Book › Pen & pressure
Pen & pressure
Draw with a stylus and let pressure and tilt shape every mark.
What it does
With a pressure-sensitive pen (Apple Pencil, Wacom, Surface Pen…), Nekudot reads pressure, tilt and the pen's lean direction on every point of a stroke, and can bind them to the things you'd otherwise set with sliders: stroke size, opacity - even how the connecting web grows. A mouse, trackpad or finger draws exactly as before; nothing changes unless a real pen is on the canvas.
The Pen section
Every brush has a Pen section in its settings panel (press b). The bindings are per-brush, so your Marker can respond differently than Web, and they're remembered like every other setting.
- Pressure → size
- Press harder for a wider mark. On by default. The Size slider stays the maximum - a feather touch draws at about 15% of it, full pressure reaches it exactly.
- Pressure → opacity
- Press harder for a stronger mark, fading down to nearly transparent at a feather touch. The Opacity slider is the maximum.
- Tilt → size / Tilt → opacity
- The flatter you hold the pen, the bigger or stronger the mark - like shading with the side of a pencil. A vertical pen draws at the minimum. Tilt and pressure multiply when both are bound.
- Pressure → web density / web radius
- On connecting brushes (Web, the Eraser), pressure can drive the connecting web itself: press harder and the web grows denser and reaches further; glide lightly and it thins to nothing.
- Chisel follows pen Marker
- The Marker's chisel nib rotates with the direction the pen leans, like a real calligraphy marker - smoothed so the nib holds steady and rides briefly through vertical instead of snapping. On by default; with a mouse (or a perfectly vertical pen) the nib keeps its fixed Nib angle.
- Smoothing
- Evens out sensor wobble so pressure, tilt and the Marker's nib direction read as one confident mark. 0 follows the raw samples instantly, 100 is heaviest; the default sits at 65. Lower it if the response feels laggy, raise it if marks look jittery. (For path wobble, the Marker also has its own Streamline dial.)
- Response
- The pressure curve. Low values make a light touch count for a lot (soft); high values demand a firm hand before the mark grows. The midpoint (50) is the natural default. Shapes tilt the same way.