Use the pen and highlighter

The pen (1) draws ink whose width follows your pressure on a graphics tablet, or your speed with a mouse or trackpad. The highlighter (2) draws translucent ink at an even width, so what’s underneath still shows through.

The pen

Pen strokes are variable-width ink rather than a flat marker line:

• With a graphics tablet, the width follows how hard you press.
• With a mouse or trackpad, which can’t report pressure, PenLayer simulates it from how fast you move. Faster strokes come out differently from slow, careful ones.

PenLayer works out which of the two you have by itself. See Pressure on a graphics tablet.

The highlighter

The highlighter is translucent and keeps the same width along the whole stroke. Use it to mark text or an area without hiding it.

Colour and weight

Both tools use the current colour and stroke weight from the toolbar. Change weight with [ and ]. See Colours, weights and line styles.

What doesn’t apply to ink

Two settings leave the pen and highlighter alone:

• Shape style. Hand drawn and Smooth only change geometric marks such as lines, rectangles and arrow heads. Ink is already smooth.
• Line style. Ink has no line to break into dashes, so the toolbar dims the line style buttons while the pen or highlighter is selected.