Pressure sensitivity

Whether you're using vector-based Pencil or brush tools, or pixel-based brush tools, you can simply connect your Apple Pencil and you've got pressure-sensitive input. If you don't have an Apple Pencil to hand, you can achieve simulated pressure sensitivity just using your finger. The simulated pressure is based on the speed (velocity) of your finger movement.

This response is governed by the brush controller (input type) which varies brush stroke width, flow, etc. as you paint. Types of input are:

For Pencil Tool and Vector Brush Tool: 'Automatic', 'Pressure', 'Velocity', 'Brush Defaults', or 'None'. Automatic will sense the type of input (Apple Pencil, finger) automatically for you.
For pixel brushes: 'Pressure', 'Tilt', 'Velocity', 'Velocity Inverse', 'Random', 'Angle', 'Cyclic', 'Direction', 'None'.

If set to 'None', the stroke is always a fixed width, flow setting, etc. Otherwise, the stroke properties will vary from a minimum to maximum amount (e.g. the full width).

For vector brush settings: jitter options let you control how brush width and flow are affected by your type of input (Pencil, finger).
For pixel brush settings: as for vector brush options, but additional jitter options are provided that affect brush hardness, shape, colour, and the scatter and rotation of nozzles.

For Pencil, Pen and Vector Brush Tools, you can create a custom pressure profile in the Stroke panel that lets you manually taper your stroke. This will be remembered the next time you use the tool.

To create a custom pressure profile:

On the Stroke panel, using the displayed Pressure chart, do one of the following:
- Drag either end node downwards, then tap halfway along the profile line to add a node which can be dragged upwards to taper the stroke according to the curvature of the graph.
- Drag either end node downwards, then tap repeatedly along the profile line to add multiple nodes which can be positioned vertically and horizontally to form a variable width stroke.
Begin drawing your strokes.

Uniformly reducing stroke width (A), linear tapering of stroke (B), tapering of stroke at both ends (C) and modulating stroke width (D).

To reset the pressure profile:

Do one of the following:

Tap on an empty area of the pressure chart, and then select Reset Pressure.
Double-tap a node to select it, then select the option from the pop-up menu.

The profile reverts to its default.

To simulate pressure-sensitive pen strokes:

On the Stroke panel's pressure profile chart (see above), select an end node on the profile's line and drag it vertically to a new position; nodes can be added by tapping on the line and then positioned freely to form a curve.
Repeat for other nodes as needed.

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