Ctrlk
For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. This page is also available as Markdown.

Mirroring or extending a display

Overview

In terms of what you see on it, your pen display is just another monitor/display to your computer. So, you can control how the computer shows its desktop to the pen display.

You have two options:

  • Extend the desktop - this means you can see different things on the pen display from your monitor. This is what I recommend you use.

  • Duplicate the desktop (aka "Mirror the desktop") - This means your pen display and monitor will try to show the same exact thing.

Considerations

Duplicating is very useful and intuitive, but generally I think Extend is a better choice for most people and situations.

Things that may happen with duplication:

  • Black bars on one of the screens. This happens if they don't have the same aspect ratio

  • If the two screens have different resolutions, the duplication may use the lower resolution.

  • If the two screens have different max refresh rates, duplication will use the lower refresh rate for both.

Steps to control extend vs duplicate

  • Open Display Settings

  • The displays your computer is connected to will be shown and each one is numbered. The one in blue is the display currently selected.

    • If a display has two numbers, that means the desktop is being duplicated across those displays

  • NOTE: If you only see one display, then these settings do not apply.

  • Select the display that corresponds to your tablet

  • Toward the bottom right, to the right of the Identify button, you will see a dropdown that controls how the desktop is applied to this display. Depending on how the display is already configured, the dropdown will say either:

    • Extend desktop to this display

    • Duplicate desktop on X and Y

      • X and Y will be the numbers referring to the displays

  • Switch the dropdown between the Extend or Duplicate option as needed.

  • Go to Displays > Display Settings

  • Select your monitor, then set Use As to Primary Display

  • Then select your drawing tablet's display and set Use As to Mirror.

After you extend: Pointer on wrong display?

One you extend, your displays will show different things. But you pointer may be stuck on a different display then your pen works on. To address this: TSG: Pointer on wrong display.

Alternatives to mirroring

If you just want to see your canvas on both displays, explore this option instead: Showing canvas on another display

Last updated