2004468 - Add WinTab support to enable real pen pressure for tablets in Firefox on Windows

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Core :: DOM: Events, enhancement)

Description

[Claude Deschenes]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/142.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/142.0.0.0

Steps to reproduce:

Hardware and Environment:

• Windows PC with a tablet that supports WinTab (e.g., Wacom, Huion, XP-Pen).
• Latest tablet drivers installed.
• Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Edge).

Disable Windows Ink: In the tablet driver settings, disable Windows Ink.
(Reason: many users prefer WinTab because Windows Ink adds lag, smoothing, and unpredictable behavior. WinTab provides precise, raw pen input, which is essential for accurate drawing, brush control, and tilt handling.)

Feature can be tested on https://pressurejs.com/

Steps to Reproduce:

• Use the tablet to press and draw/press on the page with wnidows ink disabled.
• Observe the following issues:
  • No real pressure detected (force stuck at 0, 0.5, or 1).
  • Pointer events may incorrectly report "mouse" instead of "pen".
• Chromium does not access WinTab, so pressure sensitivity and tilt do not work.

Impact:

• Lack of WinTab support prevents all serious web-based drawing applications on Windows.
• Developers cannot build professional drawing tools or collaborative sketch apps in the browser.
• Using Windows Ink is insufficient for professionals due to lag, forced smoothing, and imprecise input.

Actual results:

No real pressure detected (force stuck at 0, 0.5, or 1).

Expected results:

• Real pen pressure from WinTab should be detected.
• Pointer events should correctly report "pen" as the type.
• Tilt and other stylus features should be available.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Core::DOM: Events' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.