How to use Surface Pen in Adobe Photoshop Elements?

[Arsenic17]

Can someone explain how to use the surface pen to draw in Adobe Photoshop elements? I can get it to recognize it like drawing. Please explain specific steps as I am PS noob. Thanks.

I figure there is some setting that needs to allow pen input? Or possibly Elements is too crappy to allow pen input?

 

[John M Beauchemin]

Photoshop Elements is not a drawing application, it is just a photo-editing application.

 

[onlysublime]

I use regular Photoshop with Surface pens (SP2, S3, and SP4). I know Photoshop Elements is very similar but just with fewer features. You should be able to use the pen for everything but where it comes to be very useful is for brushes and erasing. It's not an ideal drawing application. Like John said, it's mainly for photo-editing.

But there are "drawing" uses in Photoshop. You can set a picture as the base layer. Then create another layer on top with a lower opacity. So you can then trace the art. That's just one scenario. Plenty of others.

Here's the help page for Photoshop Elements: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/topics.html

 

[Arsenic17]

Thanks. I understand Photoshop Elements is low features, but I only needed it very few things. I basically am doing just what you said.

I have a map as a baselayer. And on top of that, I draw contours of snowfall totals for my city, with a lower opacity to see through the snow layer. It works very nicely. You can draw, there are many tools for it. It is okay for the mouse (click and drag to draw), but the pen would be so much nicer and faster.

I will look through the link you provided later. I just assumed some of you were already using the pen on PS.

 

[John M Beauchemin]

Thanks. I understand Photoshop Elements is low features, but I only needed it very few things. I basically am doing just what you said.

I have a map as a baselayer. And on top of that, I draw contours of snowfall totals for my city, with a lower opacity to see through the snow layer. It works very nicely. You can draw, there are many tools for it. It is okay for the mouse (click and drag to draw), but the pen would be so much nicer and faster.

I will look through the link you provided later. I just assumed some of you were already using the pen on PS.

I am using the SP4 pen to draw in Photoshop. Not PS Elements, though, as that is not a drawing software, it's strictly for photo editing. I use Lightroom to edit my photos. If you want to draw pictures using layers, you want just 'Photoshop'. Not 'Photoshop Elements'. Though, as you describe what you need, you can actually probably just use OneNote for that, as well, or any number of other much simpler (and free) drawing packages.