Drawing tablets are highly useful devices for digital artists. They allow more precise lines to be used when drawing on a computer, while making the process more comfortable too. At times you may experience what is known as the ‘straight lines issue’.

When a drawing tablet keeps drawing straight lines instead of responding to other input, it may affect your work. Read on below to find out the fixes you can try to solve this issue and restore full functionality to your tablet.

1. Update Drivers

Digital artists tend to prefer using a drawing tablet thanks to the more polished and high-quality results it provides. The quality of the lines in particular is one of the most essential benefits, and everything depends on the precise response from the tablet.

To ensure a smooth response from the drawing tablet, you should always keep your drivers updated. If you notice that your drawing tablet keeps drawing straight lines, you should immediately check if there is an update available.

Whenever a driver update is released, no matter what type of drawing tablet you use, the outdated version may start having response issues. Updating your drivers will frequently solve your issue with just this easy one step.

Depending on which type of tablet you use, you can either access the dedicated tablet app, your Windows or Mac settings, or the brand website to get the new firmware.

2. Adjust Drawing Software Preferences

Some tablets may stop responding accurately when they lag. This may happen if your computer starts running out of RAM, which is usually caused by the drawing software currently in use.

You should always check the requirements of the software you use with your drawing tablet. Whenever you see that your drawing tablet keeps drawing straight lines and overall lagging, check your task manager or activity monitor.

You will likely notice that your drawing software is overpowering your computer. In this case, you should check the preferences or settings of the drawing software you prefer using. Most times, you will be able to specify how much RAM the software is allowed to use.

Balancing out the percentage of RAM the drawing software uses may help solve the problem of your tablet not responding to your input. Depending on your computer’s performance levels, this can be an essential step in ensuring a smooth drawing process.

3. Switch High Precision Settings On and Off

Drawing tablets that support high precision settings can provide an even more high-quality process. Despite this usefulness, you may notice that these settings affect the response of your tablet.

At times, you may notice that your drawing tablet keeps drawing straight lines on options that have the high precision setting. To fix this problem, toggle this setting between on and off and check to see how your tablet responds.

You may see that the drawing tablet stops drawing only straight lines when the high precision settings are either on or off. Make sure to experiment with this setting to get the most out of it and to get the response you want from your drawing tablet.

4. Uninstall and Reinstall the Drivers

A drawing tablet that keeps drawing straight lines may have a deeper problem caused by the drivers. If you notice that updating the drivers does not sort the issue, you should proceed to do a full uninstall once you disconnect your tablet from the computer.

Once you fully uninstall your tablet drivers, you will have to do a clean reinstall from scratch. To do this, either connect your tablet to the computer again or go to the manufacturer website (e.g. Wacom, Huion) and download the firmware you need.

5. Restart Drawing Software

If your drawing tablet keeps drawing straight lines, it may be due to a glitch in the drawing software. Once you start experiencing this problem, one of the first things you should do is restart your drawing software.

Save your work before you restart the software, then try opening the file once more. Test out how your drawing tablet responds by drawing your desired shapes. Restarting the drawing software can solve many problems with how the tablet responds to your input.

6. Change Hotkeys

Hotkeys are a useful feature available on many drawing tablets. They allow you to customize and streamline your drawing tablet experience, but on occasion they may interfere with the input.

Your drawing tablet drawing straight lines may have to do with a hotkey being pressed at the same time. If this happens, you may have to adjust the hotkeys or even turn them off to ensure they are not getting in the way of your lines.

7. Delete Drawing Software Preferences

When you are unable to make your drawing tablet draw anything other than straight lines, this may also be caused by your drawing software preferences. This can especially be a problem with preferences that were saved in the software before the tablet was used.

To ensure that your drawing software preferences don’t interfere with your lines, you should delete them and create new ones. This process will differ depending on the type of drawing software you use, but most of them have a setting to reset your preferences upon exit.

8. Change Tablet Properties

When you connect a tablet to your computer, you will be able to customize various properties. If you notice that your drawing tablet keeps drawing straight lines after these properties have been set, you should change them to something else.

While changing tablet properties, you can also opt to add a new profile. This can be something you use to create a better experience that varies depending on the drawing software you use, which will reduce issues with your lines.

9. Use a Cable on Bluetooth Tablets

If you are using a Bluetooth tablet, this may affect the response to your input. A lack of stable connectivity may be to blame for your tablet drawing straight lines. To eliminate any issues related to the network, make sure to connect your tablet using a cable.

Conclusion

There are several fixes you can try when your drawing tablet keeps drawing straight lines. From connectivity issues to drawing software preferences and keeping drivers up to date, you will soon solve your drawing problems.