Adjusting Pencil Width with Wheel

[Zarquan314]

I use PDF XChange Editor to grade student papers, using the pencil tool and a drawing tablet to write hand written comments and diagrams. One issue with student papers is that they are made using all kinds of methods, causing some to be on pages with higher numbers of pixels, which causes the known Thin Lines problem, where lines are extremely thin or spindly. I can resize the papers, but that can be a little annoying.

I have a wheel on my drawing tablet, so I was thinking it would be nice to use this wheel to increase the width of the pencil and eraser tool, similar to some drawing applications. Plus, resizing the eraser on the fly could be convenient when I want to erase a lot of stuff versus erasing a tiny mark. Is there a way to do this?

[MedBooster]

I use PDF XChange Editor to grade student papers, using the pencil tool and a drawing tablet to write hand written comments and diagrams. One issue with student papers is that they are made using all kinds of methods, causing some to be on pages with higher numbers of pixels, which causes the known Thin Lines problem, where lines are extremely thin or spindly. I can resize the papers, but that can be a little annoying.

I have a wheel on my drawing tablet, so I was thinking it would be nice to use this wheel to increase the width of the pencil and eraser tool, similar to some drawing applications. Plus, resizing the eraser on the fly could be convenient when I want to erase a lot of stuff versus erasing a tiny mark. Is there a way to do this?

I use an Elgato Streamdeck, where I basically have icons which activate keyboard shortcuts → which then activate functions in PDF-xce, I
Binding
I assume a drawing tablet would have to do the same, you could use some software like PowerToys/JoyToKey/SharpKeys to basically make the wheel turned clockwise/anti-clockwise correspond to a keyboard shortcut you don't use for anything else (I recommend using the numpad (e.g. arrow up/down) and some Ctrl+Shift+Alt combination for example)
Then you could use the excellent customize toolbars → commands menu to just bind it to increase/decrease width/thickness...

However**** it seems there is no such command, similar to increasing/decreasing font size.

So consider that a suggestion! Unless I am mistaken and there is such a function already. (If you choose to implement that I insist that it would be the same keyboard shortcut for increasing decreasing the width of lines, pencil lines, rectangles arrows and all shapes. It That would be nice... I got a wheel on my Logitech Craft keyboard that I could imagine using for this. You could also make it affect text if text is selected, so a sort of universal increase/decrease size by one value would be super nice! (Yes by 1 value would be ok, because half a turn with my wheel at least would be around 6 shortcut inputs I imagine (in ratchet mode at least, meaning you feel a cog-like resistance when you turn the wheel.


edit: I have already asked you for an option to change the preset sizes in the format tab, and you said that those size intervals were there by design, as standard values.

Well having the option to either place increase/decrease size/width buttons in the toolbar or activate them with keyboard shortcuts would be great for situations where you quickly need to change the size to something that is not in a preset or in the size drop-down menu )

https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?t=40859

[MedBooster]

In the meanwhile you probably just need to add a drop-down width menu (which makes it a bit annoying if you want a size that is not there – as you have to type it in with a keyboard)
.....
I have one set of large font presets and one set of small font presets for that specific reason, that font size often varies from document to document, so often I basically just have to go into the comment styles palette to batch-change the size of all the different colors I use with a tool.

[Zarquan314]

Yeah, I did notice the lack of a increase/decrease width hotkey option. I could almost certainly make it work if I had that. A hotkey that increases the width/size of what ever tool is selected would be nice.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Zarquan314, MedBooster,

Thank you both for the great discussion and suggestion.
I do believe that having the ability to assign such a shortcut would indeed be beneficial - especially in use cases like yours where you have a stylus, so I made the FR ticket for it:
RT#6673: FR: Editor - Ability to assign shortcuts to increase/decrease width of currently selected tool.

It will be up to our devs to approve this and work on it - so I can't say if or when this might be implemented, however the request has been officially logged now!

In the mean time - maybe you can set up at least 2-3-4 separate styles for the pencil tool and assign shortcuts for those - so that you can switch between them quicker? You can assign shortcuts to individual styles for a specific tool:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowledgeba ... nge-Editor

Kind regards,
Stefan

[Zarquan314]

Thanks!

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

[MedBooster]

Any news regarding this? After all... if you're able to bind a keyboard shortcut to increasing and decreasing font size... why shouldn't you be able to do the same for pencil/line/shape thickness? :–)

I do however understand that it may be difficult to do because of the different width intervals different comment styles have...

image.png

Couldn't you just make it increase or decrease by 0.5, or 1... I'm not sure what the best interval would be.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, MedBooster

At the moment there is no progress yet on this ticket, I am sorry to say.

Kind regards,

[MedBooster]

I'm regularly using the shortcut of increasing and decreasing font size, and I am sure I and many others would appreciate a shortcut to do the same for "width" for shapes.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, MedBooster

Well, at the very least, I can assure you that this ticket has not been rejected, but I still provide any timeline for its progress.

Kind regards,

[MedBooster]

If you have a button on the wheel (like on my AKKO B5075) that you can program, you could program the button to select the width option. See the attached screenshots.
It seems to not be working at the moment though.
What kind of wheel device are you using?`


You could probably also use AutoHotKey to automatically activate the width field (with the keyboard shortcut) when the active window is PDF-XCE.

When the active field is the "Width:"-field, arrow down can be used to increase the size, and arrow up to decrease the size.

For the pencil tool, it seems "border width" actually controls the width of the drawn line. For shapes like rectangles it controls the thickness of the outer border.

image.png

image(1).png

So basically, we could easily do it if the keyboard shortcut were to highlight the "Width:"-field. (preferably without having to change to a tab containing it) – but this doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello MedBooster,

Thanks for the added feedback! I will include it in the ticket, however as Dan said above - we still can't get you any specific timeframe!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[MedBooster]

What is the ticket you've created for? Just pencil drawn "lines", or all shapes (arrow, rectangles, circles, eclipses, lines, etc.)
Maybe also comment types like the callout tool (arrow + border), text boxes, etc... ?
I'd suggest implementing it to pretty much all comment types with a "thickness" of something.

[Dimitar - PDF-XChange]

As far as I can see the ticket is for the increase/decrease width of the currently selected tool, which means that is for all of the tools.

Regards.

[MedBooster]

#6673: FR: Editor - Ability to assign shortcuts to increase/decrease width of currently selected tool.

Any news?
This would be useful on my Logitech craft and Akko 2075 keyboards which both have rotating dials.
My streamdeck as well... as previously mentioned. You could probably somehow use it with stylus buttons too...

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello MedBooster,

There has been no movement on that ticket I am afraid. I will now ask for an update.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello MedBooster,

Just got an update that the FR from ticket 6673 is a bit too niche and specific, so it will likely not be implemented. The ticket is not officially rejected yet, but it will likely be.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[MedBooster]

oh nooo ... but it would be just as useful as the current keyboard shortcut for increasing/decreasing font size.

Anyone agreeing with us here?

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello MedBooster,

It could have it's uses, yes - but for the time being the decision is as I stated above. Sorry that I didn't have any other news for you!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[MedBooster]

e.g. width for rectangle/eclipses etc...

Many comment types this type of keyboard shortcut would be useful

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello MedBooster,

Thanks for your additional comments. I will make the devs aware of them, but again - I can not make any promises that they would change their decision at this point!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[MedBooster]

Still waiting for this :/

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, MedBooster

Until we see a notable increase in demand, this ticket is currently "stalled", and will not likely be seeing fulfillment, for the reasons provided above.

Kind regards,

[MedBooster]

The ticket itself that has been stalled is just to be able to increase or decrease thickness of objects or annotations with keyboard shortcuts right? Nothing more complicated? I assumed it wouldn't be so difficult to implement.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, MedBooster

As has been said before, complexity is not the sole decision maker, and I don't believe we ever said that this would be difficult to implement.
However... Every change, no matter how small, has an additive effect, and has the potential to break other things. Making too many small changes/additions at once is often worse than making one big change. This leads to a somewhat unique decision making process. In short, because of the iterative nature of software development, having "too many cooks in the kitchen" can be a real issue.

Personnel management is critical, and keeping the "small tasks" centralized, so that only a handful are worked on at a time, avoiding conflicts, is the best way to do this. Beyond that, while we have established it is not the sole factor, Demand is still part of this decision process. With only the handful of you here ever asking for this, it is not a priority at the moment.

Kind regards,

[giano]

Sad to know that. But I believe this is a very attractive request!!!

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, giano

Thank you for adding your voice to the thread, at the very least, each addition here does help a little.

Kind regards,