Bug 477750

Summary:	UI for graphic tablet button and pen button mapping could use some improvement
Product:	[Applications] systemsettings	Reporter:	Raghavendra kamath <raghu>
Component:	kcm_tablet	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	aleixpol, josh, nate, postix
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	Current kcm showing the page for tablet button mapping. Which shows which button is which by showing us a visual button layout Current kcm showing the page for pen button mapping. Which shows which button is which by showing us a visual button layout

Description Raghavendra kamath 2023-11-30 05:46:26 UTC

SUMMARY
Currently the tablet kcm seems to look like bare minimum page. Earlier on x11 the settings page used to show the drawing and button layout properly so that the user understood which button they are mapping to a shortcut. Currently all the buttons are listed as button 1 button 2 button 3 and so on. On a tablet these buttons can have odd numbering so a simple visual indication would be better for usability. 

This but report is also for showing a drawing or visual representation of the pen buttons.

There is also an issue of the pen being names as "tool" while the pen may be called as a tool in the code it doesn;t help a normal user that much. It can be called "Pen button 1" "Pen button 2" and so on instead of "Tool button 1" "Tool button 2" etc.



I attaching a screenshot of how it look under X11


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open tablet kcm under wayland and check if you can see which button is which on your tablet.

Comment 1 Raghavendra kamath 2023-11-30 05:47:27 UTC

Created attachment 163634 [details]
Current kcm showing the page for tablet button mapping. Which shows which button is which by showing us a visual button layout

Current kcm showing the page for tablet button mapping. Which shows which button is which by showing us a visual button layout

Comment 2 Raghavendra kamath 2023-11-30 05:49:35 UTC

Created attachment 163635 [details]
Current kcm showing the page for pen button mapping. Which shows which button is which by showing us a visual button layout

Current kcm showing the page for pen button mapping. Which shows which button is which by showing us a visual button layout

Comment 3 Raghavendra kamath 2023-11-30 06:00:42 UTC

I should note that currently the text gets bold when we press the button on the tablet so this helps in knowing which button is which but a layout would be good  in addition to this.

Comment 4 Joshua Goins 2024-01-11 23:17:12 UTC

This makes sense, I also don't like the layout of the page (and my tablet has 20 buttons, which is all laid out vertically...)

Calling them pen buttons makes much more sense to me IMO, that's an easy change.

Comment 5 Bug Janitor Service 2024-01-11 23:20:59 UTC

A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/1971

Comment 6 Joshua Goins 2024-01-12 01:14:23 UTC

Git commit 446d40371474996b82cc8995d4c36d4ede0f5240 by Joshua Goins.
Committed on 12/01/2024 at 01:42.
Pushed by redstrate into branch 'master'.

kcms/tablet: Buttons should be called "pen buttons"

The name "tool button" is an underlying technical name and it's much
clearer when it's referred to as pen buttons.

M  +3    -3    kcms/tablet/ui/main.qml

https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/commit/446d40371474996b82cc8995d4c36d4ede0f5240

Comment 7 Joshua Goins 2024-11-06 18:34:54 UTC

Update: we now have libwacom, which means we can do a really easy thing and separate the buttons into columns. This means by 20 button tablet wouldn't be a pain to scroll through. And eventually once we integrate SVGs, it would look more natural around a graphic.

Comment 8 Bug Janitor Service 2024-12-22 20:14:45 UTC

A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/merge_requests/2677

Comment 9 Joshua Goins 2025-04-12 20:09:48 UTC

Git commit f2ee435e3cf2d1b7c732e3ebb56c9d9f27cbb5f7 by Joshua Goins.
Committed on 12/04/2025 at 19:38.
Pushed by redstrate into branch 'master'.

kcms/tablet: Improve the display of the pen button mapping

This adds a visual pen display (ala what we had in the old Wacom Tablet
KCM) and makes it clearer which buttons are which.

A  +8    -0    kcms/tablet/images/pen.svg
M  +401  -203  kcms/tablet/ui/StylusTab.qml

https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/commit/f2ee435e3cf2d1b7c732e3ebb56c9d9f27cbb5f7

Comment 10 Nate Graham 2025-04-15 19:24:13 UTC

Anything more to do here, or is this done for Plasma 6.4?

Comment 11 Joshua Goins 2025-04-16 18:25:19 UTC

(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #10)
> Anything more to do here, or is this done for Plasma 6.4?

Not done quite yet, we still need UI for the pad buttons which won't make it for 6.4.