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About an hour and a half ago, for no obvious reason, the copy of Photoshop CS2 on the iMac began to act strangely. Apparently at random, it would switch foreground and background colors whenever I tried to use the pencil tool, which makes laying flats impossible.
Could it be a stylus problem? We switched Wacom tablets; no effect. We reinstalled CS2 -- and if you think THAT'S easy... do you have ANY idea how many little files Photoshop squirrels away on a hard drive that have to be tracked down and deleted before a reinstall will work? *sigh* No effect. We contemplated the possibility that the iMac's processor was going buggy, but dismissed the thought because the screwiness was ONLY happening with the pencil tool.
It was only after many minutes of painting on blank pages that I realized that the color switch only occurred when I started the pen stroke on top of the existing foreground color.
*lightbulb goes on*
That realization led to this article on the Internet, where it states:
Auto Erase
The Pencil tool may not have a Flow control or airbrush capabilities, but it does have its own unique option, "Auto Erase". Now, I don't know what Adobe was thinking when they called this feature Auto Erase because it has nothing to do with erasing anything, automatically or otherwise. However, it is a somewhat interesting feature in that it will paint with your currently selected background color, rather than using the foreground color, if the area you click on to begin painting already contains your foreground color. It's as if Photoshop thinks, "Well obviously he/she doesn't want to paint the same color over top of the exact same color, so I'm going to switch to using the background color instead". For example, if your foreground color is blue and your background color is red, when you first start painting on the canvas with the Pencil tool, you'll paint with blue as you would normally expect, since blue is your foreground color. If you check the "Auto Erase" box in the Options Bar and then click on an area you've already painted blue to continue painting, Photoshop will switch to using the background color, which in this case is red, so you'd start painting with red rather than blue. If you release the mouse button, then click on an area that doesn't already contain your foreground color and continue painting, Photoshop will switch back to using the foreground color again. Now you tell me, what does that have to do with erasing anything? Still, it's a somewhat interesting feature, and it's a feature exclusive to the Pencil tool.
... somehow, the Auto Erase box had gotten checked.
*headdesk, headdesk, headdesk*
Another exciting episode of "Photoshop Things That Make You Crazy"!
We now return me to my regularly scheduled flatting.
Could it be a stylus problem? We switched Wacom tablets; no effect. We reinstalled CS2 -- and if you think THAT'S easy... do you have ANY idea how many little files Photoshop squirrels away on a hard drive that have to be tracked down and deleted before a reinstall will work? *sigh* No effect. We contemplated the possibility that the iMac's processor was going buggy, but dismissed the thought because the screwiness was ONLY happening with the pencil tool.
It was only after many minutes of painting on blank pages that I realized that the color switch only occurred when I started the pen stroke on top of the existing foreground color.
*lightbulb goes on*
That realization led to this article on the Internet, where it states:
Auto Erase
The Pencil tool may not have a Flow control or airbrush capabilities, but it does have its own unique option, "Auto Erase". Now, I don't know what Adobe was thinking when they called this feature Auto Erase because it has nothing to do with erasing anything, automatically or otherwise. However, it is a somewhat interesting feature in that it will paint with your currently selected background color, rather than using the foreground color, if the area you click on to begin painting already contains your foreground color. It's as if Photoshop thinks, "Well obviously he/she doesn't want to paint the same color over top of the exact same color, so I'm going to switch to using the background color instead". For example, if your foreground color is blue and your background color is red, when you first start painting on the canvas with the Pencil tool, you'll paint with blue as you would normally expect, since blue is your foreground color. If you check the "Auto Erase" box in the Options Bar and then click on an area you've already painted blue to continue painting, Photoshop will switch to using the background color, which in this case is red, so you'd start painting with red rather than blue. If you release the mouse button, then click on an area that doesn't already contain your foreground color and continue painting, Photoshop will switch back to using the foreground color again. Now you tell me, what does that have to do with erasing anything? Still, it's a somewhat interesting feature, and it's a feature exclusive to the Pencil tool.
... somehow, the Auto Erase box had gotten checked.
*headdesk, headdesk, headdesk*
Another exciting episode of "Photoshop Things That Make You Crazy"!
We now return me to my regularly scheduled flatting.
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