Wacom pen problem on a new Mac

[Fredbt]

Hi, I just joined yesterday. I'm a retired illustrator and I have been using Macintosh computers since they were first introduced in the mid 1980's. The same with Painter and the Wacom tablet. I bought Painter version 1 from its originator, Fractal Design, and have used Painter through all of its many owners and upgrades.

Although I own Painter 8 and have a trial version of Painter IX, I much prefer Painter 7 and have been importing my very old Painter Classic 1.0.1 brushes because they are the very best Painter brushes ever made, in my opinion.

I recently bought a new Intel Mac Pro computer and two 23 inch Apple Cinema Displays - the illustrator's dream set-up. (In my mind anyway).

Here is my problem: Painter 7 opens and works fine on my new Mac, but the Wacom pen won't apply any paint. I can apply paint with the mouse, but not the pen. I've never seen anything like this before. I've contacted Wacom and they suggested a new tablet driver and I installed that. It doesn't help.

Wacom suggested I contact Corel. I haven't done that because I know they'll say, "Upgrade to a newer version of Painter." I hate Painter 8 and IX. I want to use Painter 7.

If anybody has any suggestions, I'd appreciate the input. I'm at my wits end with this problem.

Probably most of you are using Windows, but I though I'd try anyway.

Thanks.

Fred

[Jin]

Hi Fred,

Simple things sometimes work, so I'll ask a few questions:

Have you restored all brush variants in the currently loaded brush library to their default state?

Closed Painter?

Rebooted?

Launched Painter again, and tested your brushes to see if they work?

Also, have you read my list of things to do to keep Painter 6, Painter 7, and Painter 8 running smoothly? Something in that list might help, or a combination of things might help.

It's the Sticky thread at the top of the Painter forum list of threads.


If none of this helps, try posting your message in the Corel Painter newsgroups:

Add Server: cnews.corel.com

Subscribe to:

c.Painter
c.PainterIX

I suggest posting in both newsgroups to have the best chance of finding someone who can help, maybe someone who uses (or has used) Painter 7 and has a lot of experience.


Good luck!

[Fredbt]

Thanks for the reply, Jinny. Yes, I've tried everything in my efforts to get Painter 7 working. In fact, it was reading your post "Keeping Painter 6, Painter 7, and Painter 8 Running Smoothly" that made me decide to join this forum. This is a brand new 2.66 GHz dual core Mac with with 2 gigabytes of RAM, and I always keep my computer in the best condition possible so I know that isn't the problem. Painter 7 ran perfectly on my 7 year old Mac 450 MHz G4 with only 512 MB of RAM.

I've reinstalled Painter 7 twice now with no improvement. The pen still doesn't work.

I feel something in Painter 7 isn't working with the Intel processor in the new Mac Pro. I have the same Mac OS X system software in my Mac PowerBook and Painter 7 still works great there, but I don't want to paint on my portable computer and let my huge investment in the Mac Pro and two new monitors go to waste.

Thanks for the links to the other forums. I'll try those.

[prs5]

Fredbt, I just bought a new iMac and installed Painter 7 on it, and I now have the exact same problem. It won't apply the paint anymore just like you said. It worked great on my old G4, but now I'm not sure what to do....

Its been about a month since the last post about this issue. Has anyone by chance found a solution?

Thanks!

[Fredbt]

Sorry, Paul, I haven't found an answer. At first I thought it was the new Intel processor, but I've now concluded it has to be Mac OS X 10.4.8. I thought Painter 7 was working on my G4 PowerBook, but I was mistaken. It doesn't work there either.

In the meantime, I found an old set of Intous brushes that are the same as the brushes I used in Painter 7. I loaded those into Painter 8 and a trial copy of Painter IX and they work in both of those versions, so I can at least paint with the brushes I like until I can find an answer to the Painter 7 problem - if there is one.

I still prefer the Painter 7 interface.

[ewiser]

With the new intel mac's Rosetta is used to run the older PPC code.
I use IX.5 and it runs well. But older versions of Painter do not run in rosetta
from my test's. In fact the .5 patch for Painter was to add Rosetta support

As a long time Painter user IX.5 is the best current version of Painter
there is nothing that Painter 7 has that is not in IX.5 and a lot of stuff that Painter 7 is missing that is in IX.5.

[prs5]

Thanks for the info.

So maybe this has already been asked somewhere else, but do we have any idea when perhaps a Painter 10 is coming out, one that runs natively on the Intel machines?

I just don't want to go out and buy IX.5 and then 10 comes out a month later or something like that...

[Jin]

Corel hasn't announced a new version so we'll have to wait 'til they do.

You could call Corel to see if they can tell you anything.

[Fredbt]

As a long time Painter user IX.5 is the best current version of Painter
there is nothing that Painter 7 has that is not in IX.5 and a lot of stuff that Painter 7 is missing that is in IX.5.

As the old saying goes, "different strokes for different folks..." I realize there is a lot more in Painter IX.5 than is in Painter 7, but I didn't use a lot of what was in Painter 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, etc. I'm a pretty straightforward type of guy who likes to keep things simple and work with what works best for me.

I much prefer the Painter 7 interface and, more importantly, how the pen feels on the tablet in Painter 7. I don't pretend to know why it feels so different in Painter 8 and IX, but it does and that is a major distraction to me. I've tried all sorts of remedies and nothing changes the weird feeling of the pen on the tablet. The Wacom tablet and pen had a very natural feeling in Painter 7. In the later two Corel versions, it is very difficult for me to have the control I am used to.

I could do anything I wanted, and be as detailed as I chose to be, in Painter 7. In the later versions, I feel like an amateur trying to learn to paint all over again. That's not a good feeling after 50 years as a professional illustrator.