APIs

Depending on which operating system or environment you are in there are different APIs. More here: Pen APIs.

Various tools and libraries

• PenInspector - https://github.com/borco/peninspector

• PenTracker by Patrick Lauke

Using HTML5 canvas with stylus

• https://github.com/amoshydra/draw

• https://pressurejs.com/

• https://github.com/dxh9845/pressure-sensitive-canvas

• Hands-On Coding a Pressure Sensitive Freehand Drawing App in React Jan 11, 2022

• https://codepen.io/janroudaut/pen/VprRqj

SDKs

• Wacom SDKs - https://www.wacom.com/en-us/home/enterprise/business-solutions/software-and-solutions/sdks.aspx -

• XPPen Tablet SDK - https://www.xp-pen.com/developer

• Huion SDK - Huion does not publish an SDK.

Overview

There are two conversations to be had:

• Which API you as a normal user should be using in the tablet driver and in your applications

• Which API you as a developer should use to create a pen-aware application on windows

For normal users

By default I recommend you use Windows Ink unless something forces you to use WinTab. And if you use WinTab I suggest you only use it for a specific application.

Remember that in windows you have to configure windows ink in the driver AND in the application. These have to match settings. More here: Windows Ink

For developers

Wacom published a page with frequently asked questions about WinTab:

()

Here's a small snippet of the relevant section of the doc

Please read the document for the full details.

My developer perspective

But here are a few things that stand out to me:

• It is a well understood and stable API

• There are wrappers or many languages (C#, Rust, Python) that let you talk to the APIs.
• You can find many projects that use WinTab

• It has been difficult for me to find clear examples of how to use the Windows Ink API. Most of the code is heavily focused on the inking features - which is great but not on what I need which is a way to get the pen position, pressure, tilt data, etc.

So at the moment, I intend to continue to use WinTab until I find an easy way to consume the Windows Ink APIs.

• Windows Third-party: WinTab https://developer-support.wacom.com/hc/en-us/articles/12844524637975-Wintab This is the older but still heavily used API. Even though the API is defined by Wacom, other graphics tablet manufacturers use this same API. More here WinTab API.

• Windows Built-in APIs (aka. Windows Ink)

  • WIN32 - GetPointerPenInfo

  • WPF - StylusPointProperties

  • UWP - PointerPointProperties

  • WinUI3 - UNKNOWN (As of Aug 2024 I do not think WINUI3 supports pens)

• Windows resources:

  • Wintab vs Windows Ink

• Linux

  • GTK - GdkDevice

  • Qt - QTabletEvent

• MacOs

  • NSEvent

  • PencilKit

• Web

  • PointerEvent

Overview

With the 7P Tablet Tester browser-based tool you can test out the basic features of your tablet. This is useful for troubleshooting.

Click this link to try the tool: 7P Tablet Tester

Safety and privacy

This tool collects no data, uses no cookies, and does not save your images.

Features

• Can draw with pen, mouse, and touch (if your tablet supports touch)

• Pen drawing features

  • Pressure affects size of brush

  • Tilt - Not yet implemented

• Show current numeric values for position, pressure, tilt, etc. - Not yet implemented

• Save canvas as PNG file

• Clear canvas

OS & Browser compatibility

Windows

• Pen API:

  • Needs Windows Ink to be enabled in the tablet driver.

  • If using WinTab, no pressure is supported.

• Chrome - WORKS

• Firefox - WORKS

MacOS

• Safari - yet to be tested

• Chrome - WORKS

Linux

• Chrome - WORKS

• Firefox

  • Wayland - WORKS

  • X11 -

    • use env MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 firefox to make it work

    • more info on what's going on with the X11 issue:

      • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/78073830/pen-pointer-events-in-linux-chrome-and-firefox-not-working-as-intended/78764151#78764151

      • https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1207700

iPadOS

• Safari - WORKS

Android

• Chrome - WORKS

Open source

The entire source code is on the github repo (https://github.com/TheSevenPens/HtmlTabletTester). I encourage you to look through it and fork and modify it for your needs.

Projects

Python

• cgikit.wintab - As part of the Python Computer Graphics kit, the wintab module allows you to use Pyhon to get pen data via the WinTab interface.

• https://github.com/Dirskin/WintabW

.NET

• WinTabControl - A demo app showing using the WinTabDN nuget package with a Windows application to show current poition pressure, tilt, etc. Uses .NET Framework 4.7.2

• https://github.com/Apostolique/Apos.WintabDN - Uses .NET Standard 2.0

Windows

• https://github.com/perlfu/WintabEmulator - drop-in replacement for WINTAB.DLL that emulates the WinTab API but uses Windows Ink under-the-covers

Rust

• https://github.com/thehappycheese/wintab_lite - use WinTab API from Rust

Utilities

• https://github.com/jchv/wintab-interposer - logs all WINTAB API calls

• https://github.com/shuhari/WintabEye

Sandbox apps

• https://github.com/TheSevenPens/WinTabPainter - a primitive "paint" app to prototype and explore ideas for drawing tablets.