SERIOUS aggravation with lines and sketching+other Intuos 4 questions.

[spoonfruit]

Ok..so I have a few questions. (This may be a bit wordy, my apologies) During the past several months, I've done some extremely wise spending/investing and bought myself a Cintiq 12wx and the Intuos 4 large just arrived two days ago. I can ASSURE you Im not rich...actually quite the opposite!! Huzzah savings/graduation money!! :D So, since I've had my tablets, I've had this extraordinarily aggravating problem: No line, no matter how straight of an edge you may trace, will be straight. There are also some flat spots on curves and . Now Im a pretty big noob in the tablet world and am completely unaware if this is something I just need to get used to. I'll attach some images from PSCS3 so you can see what Im talking about. I would REALLY appreciate any advice, corrections on my part, or answers offered!..I hope this isn't me just being too picky..My apologies if it is! haha! Thanks a bunch!! :) Also...how long are pen tips on an intuos supposed to last? These two tablets are my first (figured I should get the best I could and get them out of the way of expenses) and compared to the cintiq..they seem to have a much shorter life span. I can already see an angle forming on my I4's pen. I don't think Im using excessive pressure either..maybe. Is this normal?

Problem in photoshop (I used a NICE straight edge for all of the lines except for obviously the one where I used shift and the circles..ha):

[frog from itchy]

I always had problems getting nice lines in Photoshop, until CS4 came out and suddenly things got better.

Try the demo of CS4 to see if it fixes things for you - not everyone seems to have had my happy experience.

[Huey Yeng]

Like frog from itchy said.

CS4 solve this problem plus the canvas rotation is a big plus for doing line work although it comes very late when other apps offer them way way before CS4 release.

[Rinthe]

Photoshop CS4 uses your graphic card, which solves the problem of jagged edges when zoomed at a weird number (37.1%) etc. you can get straight lines in CS3, if you zoom at 25%, 50% 75% and 100% i think.

[spoonfruit]

Thanks guys!! :) Looks like I'll be trying out CS4!!! Haha! I'll come back when I get the chance to let you know if it helped! In the meantime...does anyone know about the whole pen tip life span thing? How long are they typically supposed to last or how long do they last you on a normal tablet instead of a Cintiq? Thanks again!

[spoonfruit]

Well...CS4 didn't solve jack...ha!! :\ I donno...maybe I'll make really really good friends with the shift key..sigh. Are there any other solution ideas?

[FranciscoShreds]

Suggestions... OK... For straight lines use the line tool (get it? see what adobe did there?) or use the pen tool and for circles use shift and the elliptical marquee tool. Honestly, I can't think of any reason you'd have to make so many straight lines and perfect circles but this will do it.

[Elfhands]

Perhaps it improves if you increase your image resolution? What dpi were you using?

[spoonfruit]

It was at 300 pixels/inch.

[_Akéiron_]

It depends also on the level of zoom you are using...if your pic is like A4 @300dpi and you're working at, lets say, 20% of size, you'll get those ugly lines... try to work on higher zoom, like 50% and see if it's better ;)

[Lingmerth]

Hmm.. this sort of resembles what you see when you draw near the edges of a Cintiq, this is (from what I've gathered) because of interference from the underlying monitor.

Try to see if there anything that might cause static interference near your tablet, things like old or bad shielded electronics or mobile phones, try moving the Tablet as far as the cord will allow and try drawing with a straight edge.

Otherwise if crisp line quality is very important for you consider using another program than photoshop (It's brushstroke smoothing sucks) or work really zoomed in and erasing edges of your lines.

[Lingmerth]

I double posted sorry.