Stylus for desktop touch screen monitor?

AuntieParticle

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I have an Acer T232HL touch screen monitor and I would like to get as stylus to use with it. I would love to paint and draw with a stylus in Photoshop and ArtRage. Does such a thing exist yet? Are there different types?
 

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I highly doubt a touchscreen monitor which is meant for finger touch moving around an OS will have anywhere near the capabilities of an effective stylus usable device, although someone can surely prove it to me if I'm wrong.
A wacom tablet and/or display has over 2000 pressure levels and supports a 60-ish degree tilt of the stylus pen, which is what makes it so effective for digital drawing/painting and or photo retouch, and is combined with a pretty robust software driver for detecting drawing tip vs. eraser end of the stylus, among all the other adjustments. A touch screen monitor is a touch sensitive screen meant for finger presses and swipes.
 

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As symbiont says, the precision of a touch based device is typically pretty poor because it's designed to allow large finger sized input. There are styluses available, you can get one online anywhere. In order to get more precision, you need a screen that is designed for stylus input (like some of the new phones have).
 

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I would recommend Wacom styluses as they seem to know what they're doing with them. I've seen some styluses that have interchangeable tips for more precision. It might depend on your display though.

Personally, I don't like rubber tipped styluses, as it just feels weird and sometimes you might be dragging a window or something like that, and it lifts off slightly. I'd go with one that isn't rubber tipped preferably.
 

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Most Wacom, unless I'm mistaken, require a certain technology in the screen to react to it. The stylus has circuitry inside that the screen reacts to. Maybe some are not that way???? don't know for sure.
 

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Thanks everyone for all the comments and suggestions. I have tried an inexpensive rubber tipped stylus I had around the house and it did not work very well for drawing or painting. Though it worked fine for navigation. I have also tried just painting and drawing on the touch screen monitor with my finger and that did not work out very well either. So for the time being, I think for actual art work I will stick to my graphics tablet. I think I will enjoy choosing tools and using pinch and zoom on the screen as I work though. I do hope that someday someone will come up with a stylus that will work with the touch screen monitors well enough for art. It would seem so natural to paint directly on the monitor as though it was a canvas.

If anyone does discover a stylus that really will work in this way I'll love hearing about it :)
 

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You might ask at Art Rage's website where the artist are, they may have discovered something. I also have a smaller around rubber ended stylus that I have not tried except for navigation that has a harder tip so you might keep your eyes at the looking around business :)

ArtRage Forums
 

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there are combination screens with both capacitive and a wacom active digitizer layers, as seen on some Tablet PCs. They never took off because of how expensive they made the laptops. People already balked at paying a couple hundred more for the resistive/wacom screen. And then tack on the expense of the capacitive screen and it became a very niche market for the rich people.

if you wait, there will eventually be some of these screens for the desktop as the market gets bigger and people transition to touchscreens. on the desktop, more people are willing to spend money than in the laptop market.
 

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if you wait, there will eventually be some of these screens for the desktop as the market gets bigger and people transition to touchscreens. on the desktop, more people are willing to spend money than in the laptop market.

No need to wait if you want to spend $2500. Wacom already has Cintiq's and has had them for years. I doubt the $200-$400 general use desktop touchscreen market will reach a point that it can even compete with the quality of a Cintiq for a serious artist, for years if at all. Personally, I've used the Cintiq's and got annoyed with fingerprints and/or my hand being in the way, the same reasons I wouldn't buy a touchscreen monitor to use as a serious desktop tool - just what I want to do is stare at fingerprints and swipes on a 24-30 inch screen all day, or resort to having to constantly clean them. IMO, separate tablet always wins.
 

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just because fingerprints annoy you doesn't mean it annoys everyone. keep clean hands.

what I mean by waiting is waiting for the cost to go down. costs always go down as the technology becomes popular in the marketplace.
 

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if you wait, there will eventually be some of these screens for the desktop as the market gets bigger and people transition to touchscreens. on the desktop, more people are willing to spend money than in the laptop market.

No need to wait if you want to spend $2500. Wacom already has Cintiq's and has had them for years. I doubt the $200-$400 general use desktop touchscreen market will reach a point that it can even compete with the quality of a Cintiq for a serious artist, for years if at all. Personally, I've used the Cintiq's and got annoyed with fingerprints and/or my hand being in the way, the same reasons I wouldn't buy a touchscreen monitor to use as a serious desktop tool - just what I want to do is stare at fingerprints and swipes on a 24-30 inch screen all day, or resort to having to constantly clean them. IMO, separate tablet always wins.
Unless if you consistently have the screen off most of the time, finger prints and smudges don't show very well when the screen is on, unless if you ate your dinner on it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    Crosshair V Formula-Z
    Memory
    16 gig DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS R9 270
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Seagate Barracuda (starting to hate Seagate)
    x2 3 TB Toshibas
    Windows 8.1 is installed on a SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
    PSU
    OCZ 500 watt
    Case
    A current work in progres as I'll be building the physical case myself. It shall be fantastic.
    Cooling
    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Touch Mouse
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, but I might go back on KIS 2014
I like the Adonit Jot stylus. It does NOT have a rubber tip and has low friction. Also it does NOT leave smudges...
 

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    Realtek High Definition Audio
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    11.6" touch screen w/ digitizer & Asus 27" external monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
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    256 GB SSD
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    Internal fan
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    Slider keyboard
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    Logitech T650 Touchpad & Microsoft Touch Mouse
I like the Adonit Jot stylus. It does NOT have a rubber tip and has low friction. Also it does NOT leave smudges...
I see Amazon offered these for sale. They look pretty interesting. Have you tried the Adonit Jot stylus with a full size touch screen monitor and Windows 8, as opposed to a tablet or smartphone?
 

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I see Amazon offered these for sale. They look pretty interesting. Have you tried the Adonit Jot stylus with a full size touch screen monitor and Windows 8, as opposed to a tablet or smartphone?

Wow Auntie, good question! No I haven't used one on a touch screen monitor, but only on an iPad and Samsung slate. Actually I've never even demoed a touch screen monitor. My second favorite stylus is the Wacom Bamboo which has a rubber tip. But it leaves smudges.

There are some gestures that require more than one finger, which makes a stylus useless. I've resigned myself to using fingers on my iPad and use LCD cleaner and cloth sold by Monster. The only use for a stylus on a capacitive screen, IHMO, is for handwriting.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Duo 11
    CPU
    i7
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    11.6" touch screen w/ digitizer & Asus 27" external monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    256 GB SSD
    Cooling
    Internal fan
    Keyboard
    Slider keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech T650 Touchpad & Microsoft Touch Mouse
I have written an email to Adonit and asked about using the Jot Pro stylus with a full size touch screen monitor. Their response was that it should work with any capacitive touch screen. So, I have decided to be the guinea pig on this and have ordered one from Amazon. I'll let you know how it works on my Acer t232hl monitor when I have received it and have used it a bit.
 

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  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro x64
I have received my Adonit Jot Pro stylus and have been using it with my Windows 8 Acer t232hl touch screen monitor. It works reasonably well for some things and not so well for other things. I can navigate both the start screen and the desktop with the Jot in the same way I would use my finger. Navigation feels smoother with the stylus than with my finger because the Jot glides across the glass more smoothly. Of course pinch and zoom and other gestures, meant for more that one finger, do not work with the Jot.

I have tried out a few art programs. Some of them respond very well and others do not. Even though it is possible to sketch/draw/paint with the stylus there is no pressure sensitivity - which is not at all surprising. Adobe Photoshop CS4 worked pretty well with the stylus but Adobe Illustrator CS4 doesn't respond well at all. Newer versions of the Adobe products may work better but I don't own them. Autodesk Sketchbook Pro works quite well with the stylus though I sometime have to tap a brush tool twice for it to activate the new brush. I was surprised at how badly ArtRage Pro worked with the stylus since ArtRage does make some touch enabled products. It's important that all the programs that did poorly with the stylus also worked poorly with my finger. So, it's not the stylus working with the touch screen monitor that's the problem, it's that the software isn't up to the task.

I have been trying to find a note taking app or program to test the Jot on but didn't have very much luck. I tried using Windows Journal and it worked okay but not great. The stylus moves smoothly and there are no breaks in the flow of the writing but I really have to exaggerate my handwriting to get words that are legible. I could not find a single Windows 8 store app that is made for handwriting notes. Perhaps one will come along in the future. If you know of one please let me know.
 

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until Adobe updates for more touch usability, there are limits to what we can do. but now that touch screens are becoming more popular, they now have the pressure to upgrade.

can't wait to get rid of the zoom tool and just be able to pinch to zoom.
 

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    Windows 8.1 Pro
Here's my 2 cents. I've been hitting up various forums that tackle this exact situation and have what I consider to be an almost fix.

The Computer to get is :

Asus N550JV :
4GB Dedicated Graphics, 8 to 16 GB Ram, 4th Gen i7 Quad Core processor and 15.6 inch 10 point Multi-Touch Capacitive Display.

The only thing it is missing is the pen.

The notebook is well built so that you can turn it around to have the screen where keyboard normally goes and keyboard of cause where the display normally goes.. giving you a 15.6 inch multi-touch surface. key is to keep the keyboard at 90 degrees to the display so it's weight does not put stress onto the hinge. the hinge is well built though being the full length of the display nearly.

So to solve the final piece to the puzzle and provide a device that has way more power for the affordable price of $1400 including shipping (Australian Dollars that is)

1. Leap Motion .. they have an app that will allow you pressure sensitivity in Photoshop though it's not too accurate from reviews I've read it does at least give this option.... cost including the hardware and app = approx $110.00 USD

2. Adonit or JaJa.. both companies claim that a Windows solution is in the ToDo list yet neither have stepped up to produce it yet. The more pressure we put on them the sooner we will get our pen. (Both are around $100 USD)

3. Pressure Pen.. this is an open source project.. and they are looking for someone to port the drivers over to work with Windows.. I've contacted them to see if they can help me to work at this with others.. no response yet.

4. iPen 2.. This pen does NOT work with any display other than the iMac .. though it might.. the developer just doesn't want to say it will when it won't as every display is different.. but if it does work with the display on the n550.. we're in business for a price of $150 USD approx. plus shipping

5. Adobe are in the process of manufacturing a pen that does EXACTLY what we want though it will likely only work with Adobe Photoshop lol.. but hey it's better than nothing if the price is right.. it could work good enough to get you up and running.. Project Mighty is it's name if memory serves me well.

6. Wacom have released a software driven 2048 levels of pressure pen for IOS devices... uses Bluetooth 4.0 to connect and guess what the n550 comes with Bluetooth 4.0 so the only thing stopping it from working is the fact that Wacom are not porting their Windows Pressure driver to work with the device.

it's pure marketing BS and as soon as someone releases a Windows driver hack / port that makes the pen compatible it will be one of the leading options.. right up there with the ipen 2 (assuming we can find a way to make it work with the display) estimated price is $99 USD at the moment plus shipping


So in summary there are a lot of hopeful projects in the works with very real chances of being "The One".. it's just a waiting game and if you are able to get pressure pen sensitivity on a device with the specs as I listed for under $1600.00 AUD.. it is literally the best thing on the market and probably will be for the next 3 or so years unless tablet manufacturers kick Wacom's butt for making their hardware so expensive to incorporate into devices they make. Dedicated Graphics is a MUST for any serious work.. do not be fooled by the rubbish reviews out there.. Shared GPU or those Integrated Chips.. just don't cut serious professional 3D and 2D work.

Also, you definitely want a Quad Core at your disposal.. most of the devices that offer Wacom built in hardware only provide dual core if they do have dedicated graphics.

Hope this helps others and am happy if we can get more support.. I would recommend keeping up pressure on Addonit or JaJa to support Windows 7/8. I think that if they can .. they will be our best bet to get up and running.. though the iPen 2 does have the advantage of pinpoint tracking.. freedom from capacitive display and angle tracking as well.. just got to wait till it's released and test to see if it fits the display... cables on it are a little cumbersome but not the end of the world.
 

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  • OS
    Windows 8
Wow, Jax Cavalera, you have clearly looked into this. I'd say you've offered a lot more that 2 cents. ;)

I find myself in sort of a holding pattern as far as buying any new PCs at the moment. There are so many possibilities to consider that I feel I should wait for the dust to settle a bit before considering a larger purchase. But I agree that quad core (or more) is the way to go with Dedicated Graphics for serious work.

The stylus solutions all look interesting. I am disinclined to go for the Adobe pen or any product that is tied to a particular software. I'm very disappointed with Abobe going to a subscription based software model. It looks as though I'll be sticking with CS4 for a while, which is unfortunate since it is unlikely to get any improvement in respect to touch/stylus. I may end up looking back into GIMP in the future to see if they are moving in the direction of touch/stylus/Leap. I also like ArtRage very much for more natural media emulation.

I have been playing around with the Leap Motion controller with Windows 8 and I'm enjoying it for the most part. I can navigate Windows 8 using the Touchless app quite well. And I've been practicing using it with ArtRage and Photoshop. I think the app you're talking about that will work with Photoshop will not work with CS4 so it would cost me quite a bit more than the cost of the app and (my already purchased) Leap to get that going. So I think I'll stick with the Touchless combination for the time being. Painting with ArtRage is still rather a challenge using Leap but accessing the tools works very nicely.

My daughter has purchased an Adonit Touch that uses a Bluetooth connection for pressure sensitivity with her iPad Mini and she says she like it pretty well. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 that offers Wacom pressure sensitivity with the included S-pen. Wacom sells a nicer pen to go with Note that is larger and easier to hold, that I may get. But I am waiting for the Android version of ArtRage to be released first :).

I think these are very exciting times. There's a lot going on and new ways of doing thing are right around the corner. At the moment I'm just trying to be patient while trying out thing that aren't too costly.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro x64
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