Hi! Here's what I learned about using Krita on Surface Pro 3:


TWO FINGER NAVIGATION

Big reveal! If you drag two fingers across the screen, you can both zoom and pan the canvas!


GENERAL SURFACE SETTINGS

In the Surface pen software (which is called 'Surface' because Microsoft aim at being abstruse and weird) I always set the pressure way up. (you could do this in Krita, if prefered, via Settings>Tablet Settings )

I had a lot of trouble with the pen on Surface 3 Pro. The software is designed for casual tablet use, not for using the pen as a drawing tool. So your stroke is delayed, there's that stupid halo, holding the pen still activate a right click and moving the pen make a 'swip' shortcut. After a bit of experimentation, I have ended up with these settings:

Open Windows Start menu and click 'Settings'. Search for 'Pen and Touch'
It opens with the 'Pen Options' tab active.
Do NOT deactivate 'Press and hold to right click'. (I tried this, and it broke panning in Photoshop)
Instead click into it and change Speed to Long, og Duration to Short. This hack practically disables the hold-to-rightclick.
Click into the tab named 'Flicks'
Disable that ****!

Open Windows Start menu and go to Settings > Devices > Pen
Deactivate 'Show Visual Effects'

The pen has a bit of a delay - the cursor trail a bit behind. I found this hack somewhere online, worked for me:
Run regedit.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\TouchPrediction
Set 'Latency' and 'SampleTime' from 8 to 2


KRITA PERFORMANCE

When painting, my Surface starts overheating. So I fiddled a bit with the settings

Firefox, Photoshop, uTorrent, etc. all eat a lot of my precious ram, so I kill them.

Settings > Configure Krita > General > Miscellaneous
I lower Kritas number of undos. (I almost never undoes when I paint) Also, I disable "autosave" and "Create backup files"

Settings > Configure Krita > General > Miscellaneous
I boost the RAM a bit here.


THOSE PEN BUTTONS

One of them, the eraser, enables the Eraser_circle brush.
The other is just broken.


THE LOST POPUP PALETTE

Right clicking is a bother with the surface pen, so I can't access the popup palette. Let's fix that!

Go here:
Settings > Configure Krita > Canvas Input Settings

Click on 'Show Popup palette' and add a shortcut. I used the ½ key, which seemed not to be doing anything.


SCRIPTING SURFACE

I wrote a script, which will add a few extra features:
* Pressing volume up activates rotate cavas
* Pressing volume down activates drag canvas
* Pressing the Windows key mirrors your drawing
How to use: First install autohotkey, then save the script as a text file named krita4surface.ahk. Double click that file to run the script.

Code: Select all

#NoEnv
#SingleInstance force
#IfWinActive ahk_class Qt5QWindowIcon

;VOLUME UP -- ROTATE CANVAS

SC130 down::
  SendInput {LShift down}
  SendInput {space down}
  return

SC130 up::
  SendInput {LShift up}
  SendInput {space up}
  return


;VOLUME DOWN -- MOVE CANVAS

SC12E down::
  SendInput {space down}
  return

SC12E up::
  SendInput {space up}
  return


F19::
  SendInput {p}
  return   

; WINDOWS KEY -- MIRROR

LWin::
  SendInput {m}
  return   


Thanks! Some of these things I already knew, others are seriously cool tips! Let's share this with more users by linking to the post from the Krita FAQ! I wonder if it's also possible to make the popup palette show up by using the windows buzzing thingy on the screen that does nothing anymore otherwise...

Sure thing!

rewired-buzzer.ahk (Autohotkey script to rewire win-buzzer to the right mouse button)

Code: Select all

LWin::
  MouseClick, right
  return

(Post deleted - I figured out that I was thinking about Wacom, not surface!)