Tablet Pen

My new laptop is fully put together now that I got my pen from Toshiba. The battery is here and everything.

The laptop is a Toshiba Tecra M4, and when I push the joystick button in on the screen, it rotates upside down. Here’s the python script in case anyone wants to do something similar:

#! /usr/bin/env python
"Inverts the screen and back to normal again."

import commands
import re

current = commands.getoutput("xrandr -q").split("\n")[1]

if re.match(".* (left|inverted|right) \\(", current) is not None:
  commands.getstatusoutput("xrandr -o normal")
  commands.getstatusoutput("xsetwacom set cursor rotate")
else:
  commands.getstatusoutput("xrandr -o inverted")
  commands.getstatusoutput("xsetwacom set cursor rotate half")

The pen works well, but I’m still trying to figure out how get the gimp to use the eraser and stylus/secondary button. I wish virtual paper was completed for Tomboy as well.

Tags TabletPC, Ubuntu

2 replies on “Tablet Pen”

Regarding Erasing in The Gimp: The last time I tried this, the interface was not done very well. It was straight up unstable and just didn’t look nice. That was awhile back and it may have been fixed since then, and I don’t have my tablet to look at right here right now.

I believe what you need to do is in the File menu, go to Preferences, and then it’s going to be under Input Devices somewhere. Actually, that part already looks better to me.

There’s a dialog around there somewhere that lets you set whether you want to use “Tablet” input or “Mouse” input, and if tablet input, set whether it’s relative to the Screen or the Window (you probably want Screen, although someone with an attached Wacom tablet would probably want Window).

I didn’t even know that my tablet (Toshiba Portege m200) supported pressure sensitivity until I did this and started drawing around. I think you can also set whether you want pressure to affect your line color, thickness, or maybe both. If yours also supports tilt, I may need your help on Virtual Paper 😉

Jeff: I did get it working somewhat. I used information from http://carol.gimp.org/gimp2/basics/gui/preferences/inputdevices.html and edited the devicerc file, and set the eraser brush to gimp-eraser-tool. It did use the erasor, but I think it is buggy like you said because it would be jumpy while moving the eraser.

I could probably help you out with the Virtual Paper, but I’m not sure that my screen supports tilt either. Just let me know where to start.

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2 replies on “Tablet Pen”