WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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113 comments
**About the 2020 remake of this article:** For the ten-year anniversary of this article (originally published on April 11, 2010) I decided to rewrite it. I also made new artworks and published them in higher quality. Over the years, I've been super-happy to see this article republished on big CG portals and printed on CG magazines; the article was even [republished by Wacom on their blog!](https://community.wacom.com/us/setting-up-your-creative-workstation/). Recently, I had a request for another repost, but after re-reading the article, I felt it was totally obsolete and not really in sync with what I'm thinking now... Since 2010 many things have happened: the first Ipad-like tablets with styluses have come out, the historical monopoly of Wacom was breached after their patent for battery-less stylus expired, competition could finally start in the tablet market, many new models came out (Huion/XpPen/etc...), and tablet computers with a pen are cheaper to buy and more and more common on the desks of artists. So this update was more than necessary. I hope you'll enjoy reading it.
## Intro
**The perfect graphics tablet doesn't exist.** But you'll eventually adapt to the weird specifications and ergonomics issues of your tablet model and make it perfect for you. This adaptation of your body to the ergonomics flaws of your hardware will have an impact on your health in the long run. It might also affect the pleasure you take in drawing and painting...
Since 2002, I have bought and used a lot of tablets in an attempt to build the best setup I could. This was necessary for my comfort; I was doing digital painting all day. Nowaday, my quest for the best tablet continues, as the technology keeps evolving year after year. If you want to read more about what I've used and why, read my maintained ["Tablet history log"](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article332/tablet-history-log) article, from 2002 to today. But beyond the choice of the hardware itself, I've also studied other aspects of my setup. The first aspect that comes to mind is the ergonomics of my desktop position. So, let me share my experiences on ergonomics with you.
**Disclaimer: ** I'm not a professional ergonomist, I'm not working in the health-care industry and I wrote this article from the humble point of view of a digital painter who happens to have painted almost daily with digital graphics tablets since 2002. This article is just based on my personal experience, it contains all my biasses and should be read as the testimony of a random artist on the internet. I wrote it and share it because I want to make it useful for other artists struggling with the same questions. This article doesn't have the seriousness of something like a scientific study made on a large group with solid statistics. If you find a paper like that, please write it in the comments, I'll be very interested and will certainly read it.
## General thoughts about other input devices
### The keyboard
I guess I'm not the only CG artist who uses a lot of keyboard shortcuts to speed up my workflow. Vendors and designers of graphics tablets clearly understood that, and started to add more and more buttons on their products to give easier access to more custom shortcuts. Isn't this a sort of confession that **graphic tablets are designed without thinking of a good access to the keyboard**? But in the last couple of years, tablets vendors have started to innovate in other directions and have sometimes added tiny devices that look like remote controls (a), or just added more buttons (b), or removed all physical buttons and proposed a virtual keyboard with touch interface (c). I'm not sure which setup will become dominant.
_The evolution of buttons on tablets_
On their side, digital artists started to use other devices in addition to tablets: gamepads, one-handed gaming keyboards, customisable keyboards. But even with this research for better accessibility of keyboard shortcuts, such sets of **additional keys and devices will never replace the flexibility and completeness of having a full keyboard under one hand**, in my humble point of view. It is especially noticeable if you like to chat while painting, write notes, reply to emails, add descriptions in your artwork or browse for references on the web while you are working. For all these tasks, you'll need a full keyboard.
Unfortunately, a large tablet (with a display built-in or not) tends to land on the desk in the exact place where the keyboard usually is. So, there is a conflict; a competition between the two input devices that's really hard to solve. Vendors of tablets haven't put a lot of thought into this topic yet. The latter part of this article will consider **the importance of having good access to the keyboard** for this reason.
### The mouse
It is tempting to think graphics tablets can fully replace computer mice. Sure they can. But for some workflows or games it is not always the case or the most convenient way to use the software. In many situations, a mouse will be more steady and precise and so the workflow will be faster using it. A lot of software is developed with the features of a classical mouse in mind (e.g. the mouse wheel and mouse wheel click to zoom/pan). That's why I think it is **necessary to keep an extra mouse on the desk**.
_Stylus versus Mouse? And why not both._
**Note about old tablets:** Before 2010 many tablets −such as the Wacom Graphire 3− had a mouse delivered in the package. This mouse only reacted to the active surface of the tablet. This trend was abandoned and I can understand why: the mouse had to be removed from the active surface area each time the user switched between the pen and the mouse. I had two models like that; the built-in mouse was neglected in favor of a classic mouse connected to the system. I never used it.
## 1. Large graphics tablets
Large classic graphics tablets (without a built-in monitor) are certainly **the most precise and comfortable** from a technical point of view. But the number of large classic models available is decreasing and they are gradually disappearing from the market. It's a shame because in the last five years, monitors went bigger and higher-resolution for a cheaper price. The same tendency should have been followed in tablets, with the emergence of new large graphics tablets with high resolutions. But that's not been the case.
Around 2000, a "1024x768px 15inch CRT" display paired with a medium tablet was a good match. Nowaday, it would be hard to use the same size of tablet on one of our modern wide "FullHD 1920x1080px 21inch display" (and I'm not even talking about the 24inch, 27inch, quadHD, or 4K resolution which are become in cheaper and more and more common). In this context, **for modern users of PC on desktop with a large external monitor, adopting a large tablet makes sense** for better control of the pointer on the monitor. Indeed, if you draw a coin-sized circle on your small tablet and it displays as a huge balloon on your monitor, you'll feel you have no control over painting details. You can imagine how you'll struggle to draw a little eye or a detail. It will always be possible but you'll have to zoom a lot to balance your hardware's precision issues.
But large tablets have also a lot of cons. The first one is their price and the second one is the room they will take on your desk.
### a) Large tablet, on the side
The first place people usually put their new large graphics tablet is beside their keyboard, like a mouse pad. This position stresses and hurts the arm and shoulder. But this position might be good enough if your main task is typing text and you'll need the tablet only once or twice a day. I saw this position being used by the people convinced the graphics tablet should replace the mouse. Vendors of graphics tablets have run commercial campaigns promoting the tablet as a healthier replacement for the mouse. For someone with repetitive strain injury from mouse overuse, a tablet can be indeed a good option. While visiting studios of 3D artists and video editors, I often saw this type of layout on desks. At the end of the day, I don't advise it unless you need a large tablet and have problems with mice.
### b) Large tablet, centered
One solution is to put the graphics tablet in the center of the desk and your keyboard off to the left. Having the active surface of your tablet aligned to your display in this way allows comfortable motion and increases your ability to paint for hours. But if you need to reach the keyboard too often, this layout can quickly become a pain. It will force you to twist your back to face the keyboard, even if it's only a slight angle, and you'll have to counterrotate your neck to look at your monitor. Also many useful keyboard shortcuts (eg. Ctrl+Z, Ctrl, Ctrl+S, Shift) are located on the left part of the keyboard. I wouldn't advice a position like that either.
### c) A tray for the keyboard (or keyboard on lap)
To keep the keyboard easy to reach, a reasonable solution is to adopt one of these trays you can screw under any type of desk (except if your desk is made of glass) to get a keyboard that can be mounted under the desk. The cheap alternative is to put the keyboard on your lap. I have this setup but I'm not a fan; this position makes it difficult to write on the keyboard.
### d) Curved desk
Adopting a curved desk with a swivel chair improves the situation a lot compared to (b). By mapping devices closely all around you, you can avoid twisting your back or extending your arm too much. You'll also benefit from having a part of the desk to rest your arm on. I had this setup for a month while I was working at a studio and it was working really well. One of the problems with a curved desk is that they are often big, deep, and corner desks, which need to be placed in a corner of your room. I can't get one for use at home for this reason.
### e) The keyboard on top of the tablet
My favorite layout, the one I've been using for years, requires a little bit of DIY. First, the monitor needs to float on one of those horizontal metal arms. That way you'll have room to put more things under the monitor (you won't be blocked by the monitor's stand). For the typing/keyboard position: place your keyboard on the far side of your tablet. To protect the fragile surface of your tablet from scratches, you'll need to glue little sticky pads under your keyboard (usually made for putting under furniture, sold in DIY stores). The keyboard will glide more easily this way, too, switching between positions with just one movement. Then the last piece of the installation is a thick book or a plank of wood on the far side of your big graphics tablet, right under the display (not shown in the figure below, I forgot it). It will be an area for you to push the keyboard or to grab it when you need to type something. The keyboard will remain also accessible for using shortcuts while painting.
## 2. Small/Medium graphics tablets
These graphics tablets generally have a smaller price and a smaller active area (and still no built-in monitor). They are of course less precise than the larger tablets. Tablet vendors try a wide variety of attractive designs, and optimizations to create cheap products. That's why so many small/medium tablets exist on the market. with a wide spectrum of quality and design. There are not more of them because they are better, but just because they are much cheaper. They are often considered entry-level tables, for all sorts of consumers (and many digital artists started this way, me included). With a desktop computer, the ergonomics of small graphics tablets are usually better than those of larger tablets.
### f) Angled-axis
Here is how I prefer to use this size of graphics tablet: I rotate my whole body, putting my body's axis at an angle to the edge of the desk. This gives me a large spot to rest my elbow. I can paint for longer periods this way. You can note that while it was problematic to keep a large tablet (a)(b) on the side of the keyboard, it isn't a problem for a smaller tablet.
### g) Curved desk
Here again, as in (d), adopting a curved desk will improve the ergonomics of your workspace a lot.
## 3. Laptops, mobility and travel
The users of graphics tablets often need to travel to another place to work. This means they often require a mobile way to work. A laptop can be used on the transit, at the desk of a client, in front of a classroom or during a conference... Graphic-tablet vendors don't have much by way to creative solutions for this use-case. Only one innovation on the market has really changed everything: tablets with built-in computer and display.
### h) The impossible match
Using a laptop and large tablet is hell and often doesn't work at all. I know it sounds obvious, but it's something to consider while buying a large tablet: it isn't really mobile-friendly.
### i) The small tablet: flexibility
Working with a laptop and a small tablet is not that bad and can work in a lot of situations. Small tablets are usually also made in A4/Letter size, same as standard EU/US paper. This is great because it makes them compatible with many bags, so there are more packing options for travelling with them.
You can prevent pain in this setup by putting it at a slight angle with the desk. I taught in the classroom with a setup like this (when the desk had enough room) and I did a lot of public demos this way, too.
Another layout I enjoy using. I can cover the touch-pad of the laptop with the tablet, and align it with the monitor.
### j) During travel
Little graphics tablets can be useful on a plane or a train. They are flexible enough to be used on this type of temporary and uncomfortable situation. But believe me, utilizing a long 5h train trip by completing a full artwork on the way feels very rewarding.
The setup above (with laptop and graphics tablet stacked) will hopefully soon be something from the past. Many touch tablets with styluses have appeared on the market, and they offer much better ergonomics.
I'm rarely excited by these devices because I dislike all mobile operating systems in general and I dislike typing on touch devices. But maybe my feelings will change as the technology develops. I'm hating using my phone less and less, so maybe the user experience on touch tablets will also improve. Meanwhile, if you have the room for it, I still would advise using touch tablets with an external keyboard.
## 4\. Large graphics tablets with integral displays
The big models of pen tablets with integral displays all have the same big ergonomics issues. I've owned or tested a lot of tablets with a display over the years. While the technology hasn't changed a lot for the classic graphics tablets, the specifications of the graphics tablets with a display have changed a lot over the years (thanks to the monitor, phone and tablet industries; I remember the first Ipad was released in 2010...). These graphics tablets allow working directly on the surface and the sync between the hands and the eyes is better. They make gesture drawing easier and give more precision for line art and drawing.
When large tablets with an integral display first appeared on the market, they were very expensive devices. Nowadays they only cost a third of what they cost around 2005. The problems of these devices: there may be noticeable [parallax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax) (apparent distance between the tip of your stylus and the image on the screen), your hand might get warm on some areas of the devices, leading to sticky hands and your having to wear a glove (a side effect of having an electric monitor under the palm), the surface of the tablet is rarely able to offer a good texture (vendors and designers often have to choose between getting a slightly blurry image with textured feeling for the stylus, or a crystal-clear image with too-smooth glass), the surface is fragile (dirt trapped between the stylus and the surface can scratch it) and it's harder and more expensive to replace the overlay-sheet on a display tablet than on a classic tablet.
### k) A tilted surface: a three-dimensional issue
The surface of the tablet will always be tilted like an easel: it's rare to get a big model flat enough to use as you would use a large sheet of paper, flat on the desk. So you have to use the built-in stand provided with the tablet, which is often designed mainly to be used in only two positions: an easel-like position with more or less slope (but with the lower edge always too high above your desk, compared to the thickness of a sketchbook) and a vertical-like position to use the tablet as a monitor. This angle makes it harder to access to a keyboard on the side, so it is useless to place a keyboard there.
### l) Keyboard on top
Because the surface is tilted, you also can't put the keyboard over the surface. You'll have to buy a dedicated rig for that (in orange on the figure below). Third-party vendors suggest this, but it's never proposed by the vendors of tablets themselves. I think a built-in solution, designed as part of a big display tablet, would be great.
### m) Keyboard underneath
Placing the keyboard on your lap −often meaning under the desk− is one bad possibility as it will put more distance between you and the surface. Putting the keyboard between you and the tablet is another variation that might work.
### n) Dual positions
With a wheeled chair, it is possible to have two setups side-by-side, connected to the same computer. On one side, a large pen display; on the other, a monitor with a keyboard and a small graphics tablet. This way, you can use the large pen display just for the long hours of painting.
### o) The big DIY
One of the best ways to use a large pen tablet is to cut a hole in the desk (a drawing table) and merge the surface of it flush with the table/desk. This is a rare setup, but one I saw among many professional manga artists. [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-sEn6CNDZk) (in Japanese) by artist Yoshikadu shows step-by-step instructions for making a complex rig like that. Impressive!
**Note about touch devices:** I've never tried the very large pen tablet displays with 'touch' on-screen virtual keyboards. My feeling about them are mixed; while I can see that having a keyboard in the corner of your screen could solve many ergonomics issues, I'm still not fond of typing or gaming on touch keyboards, and I find virtual keyboards are still inferior to physical buttons...
## 5\. Small graphics tablets with display
Small graphics tablets with a display are usually cheaper than the larger models **but also flatter**. This detail changes a lot of things **because you can use them as you would use a sketchbook** or a sheet of paper on your desk. They can often also be used as with an external monitor, mimicking a classic graphics tablet. This hybrid setup often offers the best of both worlds, when managed correctly.
### p) The hybrid setup
A small graphics tablets with a display is often as large as a "large classic tablet" (without display). A 13 inch or 15-16 inch might be as large as a "large" classic model. By using them with the picture on the monitor cloned to the main tablet display, it's possible to get a hybrid workflow. You can get the tablet and keyboard ergonomics of a classic large tablet, and also get the bonus possibility of looking at the tablet for more precise drawings.
## Conclusion
As I said in the intro, the perfect graphics tablet doesn't exist, and the best way for you to find one that suits your body and lifestyle may well be to try a lot of them. But I also want to insist that we all have bodies and habits that can adapt: a not-so-comfortable tablet, too smooth and too large, might still become your best hardware and best tool if you take the effort to commit to painting hours and hours on it. I, too, work this way.
So, if you already own a tablet, take care of it, whatever model it is; it can produce your next masterpiece. Just understand it, and with only what you find around yourself, and a bit of DIY, you can build and optimize a better environment, and enjoy your painting time longer. I hope this article inspired you to take a bit more care over your work position and think about it more. If you want to share your experience and continue the discussion, you're welcome in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
**Foot notes:**
- All artwork (Inkscape [source for the asset](data/images/blog/2010/00/2010c/2020-09-05_tablet-ergonomy-asset.svg)) examples were drawn with a male figure, right-handed. It wasn't designed to exclude all other genders and left-handed artists, I'm sure you'll get it and understand how to adapt this example to your situation.
- As I'm French, my English is far from good enough to write an article like this. If you notice some mistakes and want to contribute improvements, feel free to grab the source file of this article (link under, markdown file), correct it, and send me back by [email](mailto:info@davidrevoy.com) with your corrections.
**Changelog:**
* 2023-10-23: English correction and mistypings, thanks VL !
* 2022-03-07: English correction pass, thanks Hjenkins!
* 2020-09-16: Proofreading pass, thanks Yorwba and Chris K.!
* 2020-09-13: For the ten years, refactor of the article (artworks and text).
* 2010-08-04: Proofreading pass, thanks Slug45!
* 2010-04-11: Original release date of the article.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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4 comments
I painted over tiny sketches made by [Christopher Lemmer Webber](https://octodon.social/@cwebber/) for the Spritely mascot. What's your favorite number(s)?
More info about Spritely on this thread: https://octodon.social/@cwebber/104814025110217474
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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4 comments
Here is a brush•work study while starting the production of episode 34. Episode 34 will have the largest page count of the series with 11 pages! The story happens in the land of Ah and totally justify this unusual length. So, to make this production less painful, I'm studying how I could speed-up renderings and make my brush•work more visible is a good solution. I'll share soon a production report about ep34 with more details.
About the printed books, I had multiple rejections and corrections pass to do over the last weeks but I'll include that in a future update dedicated to the book project. I'm planning to write it after I get the books in hand. I feel I'll have a better mood to explain all the issue. I'm waiting now to receive the 8 printed proof ( three comic books + artbook in softcover and hardcover version) but the production of the printer is slower due to the pandemic, so I'm just waiting a bit more: a good reason to do progress on future ep34 during this time. :-)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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55 comments
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-08-06_kubuntu-2004-install-header.jpg)
_Kubuntu 20.04 running on my desk with my assistant (who refused to pose this time, that's the best shot I had)._
## Intro
### Summer: the death of Scribus stable and Kubuntu 19.10:
Wooo, summer... Hot weather and a quick computer reinstall right in the middle of the production of the books because [my previous Kubuntu 19.10](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article761/kubuntu-linux-19-10-for-a-digital-painting-workstation-reasons-and-install-guide) was obsolete and reached end of life in July. Bad surprise for me this time in the process: **no way to install Scribus 1.4.8 stable anymore** and all my books are done with that. The package was ~~savagely forced~~ replaced by 1.5.5~Development and no way to reinstall the previous version flagged as stable by the Scribus team.
So, I'll have to move the book project to this development version (it will take hours of adaptation because the text-engine changed between 1.4x and 1.5x). If you are on Windows, Mac, 18.04 or CentOS no worry for you: the package still exists there. Sad to see that no Appimage, Flatpack or Snap are around to rescue this issue... But let's close for now this parenthesis with a taste of bitterness. I'll cope with that, I saw uglier situations of upgrade in my life and this Kubuntu 20.04 is −about all other aspect− a splendid distribution so far.
### Continuing with Kubuntu
As you might already know, I produce everything I do since more than 10 years under a GNU/Linux systems (webcomic, website, book, freelance, videos, etc...). Along the way, I tried so many distros: Linux Mint GNOME2/Mate/Cinnamon, \[X-L-K\]Ubuntu GNOME2/Unity/GNOME3, Manjaro XFCE, Arch Linux with Awesome, Fedora, Open Suse, well, it would be quicker maybe if I write in this list what I haven't tried.... But **from 2018 to now, I'm surprisingly sticking to the same distro: [Kubuntu](https://kubuntu.org/).** Third version I have and so far, I'm happy with it. Even a [miracle did happen](https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=399375) in newer version: Alt key is no longer used by Plasma and this one moved to Super(Windows key). Thank you the KDE devs for that!
### What is this article?
To compile the notes here, I used [my previous guides](https://www.davidrevoy.com/tag/install) as a template and made a full reinstall. If you need to simply upgrade from my previous guide with 19.10, just use [this method](https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FocalUpgrades/Kubuntu). You'll find on this article **two parts**:
* **1. Reasons:** or why I advice this for a digital painting workstation.
* **2. Install:** or tips, command-lines and methods to clone my config.
Why? This article might **help newcomers or even advanced user** facing same problematic as I do when choosing an operating system. It will also answer the question "What distro do you use?", a classic I keep receiving all the time (and finally less since I produce this guide).
# Part 1. Reasons:
My main big reasons to use a GNU/Linux open-source system evolved a bit from [the origins](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article170/why-i-m-using-100-open-source):
- **Independence** (no one have a control on what I watch, what I use and how I use it).
- **Technology** (performance, scripting, standards).
- **Transparency** (open-source: you can investigate any parts).
- **Control of my data** and **privacy**.
But almost all distros provide that so here is a specific list of what I prefer on Kubuntu 20.04 compared to other existing solutions:
### Graphic Tablet GUI
Kubuntu 20.04 ships out of the box with a first class and **fully featured tablet configuration** panel, including the possibility to setup all buttons (eg. modifier on stylus button as "Ctrl"), add profiles and switch between them, mapping to custom area and support of multi monitors switch and calibration for pen-display!... That's something that no other desktop environment has to the date (the closer being GNOME but with many features missing in comparison). On the past, I ran custom bash script for years before having the possibility to setup my tablet this way. By the way, if you wonder what type of tablet I'm using, it's a Intuos4 XL (using only 3/4 of the total active surface) with a recent stylus (from Cintiq 13HD era) and with a Huion WH1409 overlay sheet and a DIY wood deck for my keyboard on the non-used upper part because of the mapping (see photo on the header of the article). For the why, [read this article](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article332/tablet-history-log) because it is a bit too long for here.
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-03-11_kubuntu1910-a-tablet-panel.gif)
_Graphic Tablet panel in the System Settings_
### Friendly with images format
Dolphin, the file explorer of Kubuntu can generate **very large thumbnails** for your artworks as you can see under. It **supports a lot of image format**: Krita source files (kra), Open Raster (ora), Photoshop files (psd) and many other classics (png, jpg, etc...). This is very comfortable to work on a project with many illustrations where very often the filename is not relevant and where your decision of editing will be made according to the content of the thumbnails.
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-03-11_kubuntu1910-a-large-thumbnail-demo.jpg)
_Support of kra, psd, ora and tiff thumbnails_
This compatibility will also affect the image viewer and you'll be able to **display psd and kra files instantly** like for any other usual image format (jpg, png, tiff, tga). This ability to quick preview a heavy layered source file really helps in production.
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-03-11_kubuntu1910-a-preview-files.jpg)
_Nomacs image viewer displaying a Krita (kra) layered high resolution comic page instantly._
Dolphin is also able to show previews for your 3D Blender files, your audio and videos medias, OpenEXR and SVG vector format. It's really multimedia-ready.
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-08-08_format-update-dolphin-preview.jpg)
_Dolphin supports also previews blend, mp4, mp3, exr and svg._
If you work with incremental saves or many versions of the same image project, having the ability to read larger thumbnail will be help you in your editing choices. You'll also have **a better overview on your projects** while working on them. I know it sounds a bit obvious; but not for everyone because the mainstream popular file explorer on GNU/Linux —Nautilus— limited by design all the thumbnails to 128px pixels maximum and keeps adding a confusing white rounded border around the picture that alter the representation of pictures.
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-03-11_kubuntu1910-a-large-thumbnails.jpg)
### Friendly with colors
On Kubuntu **you can change the color of the theme** in the settings. This possibility allows the quick setup of a neutral gray UI, **an important feature for working with colors balance**. Many themes from other distros force color brand on users; including a flashy main color for selection in relation with the logo. This research of an identity via a strong color damage the work of those who works with colors. And making theme with slightly colored gray (cold or warm) is worst.
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-03-11_kubuntu1910-a-configure-color-theme.jpg)
_Colors panel in the System Settings_
Another great feature, are **custom colored directories** and **Git integration in the file explorer**; for a person like me with a memory driven for color, shapes and position this is precious to organize my files. I can also see that way what files changed recently and possibility to pull, push, add and commit via the right-click menu. In my opinion, Kubuntu opens Git contribution to non-developer and that's something precious for teamwork.
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-03-11_kubuntu1910-a-colored-folder-git-integration.jpg)
_Colors folders and emblems for Git integration_
### Other
- **A configurable "Open With" menu** on right-click to optionally edit your files with other software and setup the position of how they appear on the list. So you can set you kra files to open on double-click with a viewer and with a right click edit it with Krita. This feature sounds obvious, but not all file explorer have a good ergonomy for managing file association.
- **Support customization of the user interface**. Almost all elements of the user interface (launcher, icons, toolbar) can be modified to mimic any popular desktop environment ergonomy or create your own. Here I prefer a classic bar with a menu, windows lists and system tray; black and on top.
- **Support multi-monitors workflow** with possbilities as listing windows per monitors, adding menus or widget where you want. It's not just a main monitor and a slave monitor: you'll have two monitors. The tiling in quarter by default is also precious for managing windows on large monitor (eg. QuadHD monitors).
- **Perfect system integration for Krita** and this is convenient if it is your main tool (Kubuntu is built by the same community: KDE): it improves performances, theming, icons and drag&drop of files.
- **Compatible with many devices** and has a large knowledge base online thanks Ubuntu community: it works fine for my hardware: a Dell Vostro 430 PC tower I bought 10 years ago with various upgrade: a 8 x Intel Core i7 870 @ 2.93Hz, 16GB RAM and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti (requiring Nvidia proprietary drivers, but really easy to install).
### Issues and flaws:
- **No graphical user interface for color management** of your monitors, printers, etc... Well, there is sort of two. First, a project named `colord-kde` exists for that but has bugs. You can install it with `sudo apt install gnome-color-manager libcolord-gtk1 argyll colord-kde` and you'll get a GUI to load ICC to monitors. But you'll can't calibrate, a message "You need Gnome Color Management installed in order to calibrate devices" will tell you it's impossible. Here is [the colord-kde bug report](https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=417157) started during the beta period of 20.04. On a second time, you have also DisplayCal that works for creating ICC profile but often fail at the moment of applying them at startup. You'll need to extract the ICC produced from the ZIP, then manually load them. So, I'll write a reliable workaround in the second part about it involving a minimal set of command-line while keeping flexibility.
- Thumbnails and image viewer are **not color managed** (eg. don't expect displaying correctly a PNG using a linear profile, and prepare for random colors for CMYK tiff/jpg thumbnails).
# Part 2. Install:
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-03-11_kubuntu1910-a-overall.jpg)
Ok, now let's start with how to get everything working like that.
[info] **Quick usual disclaimer:** this article gives no warranty of success. Do all of this at your own risk, I take no responsibilities if you damage your hardware (no reason it should happens, but I prefer to write that and not be attacked later in this legal world). Also: I tested all of that on my workstation while reinstalling it, I'm not owning all hardware existing. What might work smoothly for me, might be a laggy hell on your PC. I also tried to detail all the steps to be friendly with newcomers (Mac and Windows users). [/info]
### Download the ISO:
You'll find a free copy of [Kubuntu on their website](https://kubuntu.org/), menu 'Download'. Then you need write the ISO to a USB flash drive. If you are not familiar with how to write an ISO to a USB flash drive, I recommend following the information [down the download page of the Ubuntu website](https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop) with more specific and detailed information for user coming from Windows, MacOS or other operating systems. Here I'm doing from my previous GNU/Linux system, using ``gnome-disk-utility`` that has a convenient shortcut "Write image to disk" appearing after right-clicking any ISO file on file explorer. Then I select my USB drive in a list and done.
### Pre-installation adviced:
Before booting your computer to read the content of the flash drive USB (often a F9 or F12 key on startup to access a "Boot service menu" that will list the USB medias), I'll recommend to prepare a bit the situation. First: do a full backup of any important data. And in second time, prepare your partition layout in advance. When it's done, while installing Kubuntu pick the 'Normal Installation' (not the minimal) and at the 'Disk Setup' part of the process use 'Manual' to enter the partition editor. Then you can tell where to install Kubuntu exactly. I propose here a classic of three partitions:
1. For the Operating System: 25GB (minimum, I use 100GB of a spare SSD disk) → formatted as ext4 → root '/'.
2. An area for memory swap: 8GB (I use 20GB of same SSD disk than above) → formatted as swap
3. Your user profile and documents: The last bigger part of your disk (I use a 500GB dedicated SSD disk) → formatted as ext4 → '/home'.
### Software & Updates, Additional Drivers and upgrade:
Once installed, open the main menu of Plasma and launch 'Discover' (start typing "Disco" in the search field). Discover is the app store of Kubuntu. You'll find at the bottom a "Settings" button; click on it and you'll see on top-right an access to 'Software Sources'. Click it and enter your password. When the dialog 'Software Sources' appears, on the first tab 'Ubuntu Software', select the best mirror (Download from > Other > Select Best Server). You'll save a ton of time for the updates if you do that after the first launch.
Then go to the tab 'Additional Drivers' and install the proprietary proposed driver (especially if it makes your hardware more stable and performs better, a common situation on GNU/Linux for NVidia drivers unfortunately.)
When all of that is done, close this dialog and in Discover press the colored "Update" button to list the updates. You can proceed to do all the updates (button on top of this page 'Update All' to start the process). Don't worry if it is a lot: a fresh system installed always have a lot of update to do (eg. I had 244 update to do here).
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-03-11_kubuntu1910-a-discover-gives-clues.gif)
_Discover is great to review each update and read what changed package per package_
As an alternative, you can do the same update with this two lines inside "Konsole" the terminal app of Kubuntu. This line will ask for your password as the change affect your operating system. Just note that Ctrl+C works to copy this lines but you'll need to Ctrl+Shift+V to paste it inside Konsole, because Ctrl+V is reserved historically to other terminal based features.
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
## Settings
When all the update are done and your hardware works (I advice a little reboot to check if everything is alright) then it's time for settings. Here is the list of settings I recommend to alter Kubuntu slightly in order to adapt it to visual content creation:
### Restore a functional Alt key
KDE Plasma team recently fixed this one; but I'm not sure it is part of Plasma 5.18 that comes with Kubuntu 20.04§. So in case: the ``Alt`` modifier Key on your keyboard might still be used to moves windows. This important ``Alt`` modifier key is used in software like Krita, Inkscape, Scribus and Blender. You can fortunately change this behavior, and transfer this feature to the ``Super`` key (the Windows key, new default now).
In the settings: Windows Management > Windows behavior > Windows Action: Switch the Modifier 'Alt key' to 'Meta key'.
### Deactivate the hot corner
Hot corners are probably cool but doesn't work very well with a tablet. I tend to forget about them, then I quickly remember as I take back a mouse. Kubuntu comes with a predefined hot corner to show all windows, it can be deactivated this way:
In the settings: Desktop Behavior > Screen Edges > deactivate the top left corner "present all windows"
### Don't darken colors of parent windows
Darkening the parent windows often breaks usability of visual apps (eg. a color picker windows that can't access color of the parent).
In the settings: Desktop effect > Dialog Parent (darken the parent windows) unchecked
### Don't drag from any part of the GUI
This feature allows one to drag the window from any pixels inside the GUI. With a stylus in hand, it leads to many unintentional drag as soon as someone tries to adjust a slider a bit quickly.
In the settings: Application Style > (check the little configuration icon near to 'Breeze') > in the 'Configure Breeze' panel turn "Windows drag Mode" to title-bar only".
### Start system with an empty session
By default, Kubuntu will restore at startup all the app that were still opened at shutdown. If you prefer starting fresh with an empty desktop:
In the settings: Startup and Shutdown > Login Screen (SDDM) > choose "Start with empty session" or the computer will launch all programs open when you pressed the shutdown button.
### Fix non-persistent numlock key
For French AZERTY keyboard, numbers are more accessible via the numpad. But without a persistent numlock key you'll have to press numlock every start, unless:
In the settings: Hardware > Input device > Numlock on startup "Turn on"
### Neutralize the colored gray on theme
Having blueish gray, or warm gray on the user interface can mess with your perception of color balance and then affect your work. Breeze, the default theme comes with colored grays...
In the settings: Colors > Mouse hover "Breeze" to select the tiny pen 'edit' button.
You can then edit the colors, the main issue is with "Focus decoration" > Remove the saturation of the color to make it neutral. And switch all title bar (active/inactive) to a neutral gray: I use here ``#3c3c3c``.
### Thinner Windows style
A useful tips to save room on monitors for more vertical space and so more brush presets, palette or options that matters while painting:
In the settings: Application style > Windows decoration > Windows Border size 'No borders':
- Put your mouse over the Breeze thumbnail to reveal the hidden Edit button (a little pencil icon, I know: this interface is not a good design)
- Then in the panel: General > Button size > Small
- Also, remove "Draw a circle around close button" exept if you like it.
- Go back to the Settings main menu, then: Fonts > Fonts > Lower windows title to 9pt, bold.
### A black theme for an interface on top
This is a personal taste; it blends better with the edges of my border-less monitors and it's easier to forget about them:
In the settings: Workspace theme > Plasma theme > Get New Plasma Themes and find Unity-Plasma
Move the panel to the top screen border (the configuration icon on bottom-right > Screen edge and drag and drop the panel to the top).
### Add a workspace
Workspaces are great for productivity! I use only two workspace:
1. "General", to take notes, reply to email, work on my script, the website or read social medias.
2. "Production" were I have an always ready "virtual easel" with my setup ready to paint.
In the settings: Desktop Behavior > Virtual Desktops ; one row, top one "Internet" and "Production" on two row. I switch them scrolling on a Pager widget in my top bar on second monitor.
### File-Manager Dolphin, Krita, Blender & Git previews:
Open the file manager, and go to Control > Configure Dolphin:
In General > Preview tab, activate 'Krita documents' and any other preview you are interested in. (eg. I add also Blender previews, and I deactivate here the directory previews).
For the Git preview, it will be in the 'Services' page but only after installing the plugins manually and restart Dolphin:
sudo apt install dolphin-plugins
Optional while you are around: cleanup the Services not used for a more compact right-click menu.
### A better kickoff menu
The default menu of Kubuntu has only a single column of favorite application. If you do content creation including audio, video, art; you might have as I do dozens of favorite app. Fortunately, an alternative menu exist and let you setup more column and resize the menu:
Click on the option of your panel (icon on far right) then click on "Add a new widget" and go to get new widget button on the bottom of the list to pick new widget online. You'll find an update for the default Plasma kickoff menu with more option (resize, column, icon size) and less scroll: Kickoff/Grid https://store.kde.org/p/1317546/. This just feels right!
If you loose the 'Super' key action to open the menu, right-click on the kickoff button, "Configure Application Launcher", then in the dialog go to "Keyboard shortcut tab" and assign ``Meta+F1`` as a shortcut (Meta is the "Windows" key, also called "Super"). This is a workaround because the Meta/Super key alone will be rejected. For an unknown reason, this non logic tips works: you'll have your menu pop up after a single Meta/Super key press after that.
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-03-11_kubuntu1910-b-long-menu.jpg)
_A longer start menu with two columns_
### Custom default folders
By default, GNU/Linux system forces you to adopt a directory structure in your home folder. "Desktop", "Videos", "Public", etc... This doesn't suit every needs. You can fortunately customize that. Mine are slightly different (mostly undercase). To edit them, open your Files, show hidden folder with Ctrl+h and then edit .config/user-dirs.dirs with a text editor (eg, kate). Then edit the lines to your liking, save and close.
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/beta-test"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/documents"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/downloads"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/pictures"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/public"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/resources/templates"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/videos"
After that close all the instance of the file manager:
killall dolphin
When you'll restart it, the change will be done.
### Firefox media integration:
This is a little plus, but I admit I like it to be able to quickly pause the podcast or music I'm listening (more and more often via a webrowser) while painting :
Firefox addons for plasma integration: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/plasma-integration/].
## Color Calibration and Management
This part unfortunately was working on previous Plasma4 but doesn't work anymore since years now. Here is my workaround. We will use argyllcms tools installed this way:
sudo apt install argyll
### Create ICC:
To do a classic calibration of two monitors (I have a USB Pantone Huey Pro colorimeter) at 160cd/m², 6500K and Gamma 2.2 enter this type of line one by one on the terminal:
dispcal -d 1 -t 6500 -b 160 -g 2.2 -yl -v -o MONITOR1
dispcal -d 2 -t 6500 -b 160 -g 2.2 -yl -v -o MONITOR2
Just follow the instruction on the terminal, place your colorimeter and wait for getting your ICC. Simple.
### Load the ICC:
To apply the ICC on each start-up; we will have to do a script containing something like that (adapt the path):
#! /bin/sh
dispwin -d 1 /absolute/path/to/MONITOR1.icc
dispwin -d 2 /absolute/path/to/MONITOR2.icc
Save that into a ``ICC-loader.sh``, right click on the file and give it permission to execute, then in the Kubuntu menu search for "Autostart" then in the dialog "add a new script" and customize the path to load our ICC-loader script.
## Software
Here is the list I use, if you don't know them, I invite to select the keyword of their name with your right-click and search more information about them. Needless to say I love all the software on this list and a epic THANK YOU if you contributed to them:
### Must have:
My favorite utilities:
sudo apt install filezilla nomacs xournal xsane zim ghostwriter gtimelog meld
The GNU/Linux graphic tools:
sudo apt install gimp blender photocollage
(note: see later instruction to get Inkscape 1.0 and Krita 4.3)
Audio/video editing tools:
sudo apt install audacity obs-studio simplescreenrecorder olive-editor kdenlive guvcview peek audacious audacious-plugins audacious-plugins-data clementine
Development tools, codecs and and other must-have libraries (imo):
sudo apt install git wget imagemagick ffmpeg mencoder htop diffutils rsync curl cryptsetup libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev libxml2-utils ruby ruby-sass flashplugin-installer libcurl4 trash-cli libavcodec-extra lame flac unrar zip unzip p7zip-full p7zip-rar rar x264 libdvdnav4 gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly ffmpegthumbnailer
### Specific to my install/needs
Libraries and tools for Pepper&Carrot scripts and renderfarm:
sudo apt install exiftran lftp xclip jo notify-osd libnotify-bin optipng sshpass jq python3-pip zenity parallel python3-unidecode python-is-python3
pip3 install --upgrade arabic-reshaper
Book project: PDF manipulation, LaTex
sudo apt install scribus fontforge fontforge-extras peek texlive-full texlive-extra-utils pdftk pandoc
System admin preference utilities:
sudo apt install mc ppa-purge screenfetch gnome-disk-utility geany kronometer treesheets gprename samba gitk
My old printer Canon MP560 on Linux can only be added to the printers list in the settings after installing the Bjnp protocol and also adding special permissions (replace "deevad" with your username) :
sudo apt install cups-backend-bjnp
sudo usermod -a -G lpadmin deevad
### Inkscape 1.0
This major and amazing release wasn't made in time to be part of Kubuntu 20.04. But a repository exists:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:inkscape.dev/stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install inkscape
### Micro
a simpler editor than the default Nano (with sane shortcut: Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+S and Ctrl+Q) for my quick edit of config files in the Terminal. It also has line number, code syntax colored, and support for mouse. With that tool and after years of nano, I re-enjoy editing files as sudo inside the terminal.
curl https://getmic.ro | bash
sudo mv micro /usr/bin/micro
Note: Micro was finally packaged with 20.04; but the package is [poor quality and has bugs that make it non-usable](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/micro/+bug/1870939).
### Krita
I install two versions of Krita on my computer:
1. A compiled from the sources version to participate bug-tracking and feedback.
2. A stable appimage version for production.
I already wrote two illustrated articles about them: [my Krita compile guide for cats](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article193/compile-krita-from-source-code-on-linux-for-cats) and [the Krita appimage article](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article322/krita-appimage-for-cats).
#### Quick install of Krita 4.3 AppImage:
As I'm writing this guide, I'm using the krita-4.3.0-x86_64.appimage in production and since its release. This is a solid version where I made episodes, and book projects from A to Z without a crash or big trouble. To get a dedicated Krita-stable and the shortcut in your menu (customize the path to your liking):
mkdir ~/software
cd ~/software
wget https://download.kde.org/stable/krita/4.3.0/krita-4.3.0-x86_64.appimage
wget https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Calligrakrita-base.svg/1200px-Calligrakrita-base.svg.png
chmod +x krita-4.3.0-x86_64.appimage
And for the launcher (using micro text-editor, use 'nano' if not installed),
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications
micro ~/.local/share/applications/krita-stable.desktop
And paste into this recipe (customize the path; /home/deevad is my user folder, you'll need to adapt your code to yours).
[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Graphics;
Name=Krita-Stable
Comment=Digital Painting - Stable appimage
Exec=/home/deevad/software/krita-4.3.0-x86_64.appimage
Icon=/home/deevad/software/1200px-Calligrakrita-base.svg.png
MimeType=image/openraster;application/x-krita;
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application
Save (Ctrl+S) and quit (Ctrl+Q), then do that to make your launcher executable:
chmod +x ~/.local/share/applications/krita-stable.desktop
Now when you type "Krita" after pressing super; you'll have the new Krita icon and you'll be able also to use it to "Open With" your documents, or put it on your favorite in dock. Note that with this recipe you can install many other software and use in parallel many version of Krita.
#### Compile Krita from source:
If you want to follow the development and help with beta-testing you can read [my cat guide here](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article193/compile-krita-from-source-code-on-linux-for-cats) to compile it. But during the process, you'll realise you'll need to install libraries to build the code from source and the only way to get the list is by playing trial and errors. One after one. I spent those two hours for you, here is my list that work out-of-the-box on Kubuntu 20.04:
sudo apt install cmake debhelper extra-cmake-modules gettext libboost-system-dev libeigen3-dev libexiv2-dev libfftw3-dev libgif-dev libgsl-dev libjpeg-dev libkf5archive-dev libkf5completion-dev libkf5config-dev libkf5coreaddons-dev libkf5crash-dev libkf5guiaddons-dev libkf5i18n-dev libkf5itemmodels-dev libkf5itemviews-dev libkf5kio-dev libkf5widgetsaddons-dev libkf5windowsystem-dev liblcms2-dev libopencolorio-dev libopenexr-dev libpng-dev libpoppler-qt5-dev libqt5opengl5-desktop-dev libqt5svg5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev libraw-dev libtiff-dev libxcb-util0-dev libxcb1-dev libxi-dev pkg-config pkg-kde-tools pyqt5-dev python3-dev python3-pyqt5 python3-sip-dev qtbase5-dev qtdeclarative5-dev qtmultimedia5-dev vc-dev zlib1g-dev libqt5sql5-sqlite libquazip5-dev
### Youtube-dl
A tool to download videos on Youtube; useful to quote other CC-By video production or other videos with compatible license:
sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
To update it later:
sudo youtube-dl -U
### Key-mon
A screencast utility that displays your keyboard and mouse status, useful for recording video tutorials and show what keys you press. I made [a theme](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article68/keymon-custom-theme) for it back in 2011 and unfortunately it is not packaged anymore due to dependencies to Python 2 and Gtk2. Fortunately, Scott Kirkwood made a fork [available on Github](https://github.com/scottkirkwood/key-mon), to install it:
sudo apt-get install python3-xlib
pip3 install git+https://github.com/scottkirkwood/key-mon
and to run, type ``key-mon`` on a console (or create a shortcut icon to it).
## Web development
I'm a bit old school for my web development (I learned in 2000), all I needs is PHP and modules like XML handling, Image Manipulation (GD) and URL rewriting. My website here https://www.davidrevoy.com and https://www.peppercarrot.com still use only that. So the guide under is very specific to my needs but it might inspire other users.
### Install the LAMP stack
sudo apt install apache2
echo "ServerName localhost" | sudo tee /etc/apache2/conf-available/fqdn.conf
sudo a2enconf fqdn
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-gd php-xml php-mbstring
sudo systemctl reload apache2
### Symlinks custom folders
By default, the local server use directory ``/var/www/html`` but I prefer to work on my home directory. It ease my backup and comfort to edit files. Here is what I do with symlinks, as an example. I start to remove the default file in www/html, then I recreate it:
sudo rm -r /var/www/html
sudo mkdir /var/www/html
After that, I link from this place my web development directories:
sudo ln -s ~/www/peppercarrot/ /var/www/html/peppercarrot
sudo ln -s ~/www/.test.peppercarrot/ /var/www/html/peppercarrot-test
sudo ln -s ~/www/davidrevoy /var/www/html/davidrevoy
### Permissions
To allows URL rewrite and .htaccess on local folders:
sudo micro /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
Add the following to the end of the file :
AllowOverride All
If you often tweak files created via apache/php; a good tip is to add your user to the www-data group, for my user 'deevad' it looks like that:
sudo usermod -a -G www-data deevad
id deevad
groups deevad
### Restart and enjoy
sudo systemctl restart apache2
It's now good, you can connect with your web-browser to your folders with this type of address [http://localhost/davidrevoy/]. When the website are ready; I upload changes with Filezilla to my distant server via sFTP. But I also automatized that with time using a rsync script over SSH that help at doing the synchronization. If you want to know more about this method; look at the [upload script](https://framagit.org/peppercarrot/tools/-/blob/master/update-website.sh) on Pepper&Carrot tool repository.
## Other, Misc
### Disable Apport crash report dialog:
By default all Ubuntu derivatives comes with a tool to report bugs. In theory, the idea is very good. In practice, you'll have a dialog pop-up that appear each time a software exit a bit abruptly or each crashes you have (and with the software I have, crashes are something you'll experience from time to time unfortunately). The report are often useless for the developer and so this dialog reports too many false positives that interrupt work and takes very long to display. It also known to crash on its own on Kubuntu since years. To deactivate it:
sudo micro /etc/default/apport
Edit manually 'enabled=1' to 'enabled=0' and Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+Q to quit.
### Fix Imagemagick memory limit.
By default, Imagemagick, a command line tool to manipulate raster images, is installed with a very low tolerance to large files. That's a bit sad because I remember when they changed it and then I had an issue with it I took hours to solve. If we want to convert 300ppi PNG or JPG, convert to CMYK this faulty default will return errors. To level up the possibilities of this fantastic library:
sudo micro /etc/ImageMagick-6/policy.xml
Scroll the lines and upgrade the limit manually with the text editor. My setup use that:
also, allow PDF read/write (it is useful).
Find the line:
and change it to
Ctrl+S to save, Ctrl+Q to quit.
### Fix issue with sleep/suspend/hibernate mode
Warning, might be Dell Vostro 430 (my computer) specific: since two releases my computer can't go to sleep, when it does it shut totally and no way to wake it up. I have to press 6 sec on the shutdown button or remove the power, wait... and start again as a regular boot. This tip fix it:
sudo micro /etc/systemd/sleep.conf
Then uncomment first line and add this under `[Sleep]`:
[Sleep]
AllowSuspend=yes
SuspendState=freeze
(uncomment: `AllowSuspend=yes`)
## References & links:
- [Kubuntu official website](https://kubuntu.org/)
- [All my previous guides from 2011 to now](https://www.davidrevoy.com/tag/install).
- A previous guide never listed: [Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 LTS](https://www.davidrevoy.com/data/documents/2014-06-30_UbuntuGnome1404/index.html).
- Reinstall youtube-dl on Ubuntu 18.04 https://andjey.info/reinstall-youtube-dl-on-ubuntu/
- Wiki Archlinux: XDG user directories - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XDG_user_directories
- Kickoff resize issue: https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?t=128771
- Sleep mode issue: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1183716/ubuntu-19-10-on-dell-xps-13-2-in-1-7390-suspend-problem/1184109
I hope you liked this article! Here is to end a quick inspired Kubuntu artwork to thanks the Kubuntu team!
[](data/images/blog/2020/kubuntu-guide/2020-02-26_kubuntu-article.jpg)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
24 comments
[](data/images/blog/2020/2020-07-26_book-covers.jpg)
_Cover and backcover plates for the four books, ready for print._
On the [last episode](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article757/the-english-book-printed-project-production-report-3) of my long [print quest](https://www.davidrevoy.com/tag/print), I solved complex color printing issues thanks to a long study. It was in February. Then two things happened: the COVID19 worldwide pandemic (postal services frozen, bad time for new tests or release) and I wasn't happy with the 200 pages big book format anymore. I thought this big anthology of episodes would push me into a situation where it would be near to impossible to produce a "book 2" within the next 5 years.
So, I spent [full July](https://framagit.org/peppercarrot/book-publishing/-/commits/master/) refactoring the project into three thinner books and I also discovered on the way I could collect sketches, speedpainting and illustration and do an Artbook. This one would use the cover I designed for the previous 200 pages big book. But to make this refactor and integrate the methods I learned from Minibooks, it was a lot of work to keep everything versioned, open-sources, dynamic (to switch language), automated by scripts, standardized with a fixed page numbers/prices for all and release all of that in both softcover and hardcover...a long long TODO list and a lot of data (20GB!).
## The free ebooks
Yesterday, I reached one of the main milestone: I finished the work with Scribus, exported, launched my script and rendered four lightweight PDF 'ebook' (~17MB for each). I'm really happy about them. So I decided it was good time to party and share them with you, so you can take them with you on holidays if you have a tablet or anything that reads PDF:
* **Book1:** [B01_inside_72pages_8.5x11_final.pdf](https://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/print/2020-08-13b_B01_inside_72pages_8.5x11_final.pdf)
* **Book2:** [B02_inside_72pages_8.5x11_final.pdf](https://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/print/2020-08-13b_B02_inside_72pages_8.5x11_final.pdf)
* **Book3:** [B03_inside_72pages_8.5x11_final.pdf](https://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/print/2020-08-13b_B03_inside_72pages_8.5x11_final.pdf)
* **Artbook:** [B04_inside_72pages_8.5x11_final.pdf](https://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/print/2020-08-13b_B0A_inside_72pages_8.5x11_final.pdf)
(Links were updated, previous versions are all [archived here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/print/).)
## Printed book coming soon
First, the printed version is not ready yet. I even don't have one in my hands right now. The books should appear on the e-Shop page **by the end of next month, September**, if everything goes as planned. I still have a lot of work to receive the final printed proof, validate it, refactor the website eshop page, produce a video to show you the printed final and setup every product pages. Talking about the product page, the final price planned for any books will be the same:
* **Hardcover**: 16.50$ per book.
* **Softcover**: 11.95$ per book.
Both version will have same page count (72 pages), premium quality paper, glossy colorful cover and large size 8.5x11 inch size (~ 21,60x28 cm). Compared to all the time invested in it, I would probably need to sell over than 2500 books to start talking about benefits. So, I'll try to launch a sort of campaign for it to ask to break this number, with a meter I'll update and weekly blog-post to keep news. It will not be a crowdfunding nor a pre-sale campaign, just a regular sale with what-you-pay-is-whay-you-get. I hope you'll like this simple concept that I prefer over a classic crowdfunding. I'll give more details about it on next update.
## Proofreading contribution
A last TODO before receiving the printed proof from my printer: I need a proofreading pass over these PDFs. I know my English is full of mistakes and that's why I'll need your help to proofread and report issues before I send this work to the printer. It's not about proofreading the webcomic pages (they have already a dedicated team working since years on that) but more for the other parts of the books: the intro, the ending notes, the descriptions of the artbook, etc... I'm planning to send the final files on mid-August, then receive the proof via postal way, validate it for production and then start the e-Shop page during September. So, thank you if you can help at improving the quality of this books! I opened yesterday [a thread to collect and centralize your future feedbacks](https://framagit.org/peppercarrot/book-publishing/-/issues/1).
That's all! To finish, here are Scribus screenshot of the Artbook:
[](data/images/blog/2020/2020-08-03_scribus-screenshot_161747_net.jpg)
_The double page about Hippiah school_
[](data/images/blog/2020/2020-08-03_scribus-screenshot_161849_net.jpg)
_A double page about Saffron and Magmah school but she has more: as for Shichimi and Coriander they have four pages._
[](data/images/blog/2020/2020-08-03_scribus-screenshot_162017_net.jpg)
_Showing behind the scene thumbnails and sketches to make a cover_
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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10 comments
While the printed book project is doing good progress, I started writing the next episode 34. It's not an easy scenario and it still require a lot of attention (but thanks to a solid proofread team, I'm also doing good progress here). The big outline of the scenario starts to appear: it will finally explore a bit more the land of Shichimi and her magic school. So, here is a screenshot while searching for how Wasabi −master of Shichimi− would look. It feels good to put back my hand on Krita after almost a full week of only pre-press work with Scribus/Imagemagick/Bash and writing in a world of Git/Markdown. I also adopted the new watercolor brushes made by Ramon Miranda built-in Krita 4.3.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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55 comments
Hi! I just posted a new Pepper&Carrot episode on peppercarrot website:
https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/article466/episode-33-spell-of-war
Have a good read !
(I'll add more infos in the comments later)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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19 comments
[info]
**Disclaimer:**
Screenshot here might spoil parts of the story (I selected them to minify this effect).
[/info]
In about ten days, I'll post the future episode 33 of Pepper&Carrot and while the English version is in its final validation step, I'm taking the time to show you what I have done so far on this adventure.
It took me a lot of time reach this step. First, the episode is slightly longer than usual (8 pages long against an average of 6,5 pages long). Then, I have a lot of shots with many soldiers, characters and army. And to finish; (cherry on top) I felt exhausted during the confinement and my attention was happy to flee into other tasks where I had more control and less frustration: Krita beta for 4.3, Inkscape 1.0 release, Peertube v3 Crowdfunding, Kubuntu 20.04, update for the translation system, continuation of the P&C book project, peppercarrot.com website update...etc...etc... Oh, I was very productive! ...just **not very focused on my main quest**.
On a artistic point of view; that wasn't a bad thing at all: all of this projects aside allowed me to take a bit of distance with the production of episode 33 and I could return to it with fresher eyes when I had enough brainpower. That's also why I haven't be really talkative about the process this time, **this episode met a lot of mutations on the way**. So, is here a recap:
## 1. Preproduction
### A. A specific color mood
My starting point was this concept-art I made with Gimp and Blender in 2009 on the production of the open movie Sintel at the Blender Foundation. It was at a time before a total refactoring of the scenario, so it is normal if you don't recognize the main characters or background of Sintel in it. It was a totally different short movie scenario. But I rediscovered this artwork during a system backup in March and **I wanted to renew a connection with this darker color palette of mine**.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33a-a-inspi.jpg)
_Concept-art for Sintel, 2009. CC-By Blender.org_
### B. The problematic Orcs representation in Fantasy
At start of April, I had to do a bit of concept-art to prepare character design for this episode; especially about the front line enemies in the battle: an army of Orcs in my scenario. That's when while reading the Wikipedia page about Orcs, **I discovered the [Alleged Racism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orc#Alleged_racism) chapter**. I had no idea about this problem in Fantasy! That was really informative and I wish I knew it before.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33a-b-test.jpg)
_On left: quick painting test with Orcs. On right: concept-art for Chaos&Evolution DVD, 2009. CC-By Blender.org_
So, after reading more literature and blog post about this topic using the network of references link on the footer of the article, depicting an army enemy of Orcs for Pepper&Carrot was a big "no go" for my vision of Hereva (the world of Pepper&Carrot). I then decided to change the army for **another design: an army of humans**, with just another cultural style in their decorations but still with the same level of technology. Thanks to an advice of [Craig Maloney](http://decafbad.net/) (Wiki maintainer and working on the Fate based RPG of Pepper&Carrot) while discussing it on our IRC channel, I centered the new design to be in the continuation of enemies already appearing on Pepper&Carrot.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33a-c-design-ideas.jpg)
_Panels from episode 26 "Books are Great" (left), Panel from episode 13 "The pyjama party" (right)._
I then adopted the design of knights with glowing eyes masked under their helmets.
This overall process took me a while because it changed a lot my vision of the full episode and it took me time to re-imagine all the shot I already had in mind. In the light of recent events around the globe against racism, I'm now very comforted in my choice of having spent time on research for this change.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33a-d-first-panel-speedpainting.jpg)
_Concept-art and first panel for episode 33 depicting the new design for the enemies_
### C. Workflow test and more design
I really liked all the production steps on the previous episode 32; but I felt I could improve on two or three things: **better colors**, something more **painterly** (more visible it was crafted by a human and not a machine) and **thinner line-art**. I then made two illustrations test: [Mysterious](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article772/mysterious) and [another one with Saffron](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article775/grown-up-saffron). Both mixed a thinner line-art and a sort of preshading with grayscale and reading my words about them I was like 200% confident I could apply it to comic.
Well, I started the grayscale to color on the three first pages of ep33 because I still kept a doubt about it and I was right: it was a real pain in the coconut to recolor them. The recolor in itself was pretty fast; but adjusting the resulting colors to match the art direction I had in mind was really hard.
So, I'll keep this grayscale-to-color workflow as "efficient" in the frame of a single illustration where you can experiment on color and welcome happy-accidents BUT NOT in the frame of keeping a consistent mood and lighting setup across multiple illustrations with a strong idea for a palette and mood. It is not really efficient in this mindset.
The "Mysterious" test was also a test about keeping the hoodie over the head of Pepper for her design.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33a-e-workflow-grid.jpg)
_All the (too many) steps of the Mysterious test artwork_
But during the preproduction of episode 33, [Nartance](https://www.deviantart.com/nartance) who wrote the derivative webcomic [Pepper&Carrot MINI](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/static11/communitywebcomics&page=Pepper-and-Carrot-Mini_by_Nartance/) serie, posted this design of Pepper inspired by episode 32 and I totally liked the clothing style he drew for Pepper and I copied it for episode 33.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33a-f-fanart_pcmini_by-nartance.jpg)
_Last panel of Episode 26 "Deceptive" of Pepper&Carrot MINI by Nicolas "Nartance" Artance_
## 2. Production
### A. Sketch
I started sketching directly over the eight Krita files page at full resolution (3840x5422px) after a very quick storyboard done with almost stick figures made while I was typing the scenario in markdown. I used a lot the [Krita plugin Reference](https://github.com/antoine-roux/krita-plugin-reference) to keep a page side by side.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33a-sketchb.jpg)
_A screenshot of Krita when I started this first step with the reference docker plugin._
For this pass, I used a #C0C0C0 light gray background color (good to see the silhouette of my borderless white panel frame and borderless speechbubbles) and a simple rounded brush with black. This way, **I was able to test more view angle, compositions and poses**.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33a-sketchc.jpg)
_Quick and expressive pass, as usual a lot of fun in the first pass_
### B. Line-art: digital pencil
After experiencing the too long time to transform my sketches into detailed painting over the first pages, I decided to flat everything and draw over the sketches with a thin line-art with a single line [pencil preset from my last brush pack](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article742/krita-4-extras-brush-presets-pack). Giving to the thick sketches the time for a detailed redraw and review this way is a good way **to improve many things: proportions, anatomy, perspective**. Sometimes (unfortunately too often for this episode) I had to change everything.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33c-pencil-wrong-hand.gif)
_A gif animation comparing sketch and final digital pencil artwork: perspective, volume, pose... everything was affected._
The goal of this step is to suffer less at detailing: by improving the base drawing now and not later, I hope I'll save time during final painting.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33c-pencil.jpg)
_Screenshot while penciling a panel over the sketch pass (reduced at 10% opacity)._
Drawing with a thinner line solved a problem I had since the start of this production: how to manage the large shot with army. I tried to do that in Blender, but finally an almost isometric bird shot with copy/paste and a bit of variation here and there worked pretty well.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33c-pencil4-battle-copy-paste-krita.jpg)
_A complex shot solved mostly with simple copy/paste_
### C. Pre-Color
I tried here to renew with a technique I had in the past (around 2014-2015) that consisted into **speedpainting instinctively with color under the line-art** at low opacity. This strategy is supposed to bring me something closer immediately of the art-direction and light design I have in mind. It also produce a lot work to do later: post-cleaning and paint-over; but my priority for this episode was now to go directly to the color I had in mind, and it did work.
To prepare the pencil lines before pre-coloring, I used the filter "Color Balance". I could give my black line a reddish tint that would merge better with the background color (setting the pencil layer as multiply blending mode).
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33c2-pencil-recoloring.jpg)
_Details of the color balance filter to tint my line-art._
Precoloring was a fun step because **I focused mainly on the mood**, the cold VS warm areas, the design of the light sources, and while focusing on that I forgot the constrain of cleaning edges (not painting outside the line-art). I could use dozen of layers, or paint flat, quickly add any blending mode, use Gmic filters...etc... All in all, even if it is not ready-final-clean; the accuracy isn't that bad and it might not be too difficult to clean-up (I'll see, this is for next 10 days). For color consistency; using a color picker with previous panel was good enough.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33d-thumbnails-network_4.jpg)
_Three panels pre-colored._
For sure I appreciate doing a pass of color this way more than the usual comic workflow I tested over last episodes (flatting colors, then shading each islands, then applying filters to do color corrections). But it was hard to resist filling the skin with a single color, or filling a sihouette first with a clean border. Directly painting mass of color and increasing resolution is what worked better for me; using a zoom where I could see the over page (25% of view port on a quadHD monitor for a 3840x5422px document.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33d2-shading-diff.gif)
_Gif anim: comparing shading test between a soft light from top and then a stronger one just bellow it._
### C. Lettering
Getting pre-color ready before lettering in Inkscape on SVG and before also opening the translation allowed me this time to merge better the vector text colors and deformation over the artwork. As you probably know, **all texts needs to be editable objects** so they can be translated by the Pepper&Carrot huge translation team. This is not something you'll see on the market; other authors usually draw there onomatopias for more expression and quicker workflow. It often creates a lot of problems at translation (eg. on manga, where the French translators usually just keep the Japanese onomatopias and translate in little in French under).
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33e-inkscape-soundfx.jpg)
_The army replying to their leader_
Getting the precolor helped at finding the right color for the onomatopias for this episode. I usually do lettering at the pencil step and open translation earlier in the process; but this time having the color was a necessity because many texts really needs to be part of the artworks.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33e-inkscape-soundfxb.jpg)
_Inkscape filter editor to deform and decorate the "Dziii" fully editable text_
### D. Redo?
During pre-color, I also disliked three or four panels to the point I preferred to put a white overlay and redo them again. That's one thing about prototyping all the panels and getting a quick feedback: I could see the one that would render badly and couldn't be enhanced even with the best paint-over of the world. So... better to redo them.
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33f-pencil4-battle-copy-paste-krita.jpg)
_Redoing a pose for Pepper from scratch, previous pose wasn't enough expressive._
### E. Paint-over
Paint-over, cleaning and detailing (final rendering) is the task that I still have to do now over all the pages. I'll try to keep the happy accident and brush strokes that appeared during the precolor while melting a bit the line-art when it is not necessary. I try to adjust the rendering to a sweet spot between **not too smoothed or overly detailed and expressive lines with brush strokes**. I already have a sample to show with the start of episode 33 done; so here is a couple of one:
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33g-thumbnails-network_1.jpg)
_This perspective and pose was really hard to do._
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33g-thumbnails-network_2.jpg)
_This one still needs a bit of detailing, imo._
[](data/images/blog/2020/ep33-makingof/2020-06-18_ep33g-thumbnails-network_3.jpg)
_This one is my reference and will also be the cover of the episode, I really struggled to get the gold armor reflecting the dark blue sky!_
## To be continued...
That's all for this report about episode 33. Thank you for reading this production journal. **Rendez-vous in around 10 days for the release** when all the panels will receive their final rendering! And after that, I'll finalize (finally) [the long quest for self-publishing book project](https://www.davidrevoy.com/tag/print). Summer promise to be fun.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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4 comments
Here are artworks I made for Peertube new crowdfunding campaign.
Plugins! Livestream! and more features planned: https://joinpeertube.org/en_US/roadmap
( print resolutions and Krita [source files available here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/static6/sources&page=other) )
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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no comments
After Canada, Germany, Spain, Brazil and more; the famous [Libre Graphic Meeting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libre_Graphics_Meeting) 2020 was finally happening in France! But unfortunately, due to the worldwide pandemic, the in real life event was canceled. The event was then converted into an online event and I decided to contribute with offering a livestreaming session: a Krita digital painting workshop. I'll share on this one some step by step for my speedpainting technique; the theme: "Here be dragons".
If you want to participate, [connect to the program page on Friday 29 May, 15h00 (Paris Time)](https://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2020/en/program.html); a "LIVE" button will be available on the top to access the video stream and you'll get also documentation on how to chat to interact with me during the livestream. It's free, open access, and the content of the video will be shared later under an open license.
So, see you there at the end of the week?
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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16 comments
A comic panel of the episode I'm working on (part.2 of the battlefield story arc), grayscale step and work-in-progress.
