XP Pen Compatibility

[ASUNDER]

I have an 'XP Pen Artist Pro 16 2nd gen QHD' coming in the mail.  Didn't think to consider compatibility because why would I.  It's like asking if a nintendo controller is compatible with a nintendo game (It's just a replacement for the mouse, yes?)  But I guess not.  Checked around and didn't get a clear answer from anyone.

The 'compatible software' logos on the XP Pen store page doesn't include the Affinity logo.  And the Affinity Designer manual states, "Non-Walcom tablets are not officially supported."
What does that even mean?  Do the other pen displays work with your program or not?  It's a yes or no question.  Where is the list of compatible hardware?

I see on this forum some people discussing various issues with their XP Pens and I saw one YouTube video of a guy drawing in Designer with his XP Pen.  But I still have no idea.  Am I going to have nothing but problems with this device?  Is there going to be no pressure sensitivity or something like that?

[Komatös]

Hello @ASUNDER and welcome to the forum.

I have an XP Pen Deco Pro (Gen2) and after installing the settings software, the tablet worked immediately in the Affinity programs.

The Artist Pro is used like a pen and touch display with the operating system and should work fine too.
 

[firstdefence]

All the XP-Pen Tablets I've owned work fine, I've had the older Deco and Artist 12. With regard to Affinity designer and it's brushes, I feel there is much more work that can be done to dramatically improve ease of use, the lack of a strong organisational structure really disables a good workflow. Not having a recent brushes list, the fact the brushes aren't true vector brushes but raster brushes on a vector curve is a big one that I really think should have been dealt with. These and more make using Affinity with a tablet, clumsy but the tablet will work.

[Alfred]

10 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Affinity designer and it's brushes

Apostrophe alert!

11 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Not having a recent brushes list, the fact the brushes aren't true vector brushes but raster brushes on a vector curve is a big one that I really think should have been dealt with.

Implementing true vector brushes is clearly not a trivial task, but it would be good to see them during the version 2 development cycle. As for a ‘recent brushes’ list, we should have had that long ago.

[ASUNDER]

44 minutes ago, Komatös said:

Hello @ASUNDER and welcome to the forum.

I have an XP Pen Deco Pro (Gen2) and after installing the settings software, the tablet worked immediately in the Affinity programs.

The Artist Pro is used like a pen and touch display with the operating system and should work fine too.
 

Hi, thanks for the welcome.  I'm thinking a combination mouse, control surface and stylus pen.  The vector lines for main shapes and the pen for characters, details etc.  Hoping there isn't some features that don't work because it isn't "supported".

42 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

All the XP-Pen Tablets I've owned work fine, I've had the older Deco and Artist 12. With regard to Affinity designer and it's brushes, I feel there is much more work that can be done to dramatically improve ease of use, the lack of a strong organisational structure really disables a good workflow. Not having a recent brushes list, the fact the brushes aren't true vector brushes but raster brushes on a vector curve is a big one that I really think should have been dealt with. These and more make using Affinity with a tablet, clumsy but the tablet will work.

Ok sweet.  I was starting to panic for a while there.  No idea what this brushes talk is about.  I learned the word 'Raster' like two days ago.

Went through the tutorials and here's my first creation, testing out the features.  Wanted to wrap the text around the face but I'm not there yet.
I'm using a mouse to draw stuff.  It's so weird.  😫

Edited August 2, 2024 by ASUNDER

[Alfred]

4 minutes ago, ASUNDER said:

Ok sweet.  I was starting to panic for a while there.

There’s absolutely no need for you to panic! I have an XP-Pen Deco 03, and it works just fine with my software including all of the Affinity apps. It’s an ordinary graphics tablet rather than a display tablet, so I have to look at the computer screen while using it, but I haven’t encountered any compatibility issues.

10 minutes ago, ASUNDER said:

No idea what this brushes talk is about.  I learned the word 'Raster' like two days ago.

Bitmap/raster images use pixels (picture elements, or ‘dots’). True vector brushes use vectors (defined by length and direction) but the so-called ‘vector’ brush in the Affinity apps consists of a bitmap texture laid down on a vector path.

[ASUNDER]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

There’s absolutely no need for you to panic!

Ok good.  That would have been an expensive mistake.

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

Bitmap/raster images use pixels (picture elements, or ‘dots’). True vector brushes use vectors (defined by length and direction) but the so-called ‘vector’ brush in the Affinity apps consists of a bitmap texture laid down on a vector path.

Ya that does sound weird.  I'll probably rant about it later.

Got the text wrap figured:

 

[firstdefence]

Practice, practice, practice, makes perfect lol! my Artist 12 was a delight to use but being older than 30 I needed a biggerer < (alfred OCD trigger) screen, although I do have an ipad pro I use a lot but the ipencil and a textured/paperlike screen protector is a sublime experience in digital drawing. 

[ASUNDER]

3 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Practice, practice, practice, makes perfect lol! my Artist 12 was a delight to use but being older than 30 I needed a biggerer < (alfred OCD trigger) screen, although I do have an ipad pro I use a lot but the ipencil and a textured/paperlike screen protector is a sublime experience in digital drawing. 

Affinity Designer is so cool.

This is like a year ago when I first discovered Directory Opus and everyone was like, "I've been using it for years."

What? Why is no one TELLING ME about these programs!  Is there anything else I NEED TO KNOW?!  😠

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, ASUNDER said:

What? Why is no one TELLING ME about these programs!  Is there anything else I NEED TO KNOW?!  😠

As you’re probably aware, only you can say what you need to know! And as you’re probably also aware, it’s quite likely that you won’t know until it springs out from somewhere and you find yourself asking, “Why didn’t I know about this, like, yesterday??”

[firstdefence]

38 minutes ago, ASUNDER said:

Why is no one TELLING ME about these programs

Ah! Affinity Padawan, the universe is unfolding as it should, and it cannot unfold any other way, because if it could, it would. 

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

Ah! Affinity Padawan, the universe is unfolding as it should, and it cannot unfold any other way, because if it could, it would. 

[R C-R]

14 hours ago, ASUNDER said:

I learned the word 'Raster' like two days ago.

A minor bit of trivia about that: the word originally was coined (I think) to refer to the side-to-side & up to down scan pattern of an electron beam in an old-fashioned B&W CRT television. It has since been applied to the dot pattern of color TVs & now to any images formed of dots or pixels (picture elements).

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/raster

[ASUNDER]

12 hours ago, Alfred said:

As you’re probably aware, only you can say what you need to know! And as you’re probably also aware, it’s quite likely that you won’t know until it springs out from somewhere and you find yourself asking, “Why didn’t I know about this, like, yesterday??”

Indeed.

Think I could just draw shapes for like a year before I need a tablet.

I can't get the vector fill tool to do what I want.  I draw a pen line inside a shape then fill only that new enclosed section but it fills the whole shape instead.  I can't figure it out.

Also no idea what's going on with the gradient tool.  It doesn't seem to appear in the layers when I use it.  So I can't modify gradients after I apply them.  Can't seem to copy them over to other objects either.
In this example my 'fade out' gradients keep disappearing from the road on the left and right side.  Don't know if there is a 'fade out to alpha channel' gradient instead of fade to white.  Don't know how to fade out pen lines either.  ?  Should I use a large soft brush with erase instead?  (just thought of that now)

 

12 hours ago, firstdefence said:

Ah! Affinity Padawan, the universe is unfolding as it should, and it cannot unfold any other way, because if it could, it would. 

Where can I learn this power to make dank memes?

Not from a Jedi!

8 hours ago, R C-R said:

A minor bit of trivia about that: the word originally was coined (I think) to refer to the side-to-side & up to down scan pattern of an electron beam in an old-fashioned B&W CRT television. It has since been applied to the dot pattern of color TVs & now to any images formed of dots or pixels (picture elements).

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/raster

Oh ya.  Well your user pic is on point for telling me something like that.  😅

[firstdefence]

Use the shape builder tool or simply draw a triangle. Drawing a triangle involves 4 clicks, using the shape builder tool involves more but is useful to know about.

Shapebuilder.

1. Select the road layers and also the curve/line layer
2. Go to the left side menu and click on the shape builder tool
    
3. Click in the area you want a new shape created
   
4. A new shape is created and now you can fill that shape with colour.

So, you cannot just fill a single curve/line there is no space to fill, you need either another curve line or the curve to be curved/bent somehow to create space.

You could create an open curve with 3 clicks and it be filled.

[ASUNDER]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

Use the shape builder tool or simply draw a triangle. Drawing a triangle involves 4 clicks, using the shape builder tool involves more but is useful to know about.

Shapebuilder.

Ok.  The thing I got stuck on is with that mad guy's mouth.  I drew an ellipse:

Then drew a line for a tongue:

Wanted to colour it red with the rest of the mouth dark.  Even though the area is enveloped, the vector fill bucket tool still fills the whole ellipse:

The manual was saying this:

Pencil lines?  It can't fill separated areas if they are separated with pen lines?  What's the difference?  Isn't a line a line?

I could try the shape builder tool.  I will like to learn how to divide these new objects into their own objects anyway.  I will study on that, thank you.

Edited August 3, 2024 by ASUNDER
Added info

[Alfred]

Don’t use the Flood Fill Tool, do it all with filled shapes instead:

1. Draw an ellipse and duplicate it.

2. Draw an overlapping rectangle with its top edge where you want the line for the tongue.

3. Shift-click on the top copy of the ellipse.

4. Subtract (by clicking on the toolbar button or via the menu option ‘Layer > Geometry > Subtract’).

[carl123]

Alternatively...

Draw your ellipse

Draw your Line

Select both

Layer > Geometry > Divide

[ASUNDER]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

Don’t use the Flood Fill Tool, do it all with filled shapes instead:

1. Draw an ellipse and duplicate it.

2. Draw an overlapping rectangle with its top edge where you want the line for the tongue.

3. Shift-click on the top copy of the ellipse.

4. Subtract (by clicking on the toolbar button or via the menu option ‘Layer > Geometry > Subtract’).

Nice.  Both methods work good.  Did another test.

50 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Alternatively...

Draw your ellipse

Draw your Line

Select both

Layer > Geometry > Divide

Ah, "Geometry".  That's what I was looking for.  I put those buttons on my toolbar now to avoid menu diving.  Decent.  Thanks guys.

Not to abuse the help I'm getting here (as a replacement for self study), but it's fun to share.
My Mom requested a logo.  Third draft is rejected cause she doesn't want it 3D.

I tried the spiral tool to get a hanging sign vibe going.
Butted it up to my strike thru line, but I had to use this fancy 'Merge' to get rid of that line.

But it destroyed my spiral in the merge process.

If I had that arrowhead on the line before merging it added an arrowhead to the spiral.

LOLOLLLOLOLOL  computers amiright?

The arrowheads don't work with the opacity either.

The whole reason I tried fancy ends for the line is I can't seem to get an asymmetrical stroke pressure.
So I tried playing with the 'Profiles' and then I did get only the one side to end sharp.  But now the pressure isn't working at all.
Maybe that's because it's merged with the spiral, dunno.

Ugh.

Hanging sign vector graphics is hard to come by, apparently.  Don't know how I can edit the images either, I will have to look into it.
Wonder if there is more vector graphic websites that integrate with Affinity?

The more answers I get the more questions I have.  I got a lot to learn.

Gettin' robbed
Gettin' stoned
Gettin' beat up
Broken-boned
Gettin' had
Gettin' took
I tell you, folks
It's harder than it looks

It's a long way to the top if you wanna rocknroll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GChhRrU6BJU

 

[Alfred]

48 minutes ago, ASUNDER said:

Ah, "Geometry".  That's what I was looking for.  I put those buttons on my toolbar now to avoid menu diving.  Decent.  Thanks guys.

There should be a set of Geometry buttons on the toolbar by default, but — depending on your display settings — your toolbar may be too wide to show you everything at once: click on the guillemet (double angle-bracket ‘»‘) at the right-hand end to display the stragglers.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, ASUNDER said:

The arrowheads don't work with the opacity either.

Instead of reducing the opacity of the fill of the arrow, leave it at 100% and set the fill of the layer instead (via the Opacity control at the top of the Layers panel when the arrow layer is selected).

I’m afraid I’ve no idea what’s going on with your spiral.

[ASUNDER]

3 hours ago, Alfred said:

There should be a set of Geometry buttons on the toolbar by default, but — depending on your display settings — your toolbar may be too wide to show you everything at once: click on the guillemet (double angle-bracket ‘»‘) at the right-hand end to display the stragglers.

Ya, I had one set on the toolbar.  Put on the second one too, so now I have both.

These guys need to let us make those left side tools bigger too.  Yikes.

I got most of my current mysteries solved with those utube tutorials.  The Affinity videos sound like AI voices; it's hard to tell anymore.
My spiral is the Fibonacci sequence one.  I think the formula didn't work with my stroke width.  But I was able to just delete out some nodes and it looks fine now.
Already got rid of the arrowhead, but I will remember that for next time, thank you.

It's shaping up.  Mom wanted some herbs on there.  I would like to say she will be happy with it, but she will probably laugh at me some more.

[ASUNDER]

It's cool that I can hide objects to trace out an image to make my own.

...

So I had a two day fight with line nodes and that godawful vector fill tool.
After much difficulty, think I'm starting to get it.

This one is an inside joke with my old framing crew.

You know how long it took me to draw the original?  Measuring out the parallel skewed lines, getting the triangle roof centered but off centered, with the same skew angle, same with the window.  Then the letters.  I was able to drag the scan into Designer and just trace it out in like ten minutes.

Just look at that horrid coloring!  😅
I know how little Johnny feels.  In his stupid crooked house with its stupid colors.  Poor Johnny.  🤣

Little bumps in the drafting table paint coming through the pic and all.  So that's what I get.  Pencil crayons are a one way trip.  This was my life before Designer 2.
I learned to scan things before coloring them so if they were bad I could print out another one.

But now I can just fire up the save file and swap out the colors with whatever I want in a minute.  Especially with organized layer groups.  And I can save color palettes.  I'm wondering if there is a stroke palette thing like the brushes or swatches windows.  Or if there is a file browser somewhere. ?

Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I have a big chunky box waiting behind me with big 'Fragile' stickers all over it.
It's tablet time, ma dudes.

Edited August 5, 2024 by ASUNDER

[ASUNDER]

Got the new gear up and running.

Well...

Anyone wanna buy a tablet?

 

Just kidding.
It's so strange first time.  Like learning to swim and floating in the deep end for the first time.

I'm definitely not getting pressure sensitivity and I can't figure out why.  I had to disable windows ink cause it numbed the mouse clicks.
I tightened up a couple of those characters; it was pretty sloppy.  Wish that it would just snap the lines together.  I spent more time joining lines on that ninja guy than actually drawing him.  I found that I can edit pics faster with the mouse than with the pen, which kind of defeats the purpose.  So you use it for its task then turn it off; that's kind of like music workflow too.  But the stabilization is pretty nice.  I keep accidently pushing in the pen's buttons on the sides.  And can't seem to find a use for the eraser.

My windows 10 won't let me duplicate the desktop; I have to 'expand it'.  That's a problem because I write with my left hand but use the mouse with my right.  So I'm having to do things in Designer, looking over my shoulder to my right side where the tablet is, using the mouse with my right hand.  Brutal.  My reward for effort is more problems.
I'm starting to just have a conversation with myself here.  Kind of like an ethot bot and a simp bot flirting with each other hahaha.

"Home is where the gear is."
  -  Joel Zimmerman

[firstdefence]

Your hanging bar with added spiral at the end can more easily made with a curve line and a spiral like this.

hanging bar with scroll.afdesign