I'm trying to use the pen with the ellipse shape - but it's too wide (fat). Small marks look like a soccer ball. I need small marks and the smaller I go the relatively fatter they are. I read that with the triangle-in you can grab the' purple nodes' while holding the ctrl key and widen it - or even create more purple nodes for even greater enhancement - this was very helpful also but I'm lost trying to get a thin "ellipse" shape that stays as my 'repeatable default setting' so I can proceed to make dozens in a row. (I know I can adjust width for each mark separately using 'pattern along path - width adjustment, but I need to draw many such custom marks of this sort in succession. Love to get some help. tks

Hi toomy,

Here are two ideas to make this work:

Option 1:
You could just make it use your own shape via 'from clipboard' in the dropdown.
- draw a circle
- flatten it quite a lot
- do Object to Path with it
- copy it (Ctrl+C)
- switch to pencil tool
- then choose Shape: from clipboard
- draw (if it's not thin enough, repeat and squish the circle more)

Option 2:
Or you could just resize all of your pencil strokes after having converted them to path.

Moini

tks moini - but i've tried that and it doesn't work - it still comes out super fat - frustrated - tks again

- I should add, it could be a question of scale perhaps - when I work I set up on a 81/2" x 11" page - my 'elipses' at full zoom out look pretty good, but if I zoom into (let's say) 1/6 th of this page, then at that zoom level my litle elipses are like basketballs in shape

I assume you mean calligraphy tool by the pen tool, causing the confusion.
Pen -Bézier- can have an ellipse shape, by applying a pattern along path lpe in the tool's settings.
While, the calligraphy -freehand tool, similar in nature to the pencil tool more by the way- does not use the mentioned lpe, but rather has an imprint of the implement in the shape of an ellipse.
And, there is a setting just to prevent the mentioned behavior.

For more info, check the manual.

well I tried what u said Lazur URH, and it seems to work ! Thank you. I also had to choose certain settings ie: In C-tool 'Preferences' I set it to 'this tool's own style' plus, UNCLICK the 'width in absolute units' box, then on screen I chose Width=8, Thinning= -3, Angle=n/a, Fixation=93, Caps=2.91, voila, nice little extended elipse shapes. Plus, I can play with the settings and get different interesting results. tks again.

ps - it's too bad the pen and pencil tool don't have a box to Uncheck in Preferences re: 'width in absolute units'.