Hi there!
I’d like to poll how do you hold your drawing tablet stylus? I mean between which fingers etc. I’m used to overhand pencil grip, but my xppen registers +/-60 degrees. So, I want to get used to new grip and I wonder how do you hold your pen…
Greetings,
Tom
Regular tripod grip, like I hold a pen.
1 Like
I’m holding it like @Rebecca.
Michelist
1 Like
Hello @tomdraug and welcome to the forum 
I don’t know why the angle signal is significant. (I don’t have a tilt sensitive tablet.)
Can you explain in more detail any problems you may be having?
1 Like
Hi!
Its not registering input when tilt is more than 60 degrees, it stops drawing.
So, I must keep it more vertical.
From what I’ve read about tablet/stylus devices with tilt sensitivity, the range of tilt is +/- 60 degrees about the vertical.
I would have expected the tilt signal to stick at 60 when the angle off vertical was greater than 60.
Can you paint using a Basic-2 Opacity brush preset when the angle is greater than 60?
If you can then it would probably be the brush preset you were using that had that characteristic.
Which brush preset were you using?
This needs someone with experience of using a tilt sensitive stylus, ideally the XP Pen range.
1 Like
It depends on the design of the stylus, i.e. its geometry. When tilting too much, the tip will lose contact to the tablet surface - a torn tip will make this even worse.
It doesn’t make much sense to hold the stylus at such a shallow angle for regular drawing anyway. Force is being detected only in axial* direction, so pressure control is pretty poor at such angles, and you need to press harder.
*) I’m not quite sure, but I think Wacom once had a pen that would react to radial force also. But that’s quite expensive to realise technically.
1 Like
I’m sure that’s the case but my cheap old Wacom tablet stylus keeps on painting at good opacity/pressure as I tilt it down to about 80 degrees and the pen body is starting to rub on the tablet surface.
It’s not comfortable and it’s not sensible and I have to press hard but it does paint.
That is why I was surprised by this:
More details are needed.
1 Like
Wait, I’m confused 
The pen tilt angle is measured from the horizontal orientation, not vertical. 0 degrees would be flat on the tablet surface and 60 degrees is 30 degrees away from being ideally perpendicular.
(EDIT: my understanding was incorrect, here’s how it works, on Huion, at least).
Check this video from Wacom, how the lady in the video is holding the stylus: https://youtu.be/TBSZeelOgO8?si=_3B_o-A_fSfL_Ym4
This is basically why to me tilt is a gimmick 
I hold the pen rather lightly and almost vertically, because that grip gives the best pressure response. However, it’s also in the tilt’s dead zone. Even if tilt registers, it’s very jittery for this reason (I use Huion, by the way).
I use three fingers to hold the pen, but it’s not exactly like my traditional ballpoint grip. It’s more loose, and much more vertical.
My understanding of this is based on diagrams I saw advertising a Huion tablet
Huion Official Store: Drawing Tablets, Pen Tablets, Pen Display, Led Light Pad
I don’t think that Wacom video states anything about how the angle is measured.
Edit:Add: The Wacom website has a similar diagram:
https://www.wacom.com/en-gb/products/pen-tablets/wacom-intuos-pro#Specifications
Ooh maybe I’m misunderstanding this feature altogether. I thought that the purpose of tilt is to accurately detect the pen rotation around the Z axis (the up direction).
If the pen is perfectly perpendicular, there’s no angle to speak of, or rather all angles are effectively the same.
If tilt can affect something else, then maybe it really works as in the icons. My main complaint is related to the brush rotation.
1 Like
Apparently, stylus tilt can be used to affect many things:
I don’t have it so I don’t know what it can do or how it feels.
As I understand the situation, stylus ‘Rotation’ is measured about the stylus barrel axis and should be independent of tilt, I also understand that those are expensive.
I keep thinking about buying a Huion or XP Pen tablet with tilt sensitivity to try it but I don’t do proper painting anyway so I couldn’t justify buying one.
1 Like
I’m not sure how all of these inputs work, but using the built-in tablet tester, it seems there are two sensors: TX and TY, which is the measure of tilt in horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) direction (where XY is the plane of the tablet, and the Z axis is perpendicular to X and Y).
Each sensor can go from -60 to 60 (depending on whether we’re going in the -X or +X direction, for example). I guess this is where the “60” figure comes from. However, there’s a twist! Neither perfectly perpendicular or horizontal pen orientation is registering! It will clamp to 0 or 60 before that. It’s something like this, looking from the side:
However, the “stability” of the sensor is the best near 60 degrees, while near 0 degrees the jitter is the largest.
1 Like
That is disappointing. I can understand it clamping to 60 but that 0 clamping gives a dead zone about vertical.
I suppose that range has been determined to be the most normal and useful for drawing and painting for the majority of people?
1 Like
Thank you very much for all answers!
I made some tests and
When stylus is nearly paralel till around 30 degrees measured from the horizontal plane (tablet surface) it’s not drawing even if I abused the force
When I rotate it to be more vertical, everything is fine. It reacts to pressure and tilt, depends on the brush.
There is no rotation. I mean rotation of the stylus does not register nor changes anything.
I must practice to be able to use well, it’s really different than a real pencil!
There is no way to use it overhand, I switched to tripod grip.
Practice practice
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 4 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.