2.8 folder, and let GIMP create a new one might be more realistic than reinstalling.

It might seem crazy, but I have had user settings locked on XFCE before. My system crashed after Minetest ran out of memory, so I had to hard reset the PC. I needed to delete its configuration folder, then rearrange my entire desktop setup again so I could see my icon theme.

As for the twitching between inputs, this is the result of your hand still being on the tablet when you take the pen off the surface, (Input by hand is disabled so long as the tablet pen is active.) so naturally, your input switchs back to the mouse, and nine times out of ten, it will register a click. To avoid accidental brush or eraser strokes, I keep the mouse set to the Eye Dropper/Color Picker tool, so it can only set a different color to my mouse at worst, instead of damaging my work with another tool.

I have deleted the folder again, and it does reset my settings. But it switches erratically still; even if I turn off touch on the tablet. So I'm not sure what to make of that.
That does make sense, though. It would only stop registering pressure after a couple seconds, or one stroke, but then it seems it's having trouble switching back to pen? I'm not sure.

Does the tablet's touch register the same as the mouse settings? Would a separate input device there maybe fix the problem? I'm not quite sure. Because regardless, it will switch back and forth erratically mid-stroke, say if I set it to a different tool on the eraser.

The tablet is its own input device, so it won't work the same as a mouse. You wouldn't want that even if you set to behave like one; lacking pressure sensitivity negates half the point of owning a tablet.

Check Edit > Input Devices > Wacom Intuos PT S Pen Stylus, and make sure it's set to Screen mode. (Just to be double checking.) If your settings look alright, I'd try to use another program like Krita, or MyPaint, and see if the issue isn't limited to GIMP.

Edit : Either way, it would be best to keep the mouse set to a less destructive tool while you use the tablet, like the Color Picker. You'll notice a lot less chaos by doing that alone, the transition between the eraser and pen isn't pretty otherwise.

You may also try resting your hand on a folded sheet of art paper set on the tablet. I have to do that for traditional art so my hand doesn't smear the pencil lines with greases, and that may help keep your hand from registering a touch on the tablet as well.

Son of Edit : Oops, I totally missed that you're using Windows 8.1, that's a whole different beast from Ubuntu. The twitchiness is just as bad on Windows 7 with GIMP, and the way Windows gives windows focus isn't quite as streamlined as Linux DEs either.

It wouldn't hurt to delete your tablet's preferences, and start over from a fresh configuration. I've had some nasty lag once with the Windows driver, after waking up from being suspended, and hated it, so I needed to do that to fix it.

What I don't understand is why it's erratically switching during a stroke, missing pressure sensitivity, etc. even when touch is disabled. I'm sure it has something to do with active windows, actually; seeing as it has trouble with ui elements. But it's like it can't tell the difference between inputs.
My question about touch was more concerning the difference between the touch aspect of the tablet, and the native touch-pad/mouse input on my laptop. Do these look the same to the program?

It will work perfectly in pretty much any other graphics program I've tried.
I'll check out the 2 you mentioned. I'd prefer to stay with gimp considering I've already learned it... and well, I haven't found much that compares.

MyPaint does have intermittent cutting/blotching with strokes, so this may be a tablet issue.

It couldn't hurt to reset your tablet driver, and see if that changes anything.

http://www.wacom.asia/en/my-tablet-was- ... a-tablet-0

Do you have a copy of Photoshop Elements installed? Wacom provides a redeemable license key online for it when you get an Intuos Pen and Touch. It actually has less features than GIMP, as far as I know, but if your tablet acts up there too, then it's not GIMP's problem.

Unfortunately, I figured I wouldn't need Photoshop because I figured I'd have GIMP, and in my purist mindset I chose the other bundle with the Manga software... which I may or may not regret. Depending on how much I like the program.

Hm. Removing the tablet prefs does fix it temporarily. But after a second or 2, it reverts back to it's weird behavior.

Photoshop Elements is missing a lot of things anyway. The full-featured product is much better, and actually worth money. You still get everything you'll absolutely need out of GIMP and that Manga software. Either way, you could probably give Photoshop trial versions a shot? I'd also try PaintTool SAI's trial mode as well, it's very nice software.

Also, did you recently change which USB port you plug your tablet into? On Windows, I've noticed that my Wacom tablet's behavior isn't as universal when it was plugged into a different port than the one I installed it to. I couldn't click on everything I wanted to outside the canvas, and it annoyed me. So glad I don't have this issue on Linux, it works fully no matter which USB port I plug it into.

You could also try the tablet on a friend's PC, and see if it misbehaves in front of MS Paint or Photoshop. If it still acts up, I'd look into Wacom's tech support to see if they know what's going on, or could replace your tablet with another one, worst case scenario. If this is a hardware problem, that can't be easily solved on the software side.