I recently bought a new computer, and was dismayed to find that my Cintiq 12WX developed the “jitter bug” when connected to the new system. This is an incredibly annoying problem that’s quite widespread — just Google “Cintiq jitter” and you’ll find numerous accounts of wobbly lines, and claims from dissatisfied customers that Wacom believes that the issue is unavoidable.
Here are some samples of the problem from my own computer using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2009:
No, the shakiness is not from my hand!
The problem, as it turns out, has to do with the Windows Vista/7 Tablet PC Input Service. I stumbled across this nugget in the SPB 2010 Readme file:
There are Vista performance issues due to a conflict between SketchBook Pro and Vista’s Input Services. These services automatically start up whenever a tablet driver is installed and interacts with the tablet for hand writing recognition and more. The services affect performance, the mapping of stylus buttons, and more. For ideal performance when using SketchBook, Input Services should be disabled.
I turned off this service, and voila! Nice, clean lines:
Here are Autodesk’s instructions for turning off the Tablet PC Input Service:
- Go to the Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools.
- Double-click the Services shortcut to open the Services window, which lists all the services available through Vista.
- Scroll down the list and right-click Tablet PC Input Service.
- Select Stop from the menu provided. Input Services is now disabled and your Wacom driver takes over.
I hope that Wacom and Microsoft can work together to solve this problem. It doesn’t bode well that I’m seeing it on Windows 7 RC (build 7100). I will do what I can to spread the word, starting with this blog post.
EDIT: I originally said that you could get around this problem by permanently disabling the Tablet PC Input Service, but that does not seem to be the case. I’ve discovered that I need to enable/disable it every time I boot my computer. I’m using the retail version of Windows 7 Ultimate now, and this is still an issue.
Hi,
Some additional info relating to this.
I've just upgraded to Windows 7 from XP and experienced the same jitter problem you describe. I'm a comic artist and use Sketchbook Pro 2 with a Cintiq 21UX. I found that disabling the service in the services menu didn't work for me (Could be a Windows 7 thing). However going into Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows Features On or Off and unticking the Tablet PC Components worked a treat. I also turned off the Press and Hold feature in Pen & Touch as this was causing some nasty lag.
Thought I'd post this here as Putting "Windows 7 Sketchup Wacom Jitter" into Goggle brought this blog up first, so this may help some folks with the same issue.
October 28, 2009 @ 12:47 am
Thanks so much Robert! That worked perfectly!
August 28, 2010 @ 12:14 am