I just got Krita, and it seems like every time I try to use it I run into a new problem.

One time when I opened the program, it didn't recognize pen pressure. This only happened once and not since, but if it does happen again and becomes a regular issue.. Is there any known fix?

One time when I opened it I could not adjust the vertical length of the program, and it wasn't entirely captured on the page which made it impossible to reach a couple tools and scroll my canvas horizontally. I looked online trying to figure out how to fix this (and found no solution.) I uninstalled and reinstalled and it was still doing it. After exiting and opening the program a few times- it finally stopped doing this. But now it takes up the whole screen. I cannot toggle between windows even when I press ESC, the only way out is if I press quit. Again, I looked online and found no solution for this.

Now onto the trouble I'm having with the tools/program.

I can't find the brush stabilizer. Not a huge issue considering my hand is fairly steady, but when doing lineart it's frustrating having to undo and redo lines all the time.

I've been hearing that there is a deform brush, and yet it's not there. I've toggled over the names of all my brushes and cannot find deform. I don't even know why deform would be a brush.. I didn't see a tool to select an area and warp my selection. Does it just not have that option?

I can't figure out how to make a layer transparent. The default layer is opaque as it should be, but when I turn the opacity of my other layer to fully transparent, that I course makes it and my brush strokes on it invisible- I just want the background to be invisible. I tried the "transparency mask" but what that appears to have done is add another layer. What am I doing wrong? What rid the transparency option? Surely it is there or it would defeat the purpose of having layers!

I'm also curious if Krita has a "wand" tool. I can't find it in the tool bar.

Lastly, I can't see which version of Krita I have. I downloaded it from my software manager. It just says Krita, doesn't say the version. I ask because of all the tutorials I've seen, they are primarily useless to me as the screencaps/videocap being shown, it doesn't look the same on my program at all.

Many questions - here are some answers:

Deform-Brush

In the presets Docker look for a preset named: move_tool. That is a basic deform brush. Or you can find an icon in the topbar that opens the brushwindow with advanced brushsettings. On the right side in the brushwindow you can see the different available brushengines - the deform brush should be listed there. In this brushwindow you can adjust existing presets or make own (eg for a deform brush) and save them for later use.

The Brush Stabilizer (Smoothing)

When you have selected the freehand drawing tool you should see a dropdown-menu in the tool-options docker. It is set to Basic smoothing by default. Activate Weighted Smoothing. With the now activated sliders you can adjust how strong the smoothing should be.

Warp tool

In the Tool-docker you can find the Transform Tool or press ctrl+T to activate it. The transform is applied to selections or without a selection to the whole layer. Again look at the Tool-options docker to adjust settings. The Transform tool has many options e.g. you can change it to warp mode for free transformations. Additionally you can activate perspective transform by holding ctrl.

Wand Tool

Krita has two tools for advanced selections - select contiguous region and select by color. Select contiguous region is like the wand tool (eg in gimp). The icon is not so good to identify. I guess it should represent a magnet.

Layer Opacity

The layer opacity is regulated by the slider in the layer docker. It is so obvious that i guess you found it but it does not do what you suggest it to do? It works for me like in any other painting application. If you just want to make the layer invisible i would consider to turn off visibility (the eye icon) or you can look at only one layer making all others invisible by right clicking on the layer and choose "Isolate Layer".

Version

You can find your Version of Krita from the main menu - Help - About Krita.

For more information the Userbase Wiki might also help: http://userbase.kde.org/Krita
(Take a look at the Tutorial Section at the bottom of the page)