Do you know this challenge?
After starting Adobe Photoshop suddenly the pen pressure of your wacom tablet is gone! This can happen after a new program update for example.
You are missing your wacom pen pressure?
The interesting point
The pen pressure is not really removed. Other tools that supports Wacom tablets works without any issues. So what is the reason for this strange problem?
First solution
After some research in the internet I’ve found a way how to reactive the pen pressure support in Photoshop. It worked very well on my system. I am using windows version 8.1 currently
Photoshop CC 2014 changes stylus use to use Microsoft system API’s, with these API’s you need to have Windows Ink enabled. These API’s give better stroke results and improve the out of the box experience for users using Windows tablet/convertible devices. If you want to go back to the old WinTab implementation of previous versions do the following:
How to
1. Create a file that contains instructions to revert to the WinTab functionality. Use a text editor such as Notepad to do this.
2. Type in the following lines:
# Use WinTab
UseSystemStylus 0
UseSystemStylus 0
3. Save the file as a plain text file named
PSUserConfig.txt
4. Save the file into the Photoshop settings folder, for example:
C:\Users\[Your User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2015\Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 Settings\
To turn off the gestalt’s functionality, delete the PSUserConfig.txt file. You can move it to a different folder too if it doesn’t contain any other commands. Or you change the lines so they read:
# Use Win8 native tablet support
UseSystemStylus 1
UseSystemStylus 1
Second solution
But sometimes even creating the PSUserConfig.txt file doesn't help.
A possible reason for the missing pressure can be to restart the wacom drivers.
You can restart your pc to do solve this. But a reboot can be uncomfortable when you have opened already some applications and don’t want to start them all anew after the system reboot.
Wacom delivers a small but nice tool to backup and reload your settings and drivers. It is called “Wacom Tablet Preference File Utility”.
Wacom Tablet Preference File Utility
How to start the Wacom Tablet Preference File Utility in windows:
1. Go to Start > All Programs > Wacom Tablet > Wacom Tablet Preference File Utility.
In Windows 8:
Use the shortcut Windows+Q and type in “Wacom Tablet Preference File Utility”. It should appear automatically.
For all Graphire 3, Graphire 4 and Bamboo series tablets:
Go to Start > All Programs > Pen Tablet > Pen Tablet Preference File Utility.
Use the shortcut Windows+Q and type in “Wacom Tablet Preference File Utility”. It should appear automatically.
For all Graphire 3, Graphire 4 and Bamboo series tablets:
Go to Start > All Programs > Pen Tablet > Pen Tablet Preference File Utility.
2. Then select “Restore…”.
Before you can do this you should stored your preferences once before by using “Backup…“.
