#187 Problem with writing using Microsoft Surface Pen

[n1t4chi]

Xournal on Windows does not work correctly with Microsoft Surface Pen. I guess there is problem with XInput since it's always grayed out while using just a MS pen, just like when I try to run Xournal first and then plug in tablet. I checked with wacom tablet and Xournal works fine with it since XInput is activable. Is there any possible fix for that?

[Denis Auroux]

XInput emulation in GTK applications (such as xournal) in Windows is only available with Wacom pens (or compatible clones), while MS Surface now uses a different technology.
One might hope that GTK/Windows will sometime have better support for non-wacom tablet devices. I think this isn't coming anytime soon, and alas I don't have enough knowledge of Windows to try to get xournal to directly interface with hardware. (Microsoft is no help, as it wants applications to use its Ink API, which is just not an option for a cross-platform applications such as xournal). So... in the meantime, you won't be getting the full benefits of your surface pen in xournal under windows, sorry!

Still, I thought the surface had a very high resolution display. Did you try to disable resolution adaptation on xournal? Right click on the xournal shortcut, select Properties, select the Compatibility tab, check "Disable display scaling on high DPI monitors" so that it really gets the full screen resolution. (In the latest Windows 10 updates this is apparently changed to "Override high DPI scaling behavior", needs to be set to "Application").
Then the menus and toolbars will be annoyingly small, but the pen input should be decent even without xinput support? (though you won't have any pressure sensitivity, but at least the resolution should be that of the screen).

Linux has broader XInput pen support, but my understanding is that the pens on recent Microsoft Surface devices are just not operational in Linux (yet?), so it's a no go...

Sorry!
Denis