Photoshop, return of the pain.

Gridleak · 04-21-2009

I'm just gonna start up a series on me and these darn programs.

Photo shop is giving me a hard time. For some reason my cursor is the hand tool and it wont do anything else. =/ Any tricks for an old dog?

**JudisStang** · 04-22-2009

I feel for ya!

When I have a problem like that, I usually quit, eval what other programs I have open then close some of my memory hogs like Illustrator and Word - among 5 or 6 others I may have open at that time... that usually helps.

Shut down and restart?

You're not leaning on your space bar, are ya??

Or is it stuck?

What system and version are you running?

Gridleak · 04-23-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by JudisStang

I feel for ya!

When I have a problem like that, I usually quit, eval what other programs I have open then close some of my memory hogs like Illustrator and Word - among 5 or 6 others I may have open at that time... that usually helps.

Shut down and restart?

You're not leaning on your space bar, are ya??

Or is it stuck?

What system and version are you running?

Whenever I shut down and restart, it throws me some error when I do masks "something can only something when in full color mode"..? I can't remember and i'm work so I cant go and make it do it again.

Not leaning on the space bar. Not that careless. haha.

CS4 extended on 64bit Vista.

And I tryed closing everything but when it comes back up it's still the hand tool. After awhile it will go away. Im not quite sure how or why.

**tripleblack** · 04-23-2009

Hit "Preferences" under "Edit" for many versions of Photoshop.

Hit "Display and Cursors", then select "Precise" and "Brush Size" as your choices. This will reset that selection to a more functional setup.

This assumes that you are NOT out of memory.

In that case, you might try closing some windows.

Some versions of PhotoShop also need for you to select a scratch disc (which hard drive it uses) and allocate how much space you use, including how much memory is set aside for PhotoShop.

Ah-ha, just read through, I see you are on a PC (Vista-64) with CS4, a version I don't own for the PC.

The error message implies you may be working in a different Mode - what color space settings are you using? If you are in some Modes (Modes refer to "grayscale", "lab color", "CMYK", etc), some functions are truncated or non-functional.

**JudisStang** · 04-24-2009

You're throwing me for a loop - I haven't done design work on a PC since my very first job...

I wonder if others are experiencing the same thing.... being the hand tool hangs out for a while... could be a glitch? I am on CS3 so I can't tell ya... I don't have that problem, clearly lol

3B is right on the error! Are you working in a mode that is incompatible with your selection? In other words - if you are working in RGB or Indexed color and try to apply an action that uses CMYK as it's base - it will give you this error. (one of many examples)

**tripleblack** · 04-24-2009

Yep. Many of the cooler functions need the piece to be in RGB. If you work in a print shop, you are probably in CMYK most of the time. If you are working with seperations, or using Photoshop layers to simulate them, you need to do the cool stuff BEFORE converting to CMYK.

Finally, some types of layers will not allow certain functions...

But, just guessing, I'm saying you are in a CMYK space.

**EagleAutosports** · 04-25-2009

I have the CS3 version, and if it isn't the CMYK option, it might be in the tool presets. You should even be able to set your own custom tool presets, this is all under the 'Help' section, "How to customize and automate". Unless CS4 is a totally different setup, you should have something similar.
You could even go to Barnes & Noble, or other bookstore, and dig up an Adobe Photoshop book that deals with CS4 to find the exact thing that's giving you fits.