Here are changes you can make that can greatly improve the responsiveness of Wacom Tablets on Windows 10.
NOTE: This guide was written for Photoshop CC (21.2.1) but most changes should apply to all versions of Photoshop.
These are changes in Photoshop itself. To be sure, restart Photoshop after applying these.
IMPACT : HIGH!
By default, Photoshop brushes have 'Smoothing' enabled.
This will delay input from a tablet and smooth it. Even on beefy machines this results in a few frame delay between where your cursor is and where the brush is actually drawing.
- Open Brush Settings Window:
Window > Brush Settings - Uncheck
Smoothingand click the little lock 🔒 - Uncheck
Dual Brushand click the little lock 🔒
Note: the lock icon 🔒 means that even when you switch brushes this setting remains as it is. This way you can use any existing brushes and not worry about accidentally having the setting revert.
IMPACT : Low - Medium
Some photoshop tools preferences negatively impact performance.
- Open the Tools Preferences:
Edit > Preferences > Tools... - Ensure that these are disabled:
Enable GesturesEnable Flick PanningAnimated Zoom
IMPACT : Medium - High
Caching in photoshop is a tradeoff between how fast the screen redraws when you are zooming in and out or when previewing filters, and how fast many small changes can be applied. It's basicaly an LOD system, where smaller versions of the image are generated automatically to improve how responsive Photoshop feels when making large changes.
This is useful for very large documents, but high cache values slow down performance for files with lots of layers and when performing many many small changes, such as brush strokes.
For very responsive brush strokes you need a low cache level and small tile sizes.
- Open Performance Preferences:
Edit > Preferences > Performance... - Memory Usage: Allow Photoshop to use 80%
- Graphics Processor Settings > Advanced Settings...:
- Disable 'Anti-alias Guides and Paths'
- Set Drawing Mode to 'Normal' or 'Basic'
- History & Cache States:
- Set
Cache Levels: 2 or 3 (lower is faster for painting, slower for +50 Megapixel images) - Set
Cache Tile Size: 128K (lower is faster for painting, slower for full-image filters/adjustments)
- Set
IMPACT : Medium
While you can use the windows Task Manager to change the priority of a process, this does not save so needs to be done every time you open photoshop.
You can use a free utility like 'System Explorer' to automate this.
- Download System Explorer: https://systemexplorer.net/download/SystemExplorerSetup.exe
- Install it and launch it
- In the top-right click the little 'Hamburger' menu and 'Options'.
- In the 'General' tab disable 'Show Info Panel when mouse is in right top corner' (this setting can be annoying otherwise)
- Back in the main window, find Photoshop in the 'Processes' tab.
- First, right click > Processor Priority > Click 'Permanent'
- Second, right click > Processor Priority > Select 'High'
IMPACT : Low
The Pen and Touch settings from the old pre-windows 10 control panel are still accessible and there are some settings we can improve.
- Open the old Windows Pen and Touch Dialog:
- Open Run Dialog:
Windows Key + R - Run command:
%SystemRoot%\System32\TabletPC.cpl
- Open Run Dialog:
- Select the 'Double-tap' pen action, click 'Settings' and move the 'Spatial tolerance' slider all the way to the left (Small)
- Select the 'Press and hold' pen action, click 'Settings...' and uncheck 'Enable press and hold for right-clicking'
- Uncheck 'Use the pen button as a right-click equivalent'
- Uncheck 'Use the top of the pen to erase ink (where available)'
IMPACT : Low
Windows 10 added its own windows ink settings that are different from the ones listed above...
- Open windows search (Windows Key + S)
- Search for and open 'Windows Ink Workspace Settings'
- Disable 'Show visaul effects'
- Disable 'Show cursor'
