Photoshop/Wacom Sanity check

[Jaxilon]

This is driving me nuts so maybe one of you have had this.

I have an Intous4 wacom tablet and use CC photoshop current version. It seems like both have updated recently and I've been having an issue.

I'll be painting, switch over the smudge to push some paint around and for some reason (way to often but not always) the "Mode:" which is typically 'Normal' switches to darken or luminosity or some other garbage. I can't figure out what's causing it because it's not so often that I can repeat it or make it happen. All I can say is I'm angry as a hornet because it keeps screwing up my painting process with bad strokes. The only good thing is it's obvious as soon as it happens and I can undo and go change it back to "Normal" mode. I don't know what it's about but I NEVER use that drop down Mode: thingy on the menu bar so it is ONLY annoying.

I really hope someone knows what's causing this.

My gut says it's a pen thing, or wacom driver, or maybe a Photoshop default setting that got changed when I updated.

[J.Edward]

I'd love to drop both PS and Wacom sometimes. 3 parties that can't work their sh#t out - MS, Adobe, Wacom.
It seems like there is always a new problem cropping up and each one wants to say it's the other's fault and go ask them to help you.

I really need to check out PaintTool SAI, as Larb has suggested many times. That or find some other tools. sigh...
I feel your pain. Today I'm dealing with some irregularities in lines - the pressure I'm using is the same but PS or Wacom keeps dropping out as lines are being drawn.
And this commission is very line heavy. So my day is going no better.

[Chick]

I'd vote for Wacom being the culprit, I've had nothing but hassle with mine. I still have to reload the driver and my settings every time I reboot my computer, and I get an error doing it exactly once each time, then it works. Wacom blames MS, MS can't be bothered to talk to anyone below the level of Bill Gates.

[Jaxilon]

Someone told me to try ArtRage. I haven't yet but I may.

[J.Edward]

Chick - when windows started win8 [or maybe it was win7...] they started pushing their tablet driver which is not totally compatible with Wacom's driver.
Add Adobe to that mix and it's hell. I actually trust Wacom more, for this reason - I've been using wacom stuff for 15 years and the problems only started when MS made changes and then Adobe [in my view] sided with MS and their drivers. I never had these issues in years past. From PS5 and a Graphire tablet on into Adobe CS1 and a Cintiq... these issues were not there.
Once MS started pushing their tablet/touch drivers I have had no end of trouble.

Add to that how Adobe 'can't replicate that issue' and hence they feel there is no issue... I'll add, when working in other programs using my Wacom, I also don't often have these issues.
Mischief draws like a dream on my wacom. So maybe it's really Adobe... they kind of suck in my opinion. Only a step above MS really.

Jax - Artrage does have some cool features. A rotateable ruler... that's pretty cool.
I really am trying to expand my toolkit to include some non-Adobe tools. Adobe features are full but problems are many.
I'm still trying to work out if Mischief can be one of those tools - but they are still young and many constantly used features of PS are not there.
Like key shortcuts and other fast time saving things. You can't program buttons to do certain things in Mischief.
I have my left click button on my wacom pen set to pan so I can move things around quickly. That's huge when you can't do that.

It's little things... but when you work in a program more than 8 hours a day, little things become big things quickly.

eidt - I thought I'd add - I use an older wacom driver and it works fine. Saved me the trouble of dealing with a repeating issue with MS tab driver, which I had to disable to get it to stop screwing with me.

[Diamond]

Today I'm dealing with some irregularities in lines - the pressure I'm using is the same but PS or Wacom keeps dropping out as lines are being drawn.

My vote is for PS being the culprit there. That has been happening to me ALL THE FREAKING TIME for the last three months or so. I have a tablet but don't use it, so PS almost has to be the guilty party. I've just been dealing with it, because I can't really articulate what's going on, but you seem to be having the same problem. I'll hold down the mouse button, drag the mouse to draw a line, and there will be missing segments, like portions of it have been erased. Like you, I haven't changed the pressure setting or anything (not that that would matter with a mouse). Gaaaaah.

[Chick]

I have occasionally had a problem with the pen drawing the correct line but shifted over somewhere else on the page, or missing part of the line. When that happens, it happens in both PS and MSPaint, so I know it's the tablet. Not sure if this is the same problem you are seeing, but in my case I was able to fix it by going to the tablet command center and reloading all my settings. Same thing I have to do every time I reboot.

Also, if you are missing part of a line, make sure your nib is correctly inserted and not so short that you are losing its contact with the surface when you tilt your pen.

[Midgardsormr]

I have had some trouble with my older Intuos where I accidentally brush the touch strip with my hand, causing it to scroll unexpectedly. I routinely disable the left-hand touch strip now to prevent that. Just a thought. The newer Intuos have that ring in place of the touch strips, and I don't know if they'd have the same problem, nor whether your set up might cause you to accidentally brush it occasionally.

If you need to change your settings in the Wacom control panel, close your other programs first. I don't know exactly which other pieces of software give this problem, but if 3DS Max is open when I change my monitor mapping settings, it causes the pointer to vibrate rapidly between spanning both monitors and only appearing on one. Other software with pen handling code may produce other strange behaviors if you change the settings while they're open.

Finally, I always disable the Windows Tablet Service and turn off everything in the Pen and Touch control panel. And untick Use Windows Ink in the mapping tab of the Wacom driver.

Windows 7 / Intuos 2 / Wacom Control Panel and driver version 6.3.7-5

[Chick]

...Finally, I always disable the Windows Tablet Service and turn off everything in the Pen and Touch control panel. And untick Use Windows Ink in the mapping tab of the Wacom driver.

I'm glad you posted this! I had forgotten about those, but Wacom support had me do both of those things when I contacted them for help. Shut down everything you can find to do with the MS Windows "tablet".