Touch Input

Touch Input

Multi-touch gestures, palm rejection and touch-friendly scrolling. Quick switches are in Window › Touch Input; everything else is in Window › Touch Input › Touch Input Settings….

On the canvas

Gesture	Does	Can change
Two fingers drag	Move (pan) the canvas	On or off
Pinch	Zoom around your fingers	On or off
Twist two fingers	Rotate the view	On or off
Quick two-finger tap	Undo (Ctrl+Z)	Any shortcut, a preset or Nothing
Quick three-finger tap	Redo (Ctrl+Shift+Z)	Any shortcut, a preset or Nothing
One finger	Draws and clicks like the pen	Move the canvas, or nothing (gestures only)

Pinch, twist and pan all work at once, and the picture stays under your fingers.

In Liquify (Filter › Liquify), the same two-finger gestures pan and pinch-zoom Liquify's preview instead of the canvas behind it, and a quick two-finger tap undoes the last Liquify stroke. The preview doesn't rotate (new in 0.16.0-4).

What one finger does (Window › Touch Input):

• Finger Draws: a finger paints and clicks like the pen.
• Finger Moves Canvas: a finger drags the canvas around; only the pen paints.
• Finger for Gestures Only: one finger does nothing on the canvas; only the pen paints.

A lone finger waits a tenth of a second before it starts a stroke, so a second finger landing with it starts a gesture instead of a stray mark.

Trackpad cursor

Off by default. Turn it on in Window › Touch Input › Trackpad Cursor.

Your finger moves an arrow cursor, like a laptop trackpad, instead of touching things directly. The arrow stays on screen like a mouse pointer, so your fingertip never covers what you're pointing at: small buttons, menu items, or the spot you're painting.

Do this	What happens
Slide one finger anywhere	The arrow moves by the same amount, from wherever it is. It never jumps to your finger.
Tap anywhere	Clicks where the arrow is
Tap twice quickly	Double-clicks where the arrow is
Hold one finger still	Right-clicks where the arrow is (a context menu, or the brush picker on the canvas)
Tap, then touch again and drag	Over the canvas or something that drags (a slider, a layer row): holds the button down while you drag. This is how you paint, move a layer or drag a slider. A ring at the arrow's tip shows while the button is held.
Tap a button or tool, then touch again and slide	Just moves the arrow, however quickly you touch again, so you can pick a tool and move straight on
Tap, then touch again and hold still	Over the canvas or something that drags: holds the button down where the arrow is
Two fingers moving together, arrow over the canvas	Pan, pinch to zoom and twist to rotate the canvas
Two fingers moving together, arrow over a panel or menu	Scroll it
Quick two- or three-finger tap on the canvas	Undo or redo (or their shortcuts), as without the cursor

Good to know:

• Hover works. Moving the arrow over a menu or button highlights it, as with a mouse, so you can see what you're about to tap.
• Clicks: over menus, panels and buttons a tap clicks at once. On the canvas the click waits a quarter of a second in case you're starting a drag, so a stroke doesn't begin with a dot.
• Dragging only starts where something drags. After a tap on a button, menu item or tool, the next touch moves the arrow; it never drags from the button (changed in 0.16.0-3).
• The pen still draws where it touches, and the arrow jumps to the pen.
• The Shortcut Pad works as usual: touching its keys never moves the arrow.
• Speed: Touch Input Settings… › Trackpad cursor › Speed (0.5× to 3×). Higher moves the arrow further for the same finger movement.
• Palm rejection still applies: while the pen is near, fingers are ignored.

Extra options

In Touch Input Settings… › Trackpad cursor. All are off until you turn them on:

Option	What it does
Acceleration	Quick swipes move the arrow further (up to 2.5 times), so it crosses the screen in one swipe; slow, careful moves stay one to one.
Rest one finger and move another to hold the button	Keep one finger still on the screen and move another: the button is held while it moves, so you can paint or drag without tap-then-drag. Lift either finger to let go. With this on, a pinch on the canvas with one finger kept still drags instead of zooming, so pinch with both fingers.
Two-finger tap right-clicks	A quick two-finger tap right-clicks where the arrow is, instead of undoing.

Finger pressure (experimental)

In Touch Input Settings… › Finger pressure, fingers can paint heavier when you press harder. Screens can't feel how hard a finger presses, but a finger pressed harder flattens and touches more of the glass, so PhotoCraft uses the size of the touch instead.

1. Tick Press harder to paint heavier.
2. Calibrate: touch the box below it lightly, then press firmly. That sets what a light touch and a firm press look like on your screen. Do it again any time.
3. Paint with a brush that uses pressure (size or opacity set to Pen Pressure).

The settings show what your screen reports for each touch (pressure, size and contact in pixels) and the pressure it gives. If the contact number barely changes when you press harder, finger pressure won't be useful on that screen. Some screens don't report the size of a touch at all; a message says so. It works with the trackpad cursor off or on.

Palm rejection

On by default (Window › Touch Input › Palm Rejection). While the pen is touching or hovering near the screen, fingers and palms are ignored, and a pen touching down drops any fingers already resting on the screen. Rest your hand while you draw.

Palm rejection relies on the pen being seen: a palm that lands well before the pen comes near counts as a finger until the pen touches down.

Menus, panels and lists

• Swipe to scroll menus, panels and lists. A flick keeps gliding.
• Two fingers scroll anything that scrolls (can be turned off).
• Brushes, Layers and preset lists: swiping up or down scrolls the list. To reorder, hold the row still for a moment, then drag. A sideways drag moves a slider in a row.
• The options bar (the bar along the top with the tool's settings): when it's wider than the screen, swipe sideways to see the rest. Hold a control still for a moment, then drag, to work a slider or number field.

Right-click

Hold a finger still on a button, tab, panel or layer for a moment to right-click it. See Right-Click.

Settings

Window › Touch Input › Touch Input Settings…:

• One finger on the canvas: draw, move the canvas, or nothing.
• Trackpad cursor: on or off, its speed, acceleration, resting a finger to hold the button, and two-finger tap to right-click. See Trackpad cursor.
• Finger pressure (experimental): on or off, the live readout and the calibration box. See Finger pressure.
• Two fingers on the canvas: drag to move, pinch to zoom, twist to rotate (each on or off).
• Taps on the canvas: the shortcut for the two-finger and three-finger taps.
• Palm rejection.
• Two fingers scroll menus, panels and lists.
• Hold a finger still to right-click.
• Pen buttons: see Pen Support.
• Restore Defaults.