Surface Pro 4 initial review reactions n stuff

Model: Surface Pro 4 i5 8gb

Drawing Program: Krita

Pros: Does everything I figured it would

Main Con: Screen size, awkwardness for longterm use

Other: pen pressure different, had to change settings in Krita

Conclusion: DEFINITELY GET THE TABLET PRO APP But basically if you’re deciding between a laptop, or cintiq, and you don’t need to do crazy heavy work I would highly recommend.

Long version:

Reasons I bought it: I lacked the ability to draw on a screen, but I also don’t own a laptop. I wanted to be able to work on art in more places than my desk but I also do design work for a Real Job and school and I wanted to be able to do those things with my boss and at school, and all the good things that are portable. The Cintiq companion doesn’t let you use photoshop away from your computer and the mobile studio is both expensive and bigger and more awkward and likely more powerful than I need. (i don’t do 3d work. 5zillion levels of pen pressure is overkill Wacom tone it down). After seeing decent reviews of the Surface for drawing and determining that it does work with Krita I decided it would be a good compromise between a decent laptop and a fancy drawing tablet. 

I get that good irs tax return so I bought my long dreamed for surface pro last week and I’ve been using it for the last few days. Overall, I really like it even though it’s still a little awkward for me to use it. Once I figured out how the fuck to make the pen pressure work (not even really sure how i did it, pretty sure was an act of God) it runs Krita great, faster than my pc even (Probably because I have nothing saved on it yet)

The main issue with using Krita is how fucking tiny all the icons are, like u need to really fucking concentrate, use your dex bonus for aiming, and roll higher than 15, to click on the little eye button next to a layer. Pretty sure theres nothing to be done about this. Second main issue is not having a keyboard (the keyboard cover is 100 bucks? #ThanksMicrosoft) A mouse would probably be useful as well but i bought the thing for portability. 

ANYWAY when trying to figure out how to make the pen pressure work, the Krita documentation very nicely pointed to the Tablet Pro app which has a tool called Artist Pad which adds customizable keyboard shortcuts to the screen similar to the buttons on the side of cintiqs. Figuring out the set up was a little confusing, but thankfully there���s plenty o’ tutorials on the Google and from digging around in the settings I discovered they even recently added a preset specifically for Krita! Thank god cuz I didn’t want to spend an hour making my own. It’s pretty good for my workflow as is, but it could use some more buttons. Theres a button for undo (of course), new layer, switch back to brush (clicking b), ctrl, shift, eraser mode, arrows to cycle through layers. There are a few more but those are the main ones I use. I’m on the trial of the app right now but I will likely end up buying it because it’s so dang useful, and I don’t want to always have the keyboard in my lap even after I get one.

So, about the pen pressure. It didn’t register in Krita. I downloaded the drivers the documentation said to, tried both versions, still didn’t work. Uninstalled Krita. Downloaded the portable version of krita. Didn’t see a different. Left it there, reinstalled the regular version. Also downloaded photoshop (some one in a forum said doing this made the win drivers work for some reason) after the last two steps it magically worked. Think I ended up with 64bit win driver installed. Not sure if photoshop did the trick, or having both versions of Krita. There’s nothing on the krita website that says which one you should download or the difference, think one just isn’t the installer sooo?? Regardless, I’m just glad it works now. 

That being said, the pen feels a little “harder” than what I’m used to pressure wise. Meaning I have to press down harder to get darker lines, and I’m used to sketching pretty lightly. And you can’t calibrate the sensitivity in the system settings like you can for wacom tablets. I’m not sure if this is a function of the pen it’s self being less sensitive or just different than my personal settings for intuos or even just how it’s mapped to Krita. Ultimately, it’s not a problem because I can change the sensitivity in Krita (thanks Krita ur da best). All I did was go in configure krita>tablet settings then move the low end of the curve up the y axis so that it’s more opaque for less pressure. (This makes sense if you’ve seen the settings thing trust me)

Surprisingly, I also found my lines to a be a little wobblier even though I have over all more control on where they go. I ended up turning on the stabilizer for line art (tool settings. unchecked delay, set to 100 or so). But that’s fine because my line art looks better now B)  don’t need the stabilizer for painting

Other general things: the thing gets warm pretty fast specially if it’s plugged in. I ended up turning off the login pin thing because it’s too annoying, but it still tries to recognize my face even tho i can just swipe the screen away?? the fan turns on pretty quickly as well. The little kick stand is really great and sturdy. How ever I find myself wishing I had it on a desk or stand or something to make it face height so I don’t have to hunch over. That’s just a function of the size I know, but it’s really the only uncomfortable thing about using it. So if you’re already a cool kid who has a big ass cintiq and you’re used to it, using this little baby probably won’t replace your workstation. HOWEVER it’s a very functional tool, and infinitely more portable than any cintiq product. ALSO it can actually plug in and be used like a second monitor, so other than the size difference, it’s like having a cintiq that is also it’s own computer. (note: I haven’t tried this yet cuz u need another chord but it is A Thing. Will update if I do)

So I think that’s it! Overall I really like drawing on it. Makes me feel fancy. Does anyone else use a Surface to draw? Let me know if you have any tips!