How To Fix Jagged Lines in Photoshop & Sketchbook Pro in Windows 7

Many who use drawing tablets like Wacom / Intuos / Cintiq in Microsoft Windows (especially Windows 7) are having problems with "jagged lines" when drawing or sketching on their tablets. It can happen in Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, Corel Painter, etc.  Sometimes it happens in one software but not the other...

Symptom:
When you draw a line slowly you get a jagged, stairstepped edge.  These look like little stairstep glitches in your line, rather than the smooth continuous like you expect.

Problem:
The probem is Windows 7's native Tablet PC support.  To get full professional results out of your tablet you need to completely remove this from Windows.  (Disabling in services.msc isn't enough!)

Solution:

1. Go to Control Panel and click on Pen and Touch settings. Disable both the Press and hold action and the Start Tablet PC Input Panel. Basically disable everything.
2. In the same window under the Flicks tab, uncheck the Use flicks to perform common actions quickly and easily. (Disable everything you can.)  Press OK to save and close.
3. Next go to the Programs and Features option in the Control Panel. Select the Turn Windows feature on or off option on the left of the window. A new window will open with all the Windows features.  Scroll down to Tablet PC Components and uncheck the option. Apply the changes. Windows will do some configuration and then ask you to restart for the changes to take effect. Restart. (Windows prompted me to restart twice, actually.)
4. Click the Start Button(Windows icon) and enter "services.msc". (Or use WindowsKey+R and type "services.msc.") The "Services" tool will pop up.  Scroll down to Tablet PC Input Service. It should be disabled! If not, right click on it and select STOP.  Oncedisabled, right click on it again & select Properties.  Under General > Startup Type - make sure it says DISABLED.  Click APPLY and reboot windows.

Tablet PC support (which interferes with Wacom's intuos/cintiq driver) will now be removed from your computer!  This will also get rid of that annoying animated circle / radar animation that happens every time you click something using your tablet.

Results? You should now get a smooth, continuous line in your drawing software! No more "jagged edges."  The problem was bad for me in Sketchbook Pro, but my line work in Photoshop improved, too, after doing these steps.

Thanks to Kris Robinson for this post at Oinkfu.com