It provides two levels of configuration for your trackpad: a basic group of settings including sensitivity, and more advanced controls over pressures needed to generate normal clicks and Force Clicks. This runs as an app from your menubar, and requires you to enable its controls in the Security & Privacy pane. The final app which I have found to provide special support for Magic Trackpad 2 features is Andreas Hegenberg’s free BetterTouchTool. If you draw and have a Magic Trackpad 2, it is an obvious choice.įine tuning and learning with BetterTouchTool Inklet works with a wide range of apps, including Adobe Photoshop and Pixelmator, and can be configured to work with many others. In the sketch below, the marks on the left, of uniform thickness, were made using the trackpad alone, and those on the right were made using a stylus with Inklet, showing the pressure control in action. Particularly when tuned for use with a suitable stylus, Inklet is hugely beneficial. I set these up to provide basic support for Mischief (App Store), and had a quick test to see how well Inklet works with an app which does not yet have its own support for Force Touch pressure control. All three default sliders are excellent: Undo allows you to quickly step back through the undo chain, Zoom changes the magnification when supported by the app, and Brush Size provides a very quick way of adjusting your brush. These can be customised on a generic and per-app basis in the Virtual Sliders tab. Inklet uses the four edges of the tablet as special controls, or ‘virtual sliders’. If you find it hard to draw, or there is insufficient pressure sensitivity, then adjust those settings rather than giving up. You will almost certainly need to tweak those as you become accustomed to using it. It central controls are in the Drawing tab, where you set its trigger for drawing, and pressure sensitivity. Inklet’s preferences allow you to configure tablet controls on a generic and per-app basis. I tried it with a clutch of pens which are compatible with the Magic Trackpads, which excludes products for Wacom and other graphics tablets. Once that is done, and you have watched its brief explanatory video, you can set its preferences up.Īlthough designed to support Ten 1 Design’s Pogo stylus, Inklet 2 will work well with most other suitable stylus, and fingers. To allow Inklet to function you also have to consent to it taking control of your apps, in the Security & Privacy pane. When you want to engage its features, you drag from left to right along the bottom edge of the trackpad. It too installs itself into your menu bar. It also converts the trackpad surface from relative positioning to absolute, to make drawing easier. Ten 1 Design also offers the more sophisticated Inklet 2 ($24.95 or less), which adds support for pressure control to most paint and draw apps, including Adobe Photoshop, Pixelmator, and Mischief. Pressure control and absolute position with Inklet This is quite different from adding a secured digital signature, but a good way of placing the image of a real signature (or doodle, sketch, or logo) very quickly. Once complete, and provided that the underlying window supports pasted graphics, your signature or other drawing will then be placed. It installs itself in the menu bar, and when you want to use it, provides a floating drawing pane over your current window, into which you can draw your signature or anything else. The simplest of these, which works with all trackpads and many other input devices, is Ten 1 Design’s Autograph ($6.95 or less). There are, though, a few tools which you can use to customise your trackpad’s settings, and to configure them to better effect in apps which do not have specific support. I have now found some additional tools intended to get better use from its Force Touch feature, which I describe here.Īs OS X currently stands, for an app to make specific use of the additional features of the new trackpad, its developers have to add that support to their products. Yesterday’s article about the Magic Trackpad 2 introduced its features and explained how to get started.
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