How to configure right-click of active stylus pen

Support and Advice General Questions
1

Hi all.

I am using a windows 10 Dell tablet computer. I have an active Dell stylus. The stylus works and I can draw. But pressing the two buttons on the stylus does not bring up any options in Krita.

How can I configure one button to scroll/pan and the other button to undo? The stylus does not come with it’s own software to install in Windows 10 that I can configure, so I can only configure the settings in Krita.

Thanks in advance.

2

Do you get a proper pressure sensitivity response when drawing?

I have no experience of tablet computers with stylus on-screen action but I believe they are all Windows Ink standard devices.
The ‘Pen and Stylus’ settings of your Windows operating system may have options to set the action of those two buttons.
Or, your Dell may have a specific built-in settings utility for it.

Try typing the appropriate words in the search box of the main Windows menu to see what comes up.

For scroll/pan you need a middle-click and a Space chatacter should do it as well.
For Undo, you need Ctrl+Z, the usual Undo keyboard shortcut.

Krita will do what it’s told to do based on the signals it receives provided that it receives them.
It may be that the appropriate button signals are not received because the stylus/computer combination is not providing them.

You can check for button pressing detection by doing:
Settings → Configure Krita → Tablet Settings → Open Tablet Tester
then hover the stylus over the grid area and press the stylus buttons to see if you get a response.
You can also draw on the grid to observe and check the pressure signal.

Or, it may be that krita is not set to the correct interface standard.
Do Settings → Configure Krita → Tablet settings and see if Wintab or Windows Ink is selected on the options there.

Whatever it is try enabling the other one by clicking it then press OK and restart krita. See if that has helped with the butons and make sure that it hasn’t lost the pressure sensitivity.

If changing Wintab/Windows-Ink has no effect, set it to Windows Ink to be on the safe side.

1 Like
3

Thanks a lot for your thorough reply. :slight_smile:

Yes, I do get proper pressure sensitivity when drawing.

I will try to change the settings in Windows and hope for the best. :slight_smile:

4

Windows Pen Settings itself recognizes only one button (Pen Stettings or perhaps Windows-Ink or other similar descriptions on English Windows, I’m on German Windows and can only guess the translation). This can be assigned up to three actions, depending on the stylus used (single click, double click, long click). Therefore, I assumed that there must be settings from Dell for this, otherwise Dell would have added the second button for literally nothing. Therefore I searched the Dell homepage.
For the pens PN579X; PN557W; PN556W there is a driver software from Dell! Here are the links:

  1. Dell Active Pen - PN579X

  2. Dell Active Pen - PN557W

  3. Dell Active Pen - PN556W

for the Dell Active Pen - PN338M and Dell Active Pen - PN350M there is no driver software from Dell.

Michelist

Edit: small addendum

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There are also operating instructions to find:

  1. PenPN556W User’s Guide

  2. PN557W User’s Guide

  3. Pen PN579X User’s Guide

Edit:
4. Pen PN338M Quick Start Guide

I could only discover rudimentary information for the other styluses offered by Dell.

Michelist

1 Like
6

Thanks for your reply Michelist.

My stylus is a Dell PR77S, from 2015. It was originally made for the Dell Venue Pro 8 tablet running Windows 8.1. I upgraded the tablet to Windows 10 and Dell upgraded the bios of the tablet so that the stylus would work.

I am guessing that both the buttons on the stylus worked with 8.1 (without requiring software to be installed for the stylus) but that their functionality was lost with the upgrade to Windows 10.

Anyway, I will try all the suggestions when I have the time.

Thanks for all the replies :slight_smile:

EDIT; And I will report back if I manage to get it to work!

7

Your stylus was originally manufactured by Primax Electronics Ltd. and distributed by various companies (HP, ASUS, Dell…) as you can read in this german blog.
Dell says the company N-Trig produced the drivers for it until Microsoft bought the company.
Maybe you can find the right driver here. You will have to download the drivers (most probably the HID-drivers) and read their description to see if they are the right ones. :frowning: If you can’t get a driver to work, you will only be able to use one key, because Windows Ink only supports one key. Too bad actually.

Michelist

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