I'm just starting to look at Krita on my new-ish Surface Pro 3. I've never used Krita before so assumed I'd be best starting with the stable 2.8 version rather than the 2.9 beta: is that right? (I'm happy using beta s/w as a former IT worker and coder but a real n00b with Krita) And,

I started looking at the tutorials, starting with https://userbase.kde.org/Krita/Tutorial_1, then realised a lot of it was keyboard-based, so not really suited to ripping the keyboard off the SP3 and using it in tablet mode which is how I want to use Krita for drawing. Are there any pen-based tutorials? (As an example, the instruction 'Redefine the axis with Shift + R, then click' cannot be followed with pen only.)

Finally, I love the popup that appears with right-click on the canvas. Has anyone figured out how to get this with the SP3 pen?

Thanks,
Tony.

Both beta and 2.8.3 should be fine, but the beta has more features and 'should' be more stable, too... For keyboardless systems, you could try the Krita Sketch demo we have on Steam. (it's not really a demo, it's the full krita sketch application). That one is touch optimized, but for 2.9, it needs a lot of work, maybe more than I can manage. Finally, the buttons on the n-trig pen: I haven't hard to to check what kind of events they send, so there's no way currently to make them work. I need a couple of days to dig into the n-trig stuff.

Thanks, Boudewijn. I'll uninstall the current version and try the 2.9 beta.

I'll check out the Krita Sketch demo.

Krita Sketch demo we have on Steam... is touch optimized, but for 2.9, it needs a lot of work

Does this mean I should run the demo on the current version, before I uninstall it and install the beta?

Re the n-trig pen, if you want to send me some code to run that'll trap the pen events and report them, I'm happy to run it to help out.

You don't need to rely on the keyboard. I myself use a convertable tablet, and many of the actions can be stuck to the toolbar. Because the surface pro has a lot of screen real estate, I don't think you'll have trouble fitting them.

I agree with the comment about screen real estate on the SP3: it is pretty cool. My concern was more about finding out where an action like 'Redefine the axis with Shift + R' was in the menu system or wherever. Also, how might I pin an action to the toolbar? (Or should I just stop asking questions and work through the tutorials before coming back here? )

Check out the settings top menu. It has all the cool configuration options.

The tutorial is a little old, so there's actually a widget in place for those two options. You'll find there many other convenient bits here and there added

I mostly use Krita on an original Surface Pro these days. Attaching actions to the toolbar, like TheraHedwig said, is very handy. I've also found that an USB number pad along with an AutoHotkey script to change the buttons to hotkeys I frequently use makes for a very smooth experience.

For example, here's the script I use with the function in parentheses:
Numpad0::Numpad5 (reset canvas rotation)
Numpad3::e (toggle erase mode)
Numpad4::^+z (redo)
Numpad5::^z (undo)
Numpad6::/ (last brush used)
Numpad7::m (mirror canvas)
Numpad8::space (pan canvas)
Numpad9::ctrl (colour picker and zoom with space)
NumpadDiv::shift (change brush size and rotate canvas with space)
NumpadMult::space (pan canvas)
NumpadDot::^e (merge current layer with layer below)
NumpadEnter::insert (add new paint layer)

Not sure if this is any help but it's another option between full keyboard and no keyboard that works quite well for me.

PixelSprite wrote:I've also found that an USB number pad along with an AutoHotkey script to change the buttons to hotkeys I frequently use makes for a very smooth experience.

Neat idea. Gets the detachable keyboard away from the front of the screen but still allows some keystrokes on the side.

You might want to take a look at Radial Menu:
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/threads ... 295.64232/

It's a great tool and works very well with the surface pro 3. It even allows you to keep a button down with your thumb and use the pen at the same time.