WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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7 comments
Unfortunately, after ten weeks of practise; I had to stop producing my Weekly Wednesday LIVE streams. I'm moving into an area where my internet connexion doesn't have the necessary speed. Thanks again to all of you who watched them (live, or on replay). It was a very cool and fun experience! This weekly habit I started in February of 2018 was very fruitful: there are now ten long videos available for replay. For sure, once I'll have recover a good internet speed (somewhere in 2019?) I'll redo live streams.
All ten live streams are available for replay:
* **PeerTube:**
* **YouTube:**
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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40 comments
## Intro
Last year [Purism](https://puri.sm/ "Purism" ) contacted me after they read [on the Pepper&Carrot blog](article608/my-house-has-been-robbed "on the Pepper&Carrot blog" ) that my laptop has been stolen in the burglary of my house. At that time, they proposed me to contribute to my Pepper&Carrot project by sending me a shiny new [Librem13](https://puri.sm/products/librem-13/ "Librem13" ) laptop. So, since October 2017 I have this laptop with me and because I saw a lot of curious on social network, I thought it was good time to make a review. In the last 7 month, I accumulated experience with this hardware (I took it for my [course in Paris](article335/krita-digital-painting-courses-at-university-cergy-pontoise "course in Paris" ), [conference in India](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/article432/peppercarrot-in-india "conference in India" ), [in Switzerland](article635/japan-impact-2018-conferences-and-signing-session "in Switzerland" ) and recently in Poland...). I also could test three GNU/Linux distribution: PureOS, Fedora GNOME and Ubuntu 17.10. The question now: **is this laptop a good one for digital painting on GNU/Linux ?**
## Unboxing:
In the past year with my previous laptops, I was used to "no-name" unboxing experience: cardboard colored style from e-shop who were just rebranding quickly and with minimum of effort cheap Clevo; so it's a good surprise for me to see the Librem13 was packaged with care and with elegant branded black and white box and a dedicated Quick Start Guide. It feels polished. The power charger is standard size as what we could see on the market since the last 15 years; still too big for a modern slim PC laptop, in my opinion. The PC boot at first with dialogs to configure a preinstalled [PureOS](https://www.pureos.net/ "PureOS" ) (Purism in-house GNU/Linux distro; very similar to Debian-testing with GNOME desktop).
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-00_unboxing.jpg)
## General
Here is the spec of my Librem13:
**CPU:** Intel Processor, Two Cores, Four Threads, 3.10GHz i7-6500U.
**GPU:** Sixth Generation Intel HD Graphics 520.
**RAM:** Fast Memory Galore, 16GB, DDR4.
**Storage:** 250GB M.2 SSD.
**Monitor:** 13.3″ Matte IPS Display.
**Case:** Anodized Aluminium Chassis.
**Video output:** HDMI output.
**Bios:** SeaBIOS
**O.S. for the test:** Ubuntu GNOME 17.10
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-01_overall.jpg)
**External case:** It's a slim, minimalistic and beautiful object. The anodized aluminum case feels really high quality. I really like how the case is not branded with obtrusive logos or texts. It is just written on the bottom of the laptop.
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-01_overallB.jpg)
## Usability
The laptop is simple to use, there is no surprise from the hardware to software. Installing a new GNU/Linux distro on it is a breeze: everything just work and the SeaBios makes everything so simple (far, far away all the horrors of the modern UEFI!). I had no problem with Ubuntu or Fedora on it; it's clearly the type of hardware that has this potential of not being affected by many bugs related to hardware support. That's probably because Purism have all their in-house dev porting directly fix into Debian testing. I also like the fact it has almost the same size than my tablet Wacom Intuos4 Medium (see photo under) ; it's a good pair of hardware when I'm traveling. The laptop doesn't suffer particularly of being very hot and keep relatively silent all the time (I tested it in the hot days when I traveled to India for a conference). The sound of the fan is even not really loud while using all the power of the CPUs (eg. when compiling Krita or rendering scene with Blender).I also experienced opening the case to add or remove a SSD, something possible to do in 5 min without damaging the unit and with a simple small screw driver.
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-02_A_painting-performance.jpg)
## Performances
**Digital painting:**
Krita 4.0.x doesn't really suffer while painting on a A4@300dpi. It's the file format and resolution I use for the page of my webcomic Pepper&Carrot. Even when using large preset and the smudge brush engine it's still possible to paint. "Instant Preview" works also pretty well with the Intel HD Graphics 520; it has even less glitch than the more powerful Nvidia card on my workstation with Nvidia proprietary driver. The performance are correct but I wouldn't probably cross the 4K or 6K resolution with this laptop. Expect little slow down here and there on complex work but that something totally acceptable for an ultraslim laptop.
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-02_B_painting-performance.jpg)
**GPU: **The GPU is weak on this laptop; don't expect doing hardcore gaming with it. Here under you can read on the screenshot the result of glmark2 and the Cryptohash benchmark of hardinfo. If you have a Ubuntu based O.S, you can easily install glmark2 and hardinfo to compare this value with your own setup.
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-02_C_benchmark.jpg)
**Blender 3D:** The two core/ 4 thread screamed (silently, like a subtle and long PSHHHhhhhhh ) all they could but couldn't render [the BMW benchmark demo file](https://www.blender.org/download/demo-files/ "the BMW benchmark demo file" ) made by Mike Pan under 27min ( a Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU can do that in 10min ).
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-02_D_benchmark.jpg)
## Keyboard
At the time I received it, the Librem13 was available only with a QWERTY U.S. keyboard layout (recently, Purism added the German and Qwerty U.K layouts ). I type things since I'm a kid on French AZERTY keyboards. It's too hard to remove a so deep habit; so I opted for a little customization of the U.S. layout and I [added Azerty stickers](https://www.clavier-azerty.fr/ "adding stickers" ). The stickers are extra thin and I don't feel them under the fingers when I type, they just are glossier than the original plastic. After the transformation, it took me only two or three hour to type as fast as on my favorite keyboard and I really like the quality of it. Also, I like the Purism logo by default on the "super" key.
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-03_keyboard.jpg)
**(Up)** While adding the stickers ; there is two plastic protection to them: one on top to peel after sticking it. They appear thick on the photo above because it was before peeling the overlay. **(Under)** The final transformation: I can switch easily the two layout and the keyboard looks special now and original. Notice also the two "Killswitch" on the top of the keyboard to interrupt on a physical level the webcam, microphone, wifi or blue-tooth (a very smart and effective privacy feature. )
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-03_keyboardB.jpg)
_The retro light in action._
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-03_keyboardC.jpg)
## Monitor
The 13'' ISP 1920x1080pixels monitor is not glossy and the anti-reflect coating on it is smooth and not grainy. So, all the artworks and graphics looks always sharp (and side note: it's easy to stick my Pantone Huey Pro calibrator on it).
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-04_monitorA.jpg)
The maximum light measured is around 220 cd/m² , very good for a laptop but the default colors are way too greenish out-of-the-box. It's possible to calibrate it to get something healthier and better color, because with default like that you can't paint any good colored artworks. This monitor definitely needs profiling.
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-04_monitorb1.jpg)
**Color space:** a quick profiling ( software: [Displaycal](https://displaycal.net/ "Displaycal" ) ) with simple settings reveals slightly truncated oranges and reds in comparison with sRGB ( normal if the monitor tends to be super green ). Another surprise: this monitor is able to display certain type of deep blue outside the human perception of colors. So, the ultra-orange color branding palette of Ubuntu doesn't look so fruity on this laptop while Fedora wallpapers will look really deep. But it's possible to create a profile to correct it. Especially if you worry about the [effect of the blue light on the health of eyes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_blue_light_technology "effect of the blue light on the health of eyes" ).
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-04_monitorB.jpg)
**DPI:** the 1920x1080 pixels compressed into a 13'' offer 147ppi (pixels per inch). It is dense. Application like Inkscape needs to be setup with 170% in order to represents centimeters correctly on screen. Fonts looks really sharps on this screen and it's pleasant to do digital painting because it's easy to forget the pixels. It's always hard when I'm back traveling to re-adapt to my workstation with my 23'' monitor and the same 1920x1080pixels; it looks like pixel-art in comparison to the crystal clear rendering of the Librem13.
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-04_monitorC.jpg)
## Misc
**Battery:**
The battery is really good for a GNU/Linux laptop. I was used to laptops with two hours maximum while typing and 30min while painting. This one can go almost to four hours while typing and 1h30 while painting. Sometime even more, it depends the backlight settings and your activity with it.
**Video output:**
The laptop is modern and proposes only one HDMI output. If you are used to connect your laptop to video projectors (for conferences/workshop) you'll need this type of active HDMI to VGA adaptator always on your bag.
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-05_misc.jpg)
**Fingerprints and dust:**
The black aluminum case looks gorgeous, but also really attract quickly fingerprints and dust. I don't consider it as a disadvantage as it force me to maintain the laptop clean when I travel.
**LED:**
The LED indicator for charging/power/wi-fi are on top of the keyboard; So if you fold the laptop, it's hard to see if it's charging or not. But I appreciate at the same time when I'm traveling the possibility to fold it and not be bothered by colored LED in the dark.
[](data/images/blog/2018/04-librem13/2018-04_purism-librem13_deevad-05_miscBdust.jpg)
## Conclusion
The Librem13 already has this charisma of a collectible-hardware; especially because it screams "made for GNU/Linux, privacy and freedom" from every aspect. This speaks hard to my heart of libre geek. But for my heart of artist, it is just a OK laptop: nothing less, nothing more. You can paint reasonably sized document on it, you can profile the monitor to get a 85% of sRGB. Nothing really special on this side except it works well: the Intel GPU driver collaborate well with Krita's openGL canvas and the two core / four threads CPU renders the stroke pretty quickly. All in all, I really like my Librem13 as my travel/conference laptop: I can still color artwork with it when I'm not at home, trigger the renderfarm of Pepper&Carrot and do all the task I can do with my workstation. I also appreciate how peaceful it is to reinstall a GNU/Linux distro on it, the silence and the design. So yes, this laptop is good for digital painting on GNU/Linux, without super performances -sure- , but good... and stylish!
Thanks again Purism (especially François Téchéné -creative director- and Todd Weaver -Founder, CEO- ) for the help after the burglary of my house; it quickly helped me to recover my tools and move forward for Pepper&Carrot conferences and digital painting workshop with this hardware. I hope you had pleasure to read this review on my blog; if you have more question about it or suggestion, feel free to leave a comment bellow.
**External links:**
- [Purism website](https://puri.sm/ "Purism website" )
- [Librem13 page](https://puri.sm/products/librem-13/ "Librem13 page" )
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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10 comments
Hi, this is the artwork I started this Wednesday on my weekly livestreaming session. I painted the whole background during a 3h30 livestream, archived [here on YouTube](https://youtu.be/zefmloD3KjU "here on Youtube" ) and [here on PeerTube](https://peertube.touhoppai.moe/videos/watch/a58677a2-049c-4255-a0f7-2a206460e5a0 "here on Peertube" ) (the open and decentralized video platform). I'll speak a bit more about the making-of on the weekly blog for my patreons. I painted the characters from scratch twice with two different workflows, to compare painting techniques. It was interesting to do this experiment and I learned a lot. Now I'll try to apply that on future episode 25, and if it is valid in production, I'll update my public tutorial category.
You can find also the Krita source and various resized versions ready to be used as wallpaper:
[Source _(41.77MB)_](https://www.peppercarrot.com/0_sources/0ther/wallpapers/zip/The-rendezvous_source-files_by-David-Revoy.zip) | [Mobile _(1080x1920)_](https://www.peppercarrot.com/0_sources/0ther/wallpapers/1080x1920/The-rendezvous_peppercarrot-wallpaper_by-David-Revoy.jpg) | [4:3 _(1280x1024)_](https://www.peppercarrot.com/0_sources/0ther/wallpapers/1280x1024/The-rendezvous_peppercarrot-wallpaper_by-David-Revoy.jpg)
[16:9 _(1920x1080)_](https://www.peppercarrot.com/0_sources/0ther/wallpapers/1920x1080/The-rendezvous_peppercarrot-wallpaper_by-David-Revoy.jpg) | [16:10 _(1920x1200)_](https://www.peppercarrot.com/0_sources/0ther/wallpapers/1920x1200/The-rendezvous_peppercarrot-wallpaper_by-David-Revoy.jpg) | [16:10 _(2560x1600)_](https://www.peppercarrot.com/0_sources/0ther/wallpapers/2560x1600/The-rendezvous_peppercarrot-wallpaper_by-David-Revoy.jpg)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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74 comments
The result of a survey made by the Krita foundation over social network reported you were a large majority using my brushkit 8.2.** A big thank you about that!**
So, I was sponsored by the Krita foundation in March to work on the default brush kit for [Krita 4.0](https://krita.org/en/item/krita-4-0-0-released/ "Krita 4.0" ). My mission was to merge my brushkit 8.2, my Charcoal Pencils and wet brushes into a collection of new presets made with feedback of the community and merge also brushes submitted by Ramon Miranda, Wolthera, Pablo Cazorla, Rad, Scott Petrovic, Razvan and other. I triaged them, painted new thumbnails, took care about sorting them, renaming them, optimizing them and polishing the settings. You can [read the Git commit here](https://cgit.kde.org/krita.git/log/?qt=author&q=Revoy "read the Git commit here" ) if you want full details.
I am now really happy using them, and happy to share them too!
**Documentation:**
You can read the _fully illustrated documentation_ here:
[](data/images/blog/2018/all-krita4-brushes_net.jpg)
_ click to enlarge _
**Download:**
Just [download Krita 4.0](https://krita.org/en/download/krita-desktop/ "download Krita 4.0" ), they are part of it by default.
**Migration:
**I couldn't port all my brushkit to Krita and keeping exactly the same. I merged the one duplicate, and decorated other one to be consistent with the way brushes were sorted. Here is a graph of the evolution and merging. I hope it helps if your work-flow was dependent of a specific setting in my 8.2 brushkit.
[](data/images/blog/2018/krita4_migration.jpg)
**Changelog :**
* 22-03-2018: **v9.0**, Krita 4.0 \- Merged as default in Krita. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2018/krita4_0_brushes.jpg "screenshot" ), [article](https://krita.org/en/krita-4-0-release-notes/ "article" ).
* 08-03-2017: **v8.2**, Krita 3.1.2 - If it works, don't fix it: 10 brushes added, minor update for 2. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2017/02/v82brush_header_net.jpg), [article](article319/krita-brushkit-v8).
* 16-08-2016: **v8.1**, Krita 3.0.1 - Adding 13 new brushes. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2016/05/v8-1brush_header.jpg), [article](article319/krita-brushkit-v8).
* 20-05-2016: **v8.0**, Krita 3.0.0 - Refactor thumbnails and core 42 brushes. Use smudge-radius brushes. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2016/05/v8brush_header_net.jpg), [article](article319/krita-brushkit-v8).
* 02-07-2015: **v7.0**, Krita 2.9.7 - Pepper&Carrot stable kit: solidifying previous kit after 10 episodes. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2015/08/v7-release-artwork_net.jpg), [article](article264/brushkit-v7-0).
* 17-04-2015: **v6.0**, Krita 2.9.0 - Mypaint stylised/colored thumbnails: set for Pepper&Carrot. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2015/04/vignette.jpg), [video](https://youtu.be/iRcKFbksTTY), [article](article248/krita-brushes-v6).
* 15-08-2014: **v5.0**, Krita 2.8.2 - Grey thumbnails, flow and compacting. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2014/08/brushkit-v5.jpg), [article](article238/ressource-krita-brushes-v5).
* 02-05-2014: **v4.0**, Krita 2.8.0 - Refactor and strip down for productivity. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2014/05/v4-brush-com-a.jpg), [article](article233/ressource-krita-brushes-v4).
* 14-08-2013: **v3.0**, Krita 2.7.0 - Base for many Krita default.[ Adding a standard](https://community.kde.org/Krita/Brushes_Preset_Preview) for thumbnails. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2013/08/brushkit3/Krita-brush-preset-v3_by-david-revoy_02.jpg), [article](article180/ressource-krita-brushes).
* 26-01-2013: **v2.1**, Krita 2.6.0 - Post release fix. Add textured brushes for new Krita feature. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2013/01/krita-brushkitv2/new-textured_brushes.jpg), [article](article123/krita-brushkit-v2), [tar.gz](core/admin/data/documents/2013-01-14_deevad-kit-Krita_v2.tar.gz).
* 14-01-2013: **v2.0**, Krita 2.6.0 - Full brushkit refactor with painted thumbnail on crystal black. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2013/01/krita-brushkitv2/new-textured_brushes.jpg), [article](article123/krita-brushkit-v2).
* 04-06-2012: **v1.0**, Krita 2.3.0 - First release used on [Tears of Steel](core/admin/article136/movie-concept-art-tears-of-steel-blender-foundation) concept art. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2012/06/krita-deevadpreset_v1a.jpg), [tar.gz](data/documents/2012-06-04_deevad-krita_preset-v1a_for-2.5a.tar.gz).
* 09-06-2011: **v0.0**, Krita 2.3.0 - Initial idea. Started on Krita sprint, Amsterdam. [screenshot](data/images/blog/2011/10/krita/krita-screen_03_davidrevoy.jpg), [article](article80/kritasprint-2011-40min-of-my-demo-session-online).
Full list of versioned changes [here](https://github.com/Deevad/deevad-krita-brushpresets/commits/master).
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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5 comments
Hi! A week ago, I received this photo of a bead-picture artwork in my mailbox, along with this message:
> Hello David,
> My daughter Saskia loves your comics. She has created a beads picture and would love to see it inside your fan-art and help you reaching your goal of 100 fan-arts! That bead-picture is now placed above her bed.
> She said „Please keep on created such good comic, I love them!“
> Kind regards,
> Rüdiger (father of Saskia).
>
That's a wonderful work! Thank you Saskia for making it and thank you Rüdiger for sharing the email and the photo! I added it to [the fan-art gallery. ](https://www.peppercarrot.com/static10/fanart-gallery "the fan-art gallery" )
Now I have 81 of them :-)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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12 comments
During a season, I hosted a weekly livestream about digital painting and Krita on Youtube. It was working on the pages of Pepper&Carrot. Sometimes doing an artwork, sometimes inking a panel, sometimes coloring. I interacted with the questions of the audience via the chat. I had to stop the livestream after I moved to a new house with a low speed internet connection. I hope you'll like to watch the replay.
#### Replay:
* **On PeerTube:**
* **Playlist on YouTube:**
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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3 comments
Japan Impact is a cultural non-profit event that aims to present Japan to French-speaking Switzerland. **The events will happen on February 17 and 18 in Lausanne**.
The convention was created by PolyJapan, an association of students from EPFL and elsewhere, who are passionate about Japanese culture. With the collaboration of other associations from the region (and even from France), they have the ambition to entertain you during a weekend with their numerous activities and animations. During the two days of the convention, you will enjoy:
\- cultural workshops
\- cosplay contests
\- concerts
\- conferences
\- screenings of movies and of Japanese animated series
\- martial art demonstrations
\- various stands
I was invited for two conferences (in French) for this 2018 edition: a first one on Saturday about Pepper&Carrot and a second one on Sunday to talk about the impact of the Japanese animation broadcasted in France during the 80s on a generation. I'll also be around for a signing session :)
So, see you in Switzerland next week?
All information, schedule, tickets are on **[https://japan-impact.ch.](https://japan-impact.ch "https://japan-impact.ch" )**
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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22 comments
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/2018-01-04_krita-cursor_thumbnail.jpg)
**Updates:**
2017-01-08 : Tutorial also available in Japanese thanks to Guruguru:
## Introduction
When you create an artwork with Krita, there is one little thing you'll focus your eyes for hours: your cursor. This cursor represents the tip of your "digital pen" and from this brush tip will emerge the few or hundred thousands brush strokes necessary to create an artwork. That's why this part is really important for many users across any digital painting software. Over the years, the Krita team added many presets and propose nowaday many variations of cursors. But what is the best Krita cursor you can select to create your own artwork? Why this one over another one? the pros? the cons?... In this article based on Krita 3.x serie, I'll share my tips and feedback about this important feature and attempt a full review of the brush cursor. An ambitious article!
## The Settings
The "Cursor" panel is a very important interface in the **Configure Krita** windows. It's not a pure hazard if this panel appears at first when you open the settings ( on top menu bar : Settings > Configure Krita ). Krita propose on this panel to setup two aspects of the cursor : **Cursor Shape** and **Outline Shape**. With **Cursor Shape** option, you can select within a list a preset that will replace your actual cursor with another shape. By default it is set to No Cursor and the list contains nine other options. This **Cursor Shape** is just a Black or White static image pasted at the position (x,y) of your pointer on the canvas. This static images are configurable in the source code of Krita as *.xpm images in the folder [krita/data/cursors](https://cgit.kde.org/krita.git/tree/krita/data/cursors?id=76fcc7ad4e7834309c4f121d0af2650f9f9085df "krita/data/cursors" ). The second option named **Outline Shape** is more complex ; it's a decoration generated by Krita around the (x,y) position with more dynamic feedback about the shape, type, size of the selected brush. By default it is set to **Preview Outline** and contains four other options. Finally, a checkbox under this two list proposes you to Show or Hide the **Outline Shape** while painting (when the stylus hit the tablet). It is checked by default to always show it.
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/2018-01-04_krita-cursor-preferences.png)
## All the possibilities:
If you combine the two lists, you can obtain thirty six cursors! I made a table of all the possibilities (it was long, believe me) so you can get an idea of all of them. If you are familiar with my videos or screenshot, I'm using mainly two presets depending of the task I'm doing. I highlighted them in green on the table graphic under:
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/2018-01-04_krita-cursor_my-choice.jpg)
## Choice 1: Painting (No Cursor+Preview Outline)
For painting (but also coloring and speedpainting), I'm using the default settings: **No Cursor**+**Preview Outline**. There is a good reason why this setting is selected by default: its working in most of case. Here under is a little demo about how it looks while I'm painting with it. In short, your cursor transform into the shape of your selected brush. It's convenient to always have an idea about what type of brush you selected and what is the size of it. You can not go wrong between the feedback of a textured brush with a specific outline and a large airbrush with a specific pure circular outline. The color of the **Preview Outline** also change depending of the background color of your artwork. The outline is dark when you fly over a white background, and bright over a dark background. It also change colors and adopt hue of red, blue, pink etc... to increase the contrast with the background color. Eg. look on the animation under when the **Preview Outline** is over the tip of the hat: it turns almost pure red.
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/2018-01-04_my-favorite-preset_painting.gif)
The **Preview Outline** is a solid choice in almost any cases. It gives a far better feedback for the brush preset than **Circle Outline** or **Tilt Outline** ; the two other Outline options. This two only display a circle with maximal diameter of your selected brush, the **Tilt Outline** adds a little line to show the tilt direction if your tablet as tilt support. But **Preview Outline **-even if it's still my favorite after years of painting with Krita- is far to be ideal... In order to present why I need to use a second setup for my cursor selection in Krita, I need to introduce under also all the cons of the default **Preview Outline**:
**Preview Outline cons:**
**1\. It's noisy and aliased.** This is an effect you can see with most presets using rotation sensors: the aliased pixels dances as the shape of the cursor get retraced while flying over the canvas. It makes focusing on the artwork more difficult.
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/2018-01-04_aliased-shape-rotation_effects.gif)
**2\. Weird feedback of max width.** Krita change the size of the **Preview Outline** when a dynamic sensor on size is attributed to the active brush presets. Software like Mypaint ( I also saw video of Clip Paint Studio) preferred to not give this type of dynamic feedback. I would prefer here getting the max diameter always visible to give me a better feedback of the max width size. Keeping the display of the max size helps for example to match the border of a orange shape when I'm filling an area.
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/2018-01-04_diameter-change-doesnt-really-useful.gif)
_Krita_
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/2018-01-04_demo-fixed-diameter_mypaint.gif)
_Mypaint_
**3\. Not precise.** The **Preview Outline** doesn't display its center. This can be solved by adding a small cusor in overlay and I'm often using it when I'm doing detailing. Krita propose two options to solve that. The first one is to use an additional **Cursor Shape** on the top as the **Small Cursor** preset. But this cursor is a bit big with it's 3x3 pixels. But it works on white and black background. The other solution is to add the cursor **Single Pixel white** or **Single Pixel Dark.** The two solutions are very efficient: getting a single pixel in center for precision really helps to aim the start of a stroke. Unfortunately, this cursors are not adaptative for the color of the background, and they need manual switch very often...
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/2018-01-04_krita-demo-of-single-black-pixel-cursor-origin.gif)
_ Preview Outiline + Single pixel black _
**4\. It blinks a lot. **Another side effect of showing the dynamic of the size sensor in real time: the cursor often jumps from max width to minimal width, transforming the drawing experience into a very "blinky" and stroboscopic experience.
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/krita-drawing-with-outline_feels-shaky-and-blinking.gif)
_ Krita _
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/mypaint-drawing-without-outline-changing-size_feel-stable.gif)
_ Mypaint, not blinking. _
## Choice 2: Drawing (Triangle Righthanded+No Outline)
To workaround the blinking and precision issue of the **Preview Outline**, I'm using the cursor **Triangle Righthanded**, alone, without outline. It has a a sharp tip when I'm drawing ( a Lefthanded version also exist if it is your case). The triangle tip feels like the triangular tip of a sharp pencil, I can crosshatch quickly without getting an epileptic blinking effect. Here is a quick demo of how it looks:
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/2018-01-04_my-favorite-preset-drawing.gif)
The limitation of using only a **Cursor Shape** is obvious: It's hard to get a feedback when you change brush preset (for exemple, when switching to an eraser preset while drawing, or when using a large deform brush to push and adjust a sketch) , but in case of doubt , it is still possible to press "Shift" and Krita will show the brush diameter (to propose a resize gesture).
Also, **Cursors Shape** are more performant in Krita than **Outline Shapes**, they often give you a better feedback of your real position while **Outline Shape** always have a latency to be traced. You can see how the outline lags behind the cursor in the tiny animation here under. **Cursor Shape** is always realtime while the **Outline Shape** is lagging behind. This low latency is decisive when you sketch, do crosshatching or when you draw quickly little details. **Preview Outline** always have a couple of milliseconds late... It's often good enough while painting with large brushes but a no-go as soon as you start adding thin detailing or doing lines. That's one of my little secret to have better precision and accuracy and sharing it was the goal of this tutorial ;-)
[](data/images/blog/2018/01/2018-01-04_cursor-faster-than-outline_latency-debunker.gif)
_ Cursor Shape are faster and more precise than Outline Shape _
_ _
## Conclusion
Thanks to the Krita team, we have many options to cover many usage cases! With this large spectrum of settings, it's always possible to workaround almost any situation. I hope you'll have fun exploring all the cursors after reading this article and I also hope this article will help many user a bit lost within this type of choices. Did you liked this article? Have a feedback? What is your favorite cursor setup? Share it on the comments bellow ! :-)
