Can Anybody Confirm Better Stylus Precision After Feb Update?

[GoodBytes]

Yes, I did find the link, but I recall I had to do some registry procedure before hand and I did modify the command line so that the pen is best calibrated but at the same time, be able to reach edge to edge the screen.
I am doing some tests on my side, and actually I am implementing it in my soon to be finish Surface Tweak Tool, so that it's a click/tap solution for everyone convince.
In fact it's all done as we speak, I am just stuck at figuring out, strangely enough, how to execute the calibration. Once I figure it out, test, and everything works, it will be out. Maybe tonight, as I need to head out to work.

 

[jrapdx]

Yes, I did find the link, but I recall I had to do some registry procedure before hand and I did modify the command line so that the pen is best calibrated but at the same time, be able to reach edge to edge the screen.
I am doing some tests on my side, and actually I am implementing it in my soon to be finish Surface Tweak Tool, so that it's a click/tap solution for everyone convince.
In fact it's all done as we speak, I am just stuck at figuring out, strangely enough, how to execute the calibration. Once I figure it out, test, and everything works, it will be out. Maybe tonight, as I need to head out to work.

FWIW, I'd found that site last month: [HOW TO] PROPERLY calibrate your PEN and fix those stupid corners (273 test points) - Page 4 - xda-developers

I went through the whole drill, including the registry changes. I carefully followed the instructions, trying to hit each vertex precisely. There's the rub, it's considerably harder to do accurately than in theory it ought to be.

The outcome? I'm not really sure how much improvement it gave me. Currently, newest FW and all, the two pens I have (OEM MS 1-button, and a Fuji 2-button model) give similar results. In the upper left corner, the screen marker is about 1.5mm "southeast" of the pen tip (with the pen perpendicular to the screen).

The crux of the matter is that the distance between pen tip and white spot reflects the angle of the pen relative to the screen surface. Obviously a hand-held pen will be positioned variably as it's used to draw or write, but calibration can't take this into account except very generally.

In other words, calibrating the pen while it is held in human hands is intrinsically inexact. The little white dot is there for a reason.

 

[GoodBytes]

Correct.
However, it is where you see if the calibration is good enough.
If you write, you won't see any issue, assuming you did the calibration correctly, of course.
I calibrate mine with an offset to the center point of the cross hair, to the right, so that the tip indicator is shifted a few pixels so that its more like a real pen, and not the actual area of the pen that touches.

 

[macmee]

Recently I've noticed my alignment is (for some reason) SIGNIFICANTLY worse than it used to be. Calibrating hasn't fixed it

 

[jrapdx]

Correct.
However, it is where you see if the calibration is good enough.
If you write, you won't see any issue, assuming you did the calibration correctly, of course.
I calibrate mine with an offset to the center point of the cross hair, to the right, so that the tip indicator is shifted a few pixels so that its more like a real pen, and not the actual area of the pen that touches.

Yes, "good enough" is the key. Calibration can be "close", but not "precise" in the sense of being consistently within very small limits.

The pen technology makes it sensitive to the angle it is applied to the screen. That may not be a big problem with handwriting, since the pen will likely be held in a pretty predictable way (at least by a particular user).

However attempting to edit a photographic image is a different matter. Much more likely the user's grip on the pen will vary as the pen is employed for different purposes or techniques. I've found it much harder to calibrate the pen for such uses.

It may be that image editors have not yet been updated for optimum use with the SP2's interface, and as apps improve there will be less difficulty. And I admit there's a learning curve for me as well: drawing on a 10in tablet is different than using a classic Wacom drawing tablet and a standard monitor.

 

[Renigami]

This is the reason why one of the things I would like to see in the Surface Pro 3, would be pen tilt recognition (and pen barrel rotate recognition). These options are only available on things like Wacom's Intuos line, Cintiq monitor lines, and Cintiq Companion lines. I am happy with the pressure sensitivity, but if there could be more, I would like it as well.

Until then, the update does fix the edges for me, the corners still drift though in the upper left and right corners after recalibrating using the Wacom driver utility.

 

[GoodBytes]

Enjoy guys!

Surface Tweak Tool
http://www.surfaceforums.net/forum/...surface-tweak-tool-surface-pro-2-release.html

 

[tinycg]

Thanks GoodBytes I'll give this a try. REALLY appreciate the effort on this.

 

[GoodBytes]

Thanks. Had a bumpy release, here is the link to download it:
http://www.surfaceforums.net/forum/...k-tool-surface-pro-2-release-3.html#post55120
(it will be on main post as soon as I get some people confirming that it now all fully work).