Master FR: Pen, Stylus, Handwriting, and Drawing Tablet Support (Apple Pencil, Surface Pen, Wacom, S Pen, etc.)

[zsviczian]

Scope and Purpose

This issue is the master tracking issue for requests and discussion about using Obsidian Excalidraw with pens, styluses, and drawing tablets, including:

• Apple Pencil + iPad
• Surface Pen or Slim Pen
• Samsung S Pen & other Android stylus devices
• Wacom and other graphic drawing tablets
• E-ink stylus devices
• Freehand note-taking, handwriting, and diagramming with digital pens

If you are opening a new issue about a pen, stylus, or handwriting device, please check here first and comment if your concern is not already covered.

This issue is intended to centralize pen/tablet support discussion at a high level.
Some subtopics now have their own dedicated tracking issues:

• FR: Graphics Tablet + Pen: Improved Zoom and Canvas Navigation Ergonomics #2774 — Graphics Tablet + Pen: Improved Zoom and Canvas Navigation Ergonomics
• FR: Improved Pen Width and Writing Ergonomics (Thin Strokes, Handwriting, Customization) #2775 — Improved Pen Width and Writing Ergonomics (Thin Strokes, Handwriting, Customization)

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Maintainer Position & Constraints

• Native, platform-specific features requiring proprietary SDKs (e.g. Apple Pencil tap, Surface eraser/side buttons) will not be implemented unless exposed by Obsidian itself.
• Improving handwriting/pen experience must avoid deepening or custom-forking Excalidraw, to preserve future updates and maintainability.
• Potential directions for handwriting improvement (e.g. stroke smoothing like the old Excalidraw laser pointer: laser_pointer repository) depend on upstream Excalidraw and may be limited.
• Requests for smaller pen width are now tracked separately in FR: Improved Pen Width and Writing Ergonomics (Thin Strokes, Handwriting, Customization) #2775.
• Graphics-tablet zoom and pen-first navigation ergonomics are now tracked separately in FR: Graphics Tablet + Pen: Improved Zoom and Canvas Navigation Ergonomics #2774.

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Frequently Reported Aspects

Latency / Smoothness / Sampling Rate

This section covers performance, handwriting quality, lag, stroke skipping, and similar device/input experience issues.

• SUPPORT: Surface input latancy #2329 Surface input latancy
• FR: Microsoft Ink Performance #2261 Microsoft Ink Performance
• Potential solution for pen tool lag in documents with many elements #1656 Pen tool lag in documents with many elements
• BUG: Severe Lag/Pen skipping when using iPad #1591 Severe Lag/Pen skipping when using iPad
• BUG: Poor Freehand Stroke Sampling Rate on E-Ink Android Tablet with Wacom Digitizer #1340 Poor Freehand Stroke Sampling (e-ink Wacom)
• On Android tablets, excalidraw stutters and I have to wait a long time for the keyboard to go away #874 Android tablets stutter
• Drawing in Excalidraw Is Very Laggy Since Obsidian 1.0.0 #865 Drawing is very laggy
• Latency when using a Wacom drawing tablet (CTL-4100WL) #797 Latency using Wacom
• iPad + Apple Pencil has bad lagging #635 iPad + Apple Pencil lag
• Performance Issues with Pen Use & Bug with Opacity Button #485 Performance Issues with Pen Use
• BUG: Excalidraw freezes on iPad when lots of objects on canvas and user zooms to see the entire image #938 iPad freeze with large/zoomed canvas

Palm Rejection / Touch Conflicts / Gesture Bugs

This section covers touch/palm conflicts, pen mode behavior, long-press interactions, and gesture interpretation.

• FR: actually prevent touch in pen mode #1556 Actually prevent touch in pen mode
• BUG: Context Menu Keeps Opening when Palm Touches Tablet Screen when Drawing #1326 Context menu opens when palm touches
• BUG: Pinch zoom in pen mode sometimes leaves unwanted strokes #1701 Pinch zoom leaves strokes
• Mobile QoL Improvement: Don't open context menu on pen long press #2111 Don't open context menu on pen long press
• BUG: When you use a touch screen such as an iPad, after activating the pen tool, slide up and down with two fingers without following your hand #1554 Issues with two-finger gestures on touch screens
• FR: IPad Pen functionality #2765 iPad pen gestures/selection issues
• FR: When auto draw for Pen is enabled, also disable pinch to zoom #1113 Auto draw for pen disables pinch to zoom

Hardware Buttons / Eraser / Native Features

This section covers hardware eraser behavior, pen buttons, and vendor-specific pen interactions.

• BUG: Surface pen hardware eraser support #1335 Surface pen hardware eraser
• Pen Eraser Functionality #783 Pen Eraser Functionality
• BUG: Hardware Eraser script and Auto Draw for pen script not working #1088 Hardware Eraser script doesn't work
• Activating eraser while holding one button on a stylus #598 Activating eraser with stylus button
• BUG: The double tap with the pen is not working propertly in Windows 11. #1827 Double tap not working on Win11
• [Feature Request] Double tap Apple pencil to switch between drawing and erasing #562 Double tap Apple pencil to switch between drawing and erasing

Note: Native vendor-specific SDK features such as Apple Pencil double tap or Surface-specific side-button behavior will not be supported unless Obsidian exposes them to plugins in a sustainable way.

Pen Width / Handwriting Ergonomics

Primary tracking issue: #2775

Use #2775 for:

• thinner pen widths
• finer stroke control
• handwriting ergonomics
• custom pen minimum size
• pressure/thickness expectations tied to writing feel

Related issues:

• BUG: Pen thickness issue on android #2504 Pen thickness issue on android
• BUG: In my computer's Excalidraw, the pressure sensitivity function of my Wecom tablet's pen has disappeared. #1231 Pressure sensitivity gone on Wacom/Writing tablet
• Is pressure sensitivity expected to work when using a stylus? #612 Pressure sensitivity expected to work when using a stylus?
• BUG: Changing some pen settings for custom pens does nothing #1336 Changing some pen settings for custom pens does nothing
• BUG: Inconsistent pen thickness on Mobile  #1610 Inconsistent pen thickness on Mobile
• BUG: Pen Tool Bug-Property Settings Reverting to Defaults #1592 Pen tool property reverting to defaults
• BUG: Custom Pens keep the latest pen preference #1089 Custom pens keep latest preference

Cursor / Offset / Device Mapping Issues

This section covers cursor placement, disappearing cursors, mapping/alignment problems, and other tablet interaction oddities.

• FR: Customizable pen mode cursors #1903 Customizable pen mode cursors
• BUG: Crosshair disappears when drawing, even with the "show (+) crosshair in pen mode" toggle ON. #1909 Crosshair disappears when drawing
• BUG: Crosshair cursor does not show up in the correct spot using Wacom One tablets #1755 Crosshair misaligned with Wacom One
• BUG: Cursor/tools break if pen leaves drawing tablet mid-task #2106 Cursor breaks if pen leaves tablet
• BUG: Cursor disappearing and not re-appearing after using drawing tablet #2281 Cursor disappears with tablet
• When using pen drawing is offset #573 Pen drawing offset
• BUG: Using a Graphic Tablet gets often stuck in the 'Click and Drag' mode #1536 Graphic tablet stuck in click-and-drag
• BUG: Pen moving canvas instead drawing #2201 Pen moves canvas instead of drawing (sometimes)

Graphics Tablet Zoom / Navigation Ergonomics

Primary tracking issue: #2774

Use #2774 for:

• graphics tablet zoom workflows
• pen-first navigation ergonomics
• one-handed zoom/pan interactions
• Photoshop/PureRef-style canvas navigation

Related issues:

• BUG: Pen moving canvas instead drawing #2201 Pen moves canvas instead drawing (related)
• BUG: Cursor/tools break if pen leaves drawing tablet mid-task #2106 Cursor/tools break if pen leaves tablet mid-task (related)

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How to Use This Issue

• Use Master FR: Pen, Stylus, Handwriting, and Drawing Tablet Support (Apple Pencil, Surface Pen, Wacom, S Pen, etc.) #2773 for broad pen/stylus/tablet support discussion and high-level tracking.
• Use FR: Graphics Tablet + Pen: Improved Zoom and Canvas Navigation Ergonomics #2774 for graphics-tablet zoom and navigation ergonomics.
• Use FR: Improved Pen Width and Writing Ergonomics (Thin Strokes, Handwriting, Customization) #2775 for pen-width and handwriting ergonomics.
• Platform-specific bug reports may still exist, but duplicate or fragmented discussion should be consolidated into the appropriate master issue.

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Please Comment Below If…

• you have additional pen/stylus/tablet use cases not yet captured,
• you want to report another broad category of pen support problems,
• you want to help group remaining duplicates into the right tracking issue.