General FAQ

Is my tablet supported?

Verify if your tablet is in the list of supported tablets here. If it is not, you may do one of the following:

My tablet is supported but not detected?

OpenTabletDriver currently has no support for tablets connected via Bluetooth. Make sure that your tablet is connected via USB. There is partial support for tablets connected via wireless dongle.

Once plugged in, determine if your tablet has good connection to the computer:

  • Windows
    • Windows by default will play a sound when a device is plugged in. If you do not hear this sound, consider using a different port or replacing the cable (make sure the cable supports both power and data transfer).
  • Linux
    • Check this by running lsusb in a terminal or by watching the output of dmesg or udevadm monitor when plugging in the tablet.

Then check above if your tablet is supported. If it is and there are still problems, check the troubleshoot sections:

or alternatively, see if there is a tablet model specific FAQ for your tablet.

Where are my settings and plugins stored?

The following table describes the location of the default application data directory for each operating system:

Operating System Path
Windows %localappdata%\OpenTabletDriver
Linux ~/.config/OpenTabletDriver
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/OpenTabletDriver

The application data directory contents are as follows:

Entry Type Description
settings.json File Stores the driver settings
tablet-data.txt File Stores the recorded tablet data from Tablet Debugger
Logs Folder Contains up to 20 daemon logs in near-JSON format (more info)
Backup Folder Contains old versions of OpenTabletDriver and its settings
Cache Folder Contains cached metadata for the Plugin Manager
Plugins Folder Contains installed plugins (.dll files). This folder should not be modified manually.
Presets Folder Contains saved presets

My cursor is going crazy! It teleports everywhere!

This is caused by electromagnetic interference (EMI) from other devices. Make sure that the tablet is not near any of the following:

  • Powered cables (e.g. power cables, charging USB cables, etc.)
  • Powered mouse pads
  • Monitor
  • On top of the laptop’s keyboard

If certain that the tablet is not near any of the above, try replacing the pen. If the problem persists, replace the tablet. It’s broken!

I see two moving cursors when hovering my pen!

This is caused by another tablet driver running in the background. Make sure that you have uninstalled all other tablet drivers before using OpenTabletDriver.

Windows

Run TabletDriverCleanup to remove all other tablet drivers.

Linux

See here.

macOS

Uninstall any other tablet drivers you have installed.

Does OpenTabletDriver support pen pressure?

All of our supported tablets has full pen pressure support unless otherwise noted on the Tablets page.

However, to make the driver output the pressure to your operating system, you may need to perform some changes:

Operating System Wiki Link Notes
Windows Windows Ink A virtual device driver (VMulti) and the Windows Ink plugin is needed
Linux Artist Mode Built-in, simply change the output mode of OpenTabletDriver
MacOS unsupported This is a work in progress, and is expected with the 0.7 release of OpenTabletDriver

My area feels off after changing my monitor settings

With absolute outputs modes, OpenTabletDriver has to use your monitor layout to determine how to map your tablet to your monitor.

However, OpenTabletDriver does not currently get monitor layout updates dynamically, so any changes to the working dimensions of your monitor layout will require a daemon restart.

This means that doing any of the following will require you to restart OpenTabletDriver for the driver to function correctly with absolute output modes:

  • Plugging in or enabling a monitor
  • Unplugging or disabling a monitor
  • Changing the resolution of any of your monitors
    • Some applications (such as games) can change your resolution when the application uses exclusive fullscreen mode. Use either native fullscreen resolution or ‘borderless windowed’ mode instead.
  • Moving monitors around in the monitor layout
  • Rotating monitors in the monitor layout

After restarting the daemon, you should double check that the mapped tablet area is still set as intended.

This is a bug that is planned to be fixed. You can see the progress on GitHub here: OpenTabletDriver#1143

How to convert areas to and from OpenTabletDriver?

Conversion through the OpenTabletDriver UI

  • Right click the Tablet Area Editor
  • Click the Convert Item menu item
  • Select the OEM driver to convert from, then input the appropriate values to the converter

Conversion through manual calculation

Use this reference chart for the upcoming formulas:

Term Definition
Width The width of the area in millimeters
Height The height of the area in millimeters
TWidth The width of the tablet’s digitizer in millimeters. Can be found in the tablet’s configuration file.
THeight The height of the tablet’s digitizer in millimeters. Can be found in the tablet’s configuration file.
XOffset The X offset of the center of the area in millimeters
YOffset The Y offset of the center of the area in millimeters
LPI Lines per inch, this is commonly 5080 or 2540

TWidth and THeight can be found in the tablet’s configuration file.

Use the following formulas to get values for OpenTabletDriver’s area editor’s Width, Height, XOffset, and YOffset fields:

Wacom and Veikk

Term Definition
Left The number of lines from the left side of the tablet to the left side of the area
Top The number of lines from the top side of the tablet to the top side of the area
Right The number of lines from the left side of the tablet to the right side of the area
Bottom The number of lines from the top side of the tablet to the bottom side of the area

Formula:

Width   = (Right - Left) / LPI * 25.4
Height  = (Bottom - Top) / LPI * 25.4
XOffset = (Width  / 2) + (Left / LPI * 25.4)
YOffset = (Height / 2) + (Top  / LPI * 25.4)

XP-Pen

Term Definition
XPW The width in XP-Pen units. Denoted as W in XP-Pen’s official drivers.
XPH The height in XP-Pen units. Denoted as H in XP-Pen’s official drivers.
XPX The X offset of the top left corner of the area in XP-Pen units. Denoted as X in XP-Pen’s official drivers.
XPY The Y offset of the top left corner of the area in XP-Pen units. Denoted as Y in XP-Pen’s official drivers.

Formula:

Width   = XPW / 3.937
Height  = XPH / 3.937
XOffset = (Width  / 2) + (XPX / 3.937)
YOffset = (Height / 2) + (XPY / 3.937)

Huion and Gaomon

Term Definition
Left The percentage of the distance from the left side of the tablet to the left side of the area
Top The percentage of the distance from the top side of the tablet to the top side of the area
Right The percentage of the distance from the left side of the tablet to the right side of the area
Bottom The percentage of the distance from the top side of the tablet to the bottom side of the area

Formula:

Width   = (Right - Left) * TWidth
Height  = (Bottom - Top) * THeight
XOffset = (Width  / 2) + (Left * TWidth)
YOffset = (Height / 2) + (Top * THeight)