GIMP Version: 2.8.4
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: Windows 8
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

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March 24th: UPDATED WITH SOLUTION BELOW

I feel like I'm finally completely settling into my work flow with GIMP, and that's super exciting.

I've been looking around for physical alternatives for controlling brush width and such, devices such as the Griffin PowerMate http://store.griffintechnology.com/laptops/powermate and the Shuttle Xpress http://www.altoedge.com/design/multimedia-video-controller.html - but for now I'm considering plugging a second mouse in and placing to the left of my keyboard.

That way I could map the mouse wheel to control brush width, which would be sufficient for now, and still loads more intuitive than fiddling with the tiny sliders. Even if they weren't tiny, I've always found in-app adjustments like that sorta annoying.

AAaaaannnyywwaaayyy. Here's my problem: You can't actually do anything with the mouse unless it's the active pointing device in GIMP. It's not enough to simply move it a little to activate it, you need to click the window. At least that's the case with how it's currently set up.

Is there a way to make the mouse commands work whether it's active or not? The keyboard commands do, although I'm aware that's not considered an input device for the pointer so I see why it's treated differently.

Any tips are welcome. And if you've solved the physical input thing, or experimented any with that, that'd be interesting to hear about, too. I'm thinking the PowerMate is my best bet, provided I can actually get a hold of one, since they were apparently discontinued a while ago.

SOLUTION

I removed all mouse wheel settings and deactivated it completely from within GIMP. Then I downloaded a utility called X-Mouse Button Control http://www.highrez.co.uk/downloads/XMou ... ontrol.htm

From there I added a profile for GIMP, set mouse wheel up and down to keystrokes, then added those inside GIMP to control "value 2", which usually points to the size of the active tool. I've now connected my mouse that I was about to throw out because of a faulty left button, and I have it placed to the left of my tablet for easy access to a *sort of* analogue brush size setting. That is without ever letting go of my tablet pen or moving my mouse around.

Mission complete.

I have an Intuos 3, sadly, on which basically all the inputs except the pen are useless.

I'm trying to think of anything half decent to do with them, but they're pretty much just stiffer and more annoying versions of keyboard keys - so mostly I just wanna map things to keyboard keys instead.

My greatest wish would be a panel with like.. just.. a billion knobs you could map to anything. It'd be like a small knob plantation next to my keyboard, and I would have them control all sorts of things. Mainly brush settings/sliders, because even though I keep a lot of presets, I always end up tweaking those frequently enough to be a nuisance.

I have configured everything the way I want it to work, so in that regard I'm completely satisfied. My only problem is the aforementioned one -- for some reason the scroll wheel does nothing unless the window I'm working in has been "touched" by the mouse somehow. The cursor changes and the selected tool changes to the one associated with the mouse from whatever the tablet pen has active, but unless I click the window, scrolling the wheel up and down with brush radius mapped to it does nothing.

Maybe I should save my settings and reset everything to the defaults and see if any of my own settings are interfering. If it SHOULD work, I don't see why it doesn't for me.

EDIT: Actually, that's not accurate. I need to click A window. Any GIMP window suffices, I just can't immediately scroll the wheel after using my pen to have it do anything. I tried your setup of using alt + scroll to increase brush size, and unless I click SOMETHING in the application, it does nothing.

EDIT 2: That's not entirely accurate EITHER! Turns out I can just move the cursor "off" any window, and back into it to have it recognize the mouse as a thing. Either way I can't just scroll the wheel to use the wheel, I need to drag the cursor around every time.

Hitting spacebar doesn't help, I'm afraid. I did map alt + scroll from the input controllers dialogue, and it works fine when the mouse is active in the window and able to draw.

Thing is, if I draw something with the tablet pen, then immediately just grab the mouse and click to draw, that doesn't work either - it doesn't draw anything. I've no idea why I have to drag the cursor off the document and back in for the mouse input to work either, but suffice to say it must be related to the issue.

You gave me an idea, though. If I can map the mouse wheel outside of GIMP to a keystroke, I can just map the keystroke to a function within GIMP. That circumvents the entire issue.

Of course, the mystery of the inactive mouse cursor remains, but you can't solve them all I suppose.

All right, I kinda sorted it out. MacGuyvery solution in OT.

Next to the 'P' on the keyboard are the 'bracket keys', ('[ ]')... Have you try this to scale your brushes?

If you hit the 'back-slash' key, ('\') it will set the brush back to it's default size.
Left Bracket decrease scale, Right Bracket increase scale.

Also take a look here... http://geosammy.deviantart.com/art/Gimp ... -304423544

The link I provided is to a 'Gimp Preferences Tutorial' I put together on deviantArt.com, showing how to set 'Gimp Preferences' and use your mouse wheel to vary the size of brushes.

I just wanted a more "analogue" way of setting the width of the brushes. The in-app mouse wheel settings require the mouse to be the active input device on the document, which in turn requires that I move the cursor off and back onto the window where my image is. If I do that, the mouse wheel can be used for anything I map to it from within GIMP.

In order to adjust brush size on the mouse wheel with the tablet pen as the active input device, I couldn't find any other solution than using an external utility to map keystrokes to the mouse wheel.


Can you guys use your tablet pen to doodle something, lift it off of the document with the cursor visible and inside the document frame, grab the mouse and click to immediately draw? I have to move my cursor off and onto the document again to even use the mouse to draw. I dunno if that's how it's designed or if it's a problem that's exclusive to me.

I only use either my tablet or my mouse to draw, one or the other... never both at the same time. Maybe I'm not quite understanding what the issue is.
Are you saying that you start off using your tablet/pen, remove the pen's cursor for the image and then use your mouse to draw?

No, that'd just be a test to tell if the issue I'm having is affecting you guys' setups.

It's a bizarre issue, so it's hard to explain it properly.

The one you're currently using to draw on your image is the active input for the document at that time. Some settings affect only the active input, letting you for instance select a foreground colour with each device (tablet pen, mouse) and as you activate the other input, the respective foreground colour is selected.



For me (I don't know if this is the case for everyone, but I suspect so) "activating" an input device - to draw or interact with an image with that device - requires that you drag the cursor off the image, and back onto it. Scenario:

I draw something with the tablet pen. I put that down. I grab the mouse and drag the cursor off the document and back onto it - only then can I draw with the mouse. Otherwise I can click myself blue in the face, and nothing happens.

That includes any button or interaction with the mouse. Even the mousewheel. Therefore I can't use the mousewheel intuitively while working with the tablet pen. Scenario:

I draw something with the pen and need a slightly bigger or smaller brush size, and just want to tweak it a little in quick succession. I hover with the pen over my tablet - high enough to not control the cursor. I put my left hand on the mouse and scroll the wheel. Because the mouse isn't the active input device, nothing happens.

Ergo, no matter what I map to the mouse for quick access, it's useless while I work with my tablet pen. I can't use them in tandem in a meaningful way. The way I have it solved now, however, I can.



Additional MacGuyveration for interested parties only:

I just got a new mouse and I was about to throw out my old one because of a faulty right mouse button. It was either that or pretending I have a mac. However, I wanted an analogue device to map to sliders in my graphics applications, and have been eyeing some external devices for that purpose. Just as I was about to throw the mouse out I realised that the scroll wheel is somewhat analogue, and if I can just place that in a convenient spot for quick access, I can just spin the wheel with my left hand and never even let go of my pen when I work. Work it into my workflow as naturally as keyboard shortcuts and what have you.

At first I looked for software to separate the mouse devices, but I quickly realised that I never use the scroll wheel for anything on my primary mouse in GIMP either, so it would be okay to just have them both "fight for control" of the same cursor and behave the same. I tried my darnedest to get GIMP to allow immediately controlling something with the mouse wheel while using the tablet pen, to no avail, but then I had an epiphany and just used the external utility to circumvent GIMP's mouse settings entirely. Now the utility "speaks in keyboard" with GIMP, and keyboard commands work no matter what input device is active.

SO! I took my second mouse, plugged it in. Taped a piece of paper under it to keep it from moving the cursor and plopped it down to the left of my tablet and keyboard with the wheel facing me. I went into the utility and mapped , and . to scroll up and down. Headed into keyboard shortcuts in GIMP and mapped those to increasing and decreasing "value 2" which corresponds to the size of the selected tool.

PRESTO! I have an analogue wheel next to my keyboard for flicking on with my little finger to increase and decrease brush width, without putting down my pen, and barely moving my left hand from my "shortcuts position". I just need to put something rubbery under it so it stops sliding around when I poke it.

@SimonM7

Interesting!

I opened an image in Gimp and began using my tablet/pen, with my mouse to the side. I began to draw with the pen and then went to the mouse wheel to resize the brush and nothing happened.
I had to lift the pen from the surface until it was no longer engaged. Only then could I use the wheel to resize my brush.
So your right and you've solved this issue, somewhat I think. (scratching my head)