What things do you do to make using Krita more ergonomic?

If you use computers a lot, you might know it is important for your health to position the computer and operating instruments such that you don't strain your body. If you don't think about this already, you should start doing so.

Normally, you position the keyboard and mouse at around elbow height, close to your body so you don't have to stretch to reach them. However, when you add in the need of a graphics tablet (for those that use one), it becomes difficult. You need to be able to reach the tablet, the keyboard, and sometimes even the mouse, and all of them need to be comfortably reachable from a straight up sitting position, and there often isn't enough space to do so.

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Personally, on Windows I almost exclusively use an external USB numpad and map my most important tools to the numpad keys, simply by remapping hotkeys in the program, or, as often is the case, by using Autohotkey, since few programs actually let you remap all hotkeys.

On Linux, however, no alternative to Autohotkey seems to exist (ironahk was never finished and AutoKey is very lacking), so it's up to the program to support mapping of hotkeys. To my dismay however, Krita (2.8) doesn't support hotkeys extensively. In particular, most of the numpad keys already have a functionality hardcoded to them, so even if you map another function to those, you will have a collision, and you can't change the hardcoded hotkeys.

So I don't have many ergonomics tips for Krita (or other programs), but share yours! Is someone actually comfortable with the keyboard next to the tablet, and using it with one hand? Assuming your desk is even wide enough for that. I just found it to be far too big to blindly navigate with one hand; the external numpad is just the right size.

I know that some people, like Animti, use a ps3 controller to good effect. David has this tutorial: http://www.davidrevoy.com/article30/erg ... cs-tablets. I would love for this thread to grow and become full of good tips, we might do a dedicated article with the conclusions then!

On linux, shellscripts can do everything AHK can do, more or less (check out the "xdotool" and "xte" commands.)

I personally use the keyboard, simply because it has an unbeatable number of buttons. I have it positioned behind the tablet, so me > tablet > keyboard > monitor. I can then have my left hand on the tablet buttons, or move it forwards a bit to press buttons on the keyboard without much effort. Most all buttons I use are mapped on the left side of the keyboard, bottom-ish (z/y to undo, a/s for smooth off/on, e for erase, etc etc)

I've used a ps3 controller in the past, xboxdrv makes this really easy on linux, you can map any button or axis of the controller to any key combo. On windows, Joy2Key does a similar thing. But holding the controller in one hand for prolonged periods of time is a bit awkward and straining, IMO.

I've played with the thought several times to 3D print some sort of wireless controller that fits into my palm, maybe with a rubber-strap, so that I can let my arm hang down in a relaxed position while still being able to press buttons or actuate wheels on it. But each time, I've been too lazy, because the keyboard does work pretty OK...

I use a keyboard for the reason similar to what Amadiro said in the above post. I have a custom made desk with a height according to my comfort, The keyboard sits inside the keyboard tray, I keep the wacom between my keyboard and the monitor on the desk, nearly all the important shortcuts are mapped towards my left hand around the WASD keys on the keyboard and there is a cushion for my right elbow to rest on the keyboard tray. so its - keyboard - wacom - monitor for me. the keyboard tray is freely adjustable so when not needed it is half inside only showing the bottom part of it mainly the CTRL -Z , B, N(mapped to show color selector) and other common shortcuts.

I've used EasyStroke gesture recognitino on Linux with Krita, Gimp and MyPaint in the past, and it works great. You can use the side-switch on the pen, and quickly draw a shape, to activate a keyboard shortcut or command, and you can assign different shortcuts per program. I wrote a tutorial for it ages ago that you can find here http://www.gimptalk.com/index.php?/topi ... -keyboard/ (probably a bit outdated).

It's about as snappy as using keyboard shortcuts, and easy to set up. I''ve used it with my TabletPC, with an on-screen keyboard for the times I need to enter numbers or layer names. I find I generally only use around 10 gestures. The only downside with it, is that it can't really handle modifier keys that you need to hold down while clicking with the pen/mouse.

http://www.amazon.com/Delicol-Foldable-Flexible-Waterproof-Compatible/dp/B00FGSB71W/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1447960902&sr=8-17&keywords=foldable+keyboard

This one should work better than the traditional ones

An alternative solution is to have your tablet between the two halves of your keyboard.

I used to have a Kinesis Freestyle keyboard, which comes in two halves, with a cable between them (get the one with 20" separation so there is space for a tablet). This fit nicely on either side of a A5 Wacom tablet, and would probably fit on either side of something like the Cintiq 13HD too, though the cable was a little too short t get around the Cintiq 21"UX. Ergonomically it's the best solution I've found. Mine eventually broke, after 2-3 years of extensive use, but I was really happy with it both for typing and when working with a a tablet.

The only downside is that you really need to know how to touch type to use it, and you need to map most of your shortcuts to the left side of the keyboard (assuming you're right handed). Plus, people look at you strangely when they see that keyboard sitting on your desk.