Hi, I just switched from Windows 10 where I used "SmoothDraw" to draw my math equations live while doing my videos, just like Khan Academy. You can see my style here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkG81RJdFQA.

I switched to debian and I'm loving it. The problem is that SmoothDraw is only for windows. I found that Krita is a lot more complex than SmoothDraw, so I think I can do the same thing I did in Windows. The problems are that I cannot pick a good brush for it, there are too many configurations and I just want a simple pen, just like SMoothDraw, but I cannot find it. I tried a lot of different pens but I couldn't find one similar to the one I used.

Also, I needed a way of switching from the pen to the eraser in a fast way, but whenever I return to the pen, its size resets to a number like 30, not, for example, the number I was using.

Could somebody help me in tunning Krita for mathematics? I'm using a simple wacom bamboo which is doing fine, but I needed these adjustments.

Thanks!

hey there!

Neat idea doing a Khan Academy type of education system. I am not sure what type of pen effect you are wanting, so it is going to be difficult to help you with that without more information.

For quickly changing from the pen to the eraser, there is the eraser mode that might help. If you press the "E" key, that will toggle between the eraser and pen.

In the brush editor, there is an option called "eraser switch size". That will allow you to have a different eraser brush size than your pen size. By default, your eraser has the same brush size as your eraser size.

Hope that helps.

scottpetrovic wrote:hey there!

Neat idea doing a Khan Academy type of education system. I am not sure what type of pen effect you are wanting, so it is going to be difficult to help you with that without more information.

For quickly changing from the pen to the eraser, there is the eraser mode that might help. If you press the "E" key, that will toggle between the eraser and pen.

In the brush editor, there is an option called "eraser switch size". That will allow you to have a different eraser brush size than your pen size. By default, your eraser has the same brush size as your eraser size.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, the 'E' shortcut is what I needed. I was searching for a way to switch between brushes fastly because I needed a way to switch to the eraser brush I defined. However, your "E" shortcut is the same thing. The only problem is that I needed the eraser to be a lot bigger than the brush's size (useful in math) and the eraser to be absolute (no pressure needed). Is it possible to configure?

Hi zanellalucas

to setup a eraser with bigger size , got to brush setting editor by pressing F5 then check the eraser switch size checkbox at the bottom. then while in eraser mode resize the eraser with shift + left mouse button and drag. the eraser size will stay same when you press 'E' next time.

Also one more suggestion would be to use '/' key to switch to previously used preset , simply choose an eraser brush presets from preset docker ( F6) then select your normal drawing brush preset, then you can toggle between these two with '/' key

For the brush preset to draw I would suggest the following, choose basic_tip_default brush, go to brush setting then go to opacity parameter and uncheck enable pen settings, then go to flow parameter then increase the strength bar to 1 , you should now have a normal basic brush to write. you can draw some icon in the rectangular area in the scratchpad and save this preset for future use. Read this -> https://docs.krita.org/Loading_and_Saving_Brushes for more clear instruction about saving brush presets.

Ink_gpen brushes seems to be near something you need. It is available by default right-click




May be you will want to tweak it (set other mapping pressure -> stroke width and remove "softness")

Also I recommend the following shortcuts for math formulas:

Ctrl+R for rectangle selection
Ctrl+T for moving selection to other place (press Enter when done)

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, to create copy of part of the formula, Ctrl+T to move copy, Ctrl+E to merge copy-pasted formula to base layer.

I prefer to draw formulas in additional layer with transparent alpha, and keep clean white background in other layer. So, I can move formula over drawing or other formula and do not obstruct the drawing.

Eraser: use 'E' key to switch between eraser and brush.

Also enable this setting, to keep eraser big always:
http://dobrokot.ru/pics/i2016-03-12__15-59-45_164kb.png

Also use "Shift + mouse move" to change brush/eraser size.

dobrokotov wrote:Eraser: use 'E' key to switch between eraser and brush.

Also enable this setting, to keep eraser big always:
http://dobrokot.ru/pics/i2016-03-12__15-59-45_164kb.png

Also use "Shift + mouse move" to change brush/eraser size.

I don't have this option, my Krita is 2.8.5, installed through apt-get in debian 8

kamathraghavendra wrote:Hi zanellalucas

to setup a eraser with bigger size , got to brush setting editor by pressing F5 then check the eraser switch size checkbox at the bottom. then while in eraser mode resize the eraser with shift + left mouse button and drag. the eraser size will stay same when you press 'E' next time.

Also one more suggestion would be to use '/' key to switch to previously used preset , simply choose an eraser brush presets from preset docker ( F6) then select your normal drawing brush preset, then you can toggle between these two with '/' key

For the brush preset to draw I would suggest the following, choose basic_tip_default brush, go to brush setting then go to opacity parameter and uncheck enable pen settings, then go to flow parameter then increase the strength bar to 1 , you should now have a normal basic brush to write. you can draw some icon in the rectangular area in the scratchpad and save this preset for future use. Read this -> https://docs.krita.org/Loading_and_Saving_Brushes for more clear instruction about saving brush presets.

My Krita is 2.8.5, doesn't have these features. How can I update? The website doesn't bring instructions for debian :c

For debian you have to build, or use the portable builds for 3.0 dev version we bring out(if they don't crash within an hour of use, they're moderately stable). We will personally release 3.0 as a portable build primarily for Linux as we too are a little tired of dealing with LTS versions.

TheraHedwig wrote:For debian you have to build, or use the portable builds for 3.0 dev version we bring out(if they don't crash within an hour of use, they're moderately stable). We will personally release 3.0 as a portable build primarily for Linux as we too are a little tired of dealing with LTS versions.

Nice! But why can't I just apt-get update? Thanks by developing such a great application.

You can also try '/' hotkey. It switches two last brushes (and the eraser one of them can be)

zanellalucas wrote:

TheraHedwig wrote:For debian you have to build, or use the portable builds for 3.0 dev version we bring out(if they don't crash within an hour of use, they're moderately stable). We will personally release 3.0 as a portable build primarily for Linux as we too are a little tired of dealing with LTS versions.

Nice! But why can't I just apt-get update? Thanks by developing such a great application.

First it was because the automatic build thingy refused to build because one of our unit tests didn't pass their standards, now it's because our color management libraries are too new for Debian. Who knows, maybe a new Debian will have Krita 3.0.