TSG: It feels "weird" to draw with a pen tablet

Overview

Users of screenless pen tablets often complain that drawing with one feels "weird." This can manifest as:

• A subtle feeling of "wrongness" even when drawing straight lines

• A feeling like the pen isn't matching what their hands are doing

• Strokes that look or feel "distorted"

Before you buy a pen display (screen tablet), explore what options you have.

The most likely problem: mismatched aspect ratios

The vast majority of the time, this feeling results from a mismatch between the aspect ratios of the pen tablet's active area and the monitor's display.

How to fix:

• First, in the tablet driver, configure the tablet to use a single monitor instead of mapping across multiple monitors.

• Second, configure the tablet driver to use "Force Proportions." See Matching aspect ratios with Force Proportions.

What users say

Some people struggled with this weird feeling for literal decades. They finally discovered that Force Proportions fixed it. Here are some actual quotes:

• "Going from traditional to digital made me feel like I was going insane before I found the setting."

• "I always wanted a screen tablet for so long earlier on in my art journey because I really didn't like how inaccurate my lines were and how difficult it would be to do lineart, but after using as screen tablet I decided to try going back to screenless for a bit, and kinda faced the same problems albeit a lot less. However, after turning on this option, it suddenly feels like I'm drawing on my screen tablet. The lines actually feel like they're connected and not disjointed, it's truly a revelation."

• "Thank you so much. Turning this accursed setting on immediately turned my tablet from something I simply thought was never going to click to something I can draw comfortably on."