Not sure how many people besides me are affected, but I’ve found Inkscape (version 0.92) the best tool for calligraphy with a pen tablet. Version 1.0 is out now, presently available in the graphics repo but coming soon to OSS I’m sure, and it’s great in many respects but there’s an issue with the calligraphy tool using a tablet with tilt sensitivity. The easiest way to understand the issue is to see it: Open inkscape, select the calligraphy tool, by default it will apply an angle of 30° to the nib. Draw a letter A with this setting, and you’ll see it’s thinner on the right leg. Now click the box next to that angle, to set the angle according to the tilt of the pen, and draw another letter A. Assuming you’re holding your stylus right-handed in a normal, relaxed writing position, you’ll see that it’s thicker on the other leg. The thin stroke should be the one you make perpendicular to the direction of tilt, and the thick stroke should be in line with the tilt, but the opposite is what happens. I suspect this is an upstream bug because it applies with the AppImage too, but I’ll post it on the opensuse bugzilla when it reopens from maintenance. In the meantime, if you’re a calligraphist like me, I suggest you version-lock inkscape in yast software. -GEF
Sorry, I got that backwards - thinner on the left, thicker on the right, with the default fixed angle. But the main point remains that it’s backwards when you enable tilt, and there’s no setting to modify that. The problem with using the fixed angle is that some styles of embellishment require a different angle, like thin vertical lines, which is as easy to accomplish with with tilt enabled on the prior version of inkscape as it is with an actual calligraphy pen.
This is an upstream bug, reproduced by inkscape devs. From the comments on their bugzilla, it looks like they want to add a toggle, because the present behavior, while inappropriate to model a calligraphy pen, does model a tilted pencil used for shading.