Slate Shortcut Tools – PaintDock

Posted on 2012/02/21 at 22:41 by daarken 17 Comments

One of the disadvantages of working on a slate is the lack of a keyboard and screen real estate. Sure you could use an onboard keyboard, but that takes up a lot of valuable screen space. You could always use a USB or bluetooth keyboard, but that sort of defeats the purpose of a small, portable workstation. The answer to the Asus EP121 and Samsung Series 7 is PaintDock. This screen overlay will allow you to use various shortcuts without taking up a lot of space. In this video Daarken talks about how to use the PaintDock and how to customize it to fit your needs.

Download PaintDock

Update – Ok, nevermind about changing the button to “enter.” I never noticed the cancel and confirm buttons that pop up in Photoshop when you transform something. Haha, man I feel dumb.

I changed my dock again. Instead of the “ctrl” button on the bottom I changed it to “save.” I also changed around a few other things to include the HUD color picker, warp, and transform.

17 Comments on "Slate Shortcut Tools – PaintDock"

  1. Ricardo Arganza · 2012/02/22 at 05:38 · Reply

    I was thinking about buying a small number keyboard and customize the shortcuts but this is far better.
    I´m curious about the fact that i always see you drawing in landscape mode. I thought one of the advantages of tablet pcs over, for example, the cintiq 12 was having the option to rotate it. I supose the position of the toolbars may be the reason, but don´t you feel the screen a little small when the document is in portrait mode?

    • daarken · 2012/02/22 at 09:23 · Reply

      Yes, the reason I don’t use portrait mode is because there isn’t enough room to paint with all of the different menus and toolbars open.

  2. Jack Wurm · 2012/02/22 at 18:11 · Reply

    Oh Snap! I got a nod on a video. :)

    On a side note:

    My brush size changes work with the pen in range as long as it isn’t touching and when you transform, along the top there will be a check mark and a circle with a line through it for “enter” and “cancel”. So you could use that spot on the paint dock for something else if you wanted too.

    • daarken · 2012/02/22 at 18:15 · Reply

      Hmm, for some reason I don’t see the check mark and circle you are talking about on mine. I also have to raise my stylus at least 1 inch above the surface before the brush size buttons will work. Are you using the EP121 or Samsung Series 7?

  3. Jack Wurm · 2012/02/22 at 18:27 · Reply

    I’ve got the Slate. I’ll snap a picture of my buttons and pop it up on the forum under the thread I started.

    • daarken · 2012/02/22 at 18:34 · Reply

      Ok cool. Yeah maybe the layout is different on the Slate since I’m using the Asus.

  4. Jack Wurm · 2012/02/22 at 18:46 · Reply

    http://enliighten.com/forum/#/20120203/samsung-slate-tablet-1242353/

    Took the chance to make a video instead, which I seem to suck at.

    • daarken · 2012/02/22 at 18:51 · Reply

      Haha, oh man I feel completely dumb now. I’ve never noticed those buttons before. Thanks for making the video, I really appreciate it!

  5. Jack Wurm · 2012/02/22 at 18:56 · Reply

    No problem, been wanting to do that for a while now. Maybe I’ll make some more. It’s always cool to see what other people notice and their methods to achieve the same goals.

  6. Ricardo Arganza · 2012/02/23 at 06:46 · Reply

    Hey, Daarken. If that made you feel dumb, listen to this. I discovered my old Wacom Graphire had pressure sensitivity after nearly 3 years of working with it!!! I had no idea what the hell was that and of course that my computer had it disabled. That kind of things happen when you´re self taught.
    That´s why i don´t understand why people is so worried about how many levels of pressure has the EP121!!! XD.

    • daarken · 2012/02/23 at 10:23 · Reply

      Lol, nice! Well I think most people’s concern about the number of levels of pressure is because they are currently using an Intuos 3 or 4, which have 1024 or 2048 levels of pressure. I think they are concerned that if they downgrade to something that only has 256 they won’t be able to paint as well as they can now. I can obviously tell a difference in the pressure levels, but it isn’t enough to hinder my ability to still create professional work. Sure you might not be able to get the type of range you can on an Intuos, but it is still good.

  7. Ricardo Arganza · 2012/02/23 at 12:00 · Reply

    Totally agree. There´s also another common belief. This days i work as freelance illustrator (not much) and as a model in art schools. In these schools, i see that many students believe tecnology can replace long hours of practice or the knowledge of the basics. Most of they think that if they could afford a 24HD Cintiq and a expensive Mac pro the could be the next Frazzeta.

  8. Jack Wurm · 2012/02/24 at 14:57 · Reply

    Forgot to leave this here the other day. This is only for Samsung 7 Slate users:

    http://konartist3d.deviantart.com/art/ArtDock-An-artist-script-for-the-Samsung-Slate-283342420

    It’s a spin off of PaintDock that has setups for most of the major art programs.

  9. jeremy · 2012/03/09 at 10:01 · Reply

    i just installed the paint dock and it rocks. but im curious, did you replace your isd drive with his? or feel the need to use the secret lab program to tweak your pen curves?
    iknow i get frustrated with how “squiggily” fine lines feel when sketching on the ep121…

    • daarken · 2012/03/09 at 12:01 · Reply

      I tried using the pressure curves app, but it didn’t seem to make any difference.

  10. CKMoore · 2012/04/21 at 11:41 · Reply

    Hey daarken – does this paint dock work if you have your screen set to “full screen mode”? (without the menu bars).

    I ask because I generally prefer to work without having to have the menu bars open – leaves more space. Plus, if the paint dock works, you could have a short cut on there to bring up the menus or change the screen mode.

    I once made something similar to this using autohotkey (which this uses), but I ran into a problem when using the full screen mode. You can set auto hot key to always be on top – but if photoshop is set to full screen mode, it’s also set as always on top. I couldn’t find a way to control which is actually on top, which means the autohotkey menu would sometimes go behind photoshop.

    • daarken · 2012/04/25 at 22:04 · Reply

      Yes, I can confirm that it works in full screen mode without the menu bars. I am working on the ASUS EP121 in Photoshop CS5.

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