Photoshop 101: The Annoying Phantom Brush
Have you ever had the creative juices flowing, your favorite music blaring, and selected your Photoshop brush, only to find that your cursor disappears and you can’t see the brush outline? Photoshoppers everywhere have endured this little annoyance for years. It’s really quite simple to avoid, but until you know why, it can be quite a thorn in your side.
So you have your brush selected and all you see is a cursor like the one in the screenshot above? All you need to do is deactivate the Caps Lock on your keyboard, and you should see your brush! What was happening is with Caps Lock on, you are enabling “Precise Cursors,” a feature that is also accessible from Preferences > Cursors.
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on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 5:50 am and is filed under Photoshop.
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This is great! finally I know why! I’d usually restart photoshop in the hop of it not having that tiny cursor.
THANK YOU!
Yeah, I tought I was soo stupid when I’d discover this. Now I know that I’m not the only one lol
What? Is this really an article? I can’t believe it, EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT DUDES!, go for something a bit interesting…
really disappointing…
(no ofense)
I though I was soo stupid when I’d discover this. Now, I’m feeling better LOL
Ymikimono- What’s does the title start with- “Photoshop 101″. If that doesn’t fit you, don’t read the rest and you won’t be disappointed. DUH!!!
Bitt- thanks for all the tips- the complex and the simple
I remember when I figured out this. That used to bug the heck out of me, and I, too, would restart photoshop. Thanks for all your great articles.
I’m going to echo Brian. I appreciate all the tips—for beginners and advanced. You’re willingness to teach at all levels is what makes your site so valuable. Keep up the 101 and ‘401′ posts.
Thanks for the great tip Bittbox.
Please ignore elitists like Ymikimono.
You’re helping a lot of people.. even that 44shole who disses you while helping himself to PR off your site.
Millions of people appreciate your help. Keep at it!
I can’t believe this is the soloution. It’s so simple and yet it’s something that’s wound me up for years. Tahnk you!
You absolute legend. This has bugged me I don’t know how many times, and I knew it had to be a simple fix.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks a gazillion Bitt! Ignore Ymikimono… Great for beginners like me. :)
Hey Ymikimono, chill out on the assumptions. Just because you’ve figured out everything there is to know about photoshop doesnt mean that you need to belittle people that maybe havnt got it as figured out as they would like!
As for this tip, its saved me from restarts galore and im thankful for it! keep up the great work.
CRICKETS!!!
ANOTHER GREAT TIP…
To make your bread warm AND hard place it into a toaster.
To get this warm and hard bread or “toast” you must wait till the toasters pops the bread up.
If you did not know this, shoot yourself.
Society will elvolve faster.
FistForce, if you had followed your advice the first day you ever used PS, (when you knew nothing), the world would have been a better place.
Go back to digg, where you your type hangs out.
Thank you! I’ve been using PS over five years now and had yet to figure that little bit out (only knew to go to preferences to change it). Much appreciation from me (and my office).
WOOHOO! This has annoyed me for years. Thank goodness I now know the explanation.
Thanks for this great tip, I didn’t know it and this has bugged me for months! I don’t think any tip is too small or obvious; there are lots of us out here who aren’t crack experts at PS and need all the help we can get ;-)
when I first started with photoshop, I remember trying to brush out masks with the crosshair curser. It drove me nutz. I wish this site was around when I was starting out. I appreciate your help to others, and the free brushes and vectors. I’m actually busting out a good project right now where I’m building cool thrash shapes with your brushes then tweaking the contrasts to make some killer halftone knockouts.
thanks again.
I feel a little silly for not figuring this out earlier! Helpful tip! No matter how experienced you are, with programs this complex, you never know when a tip might fix a problem you’ve just learned to deal with, or done the hard way.
You cannot be serious? Is it really that simple?
and i thought i’ve been cursed everytime this happens to me! thanks for the tip! really appreciate it! ;)
oh my gosh are you serious!?! thats all it was!?!
oi and to think i spent all that time trying to figure out what had happened to my brush! haha thanks bitt! once again you saved me a lot of frustration and time :)
They need to change that hotkey to something else besides Caps Lock. At least make it Caps + Shift or something! It’s like Adobe doesn’t think that people might want to use Caps for setting text.
I soooo remember this lmaooooooo
Thanks Bittbox. I’ve been using Pshop since it began. This used to drive me crazy. Always useful info for novices and even those snobbish self-proclaimed experts. Keep on shining.
THANK GOD
i think any wise designer will understand and can appreciate the fact that no matter how long you’ve been doing this, there are a million ways to do things and you can ALWAYS learn something new. even amongst the creators/developers of CS3 i doubt there is any one person who knows all the tips and tricks.
thanks for posting bitt… i think the simplest epiphanies are the greatest.
LOL! i was just suffering with this problem the other day, thanks for the tip, damn it was uber annoying
This is amazingly helpful! I used to be plagued by this problem all the time! Thank you so much.
Wow, that’s pretty cool. I didn’t know about this tip. Thank you.
Thank you thank you thank you!
I’m very happy to learn things here ! it seems so simple… but if you don’t know it, you’re stuck !
Thank you for sharing stuff like that with us !
This is a time I feel stupid and happy all at the same time. Thanks for the great post.
DOH! good one – Cheers mate
P.S. Ignore that twat Ymikimono,
Actually I agree with Ymikimono, but there’s something different behind it.
Ymikimono, who was described by someone as “elitist” is simpy an advanced user, just like me. I, too, find these recent 101 hints obsolete and obvious, but I’m simply aware, that theses are aimed at a different audience.
It’s pretty simple, if you give some pro tips, they’re targeted at pros, while there is relatively few of them among all ppl. Once you start giving, hmmm, basic tips – site traffic boosts, you get more noticed, more known. You get more banner clicks, sponsors get more interested. As simple as that. Only you, Bitt, know, how much better it got :]
Actually I regret this profile change, as there were some useful advanced tips I could find here, as opposed to the recent ones, which can easily be found at hundreds of other sites, or simply in the manual.
But I guess it’s simply business, isn’t it, Bitt? ;)
cheers
Ymiki got pounded on this one……….hahaha……Id have to agree but only in secret for then bit users everywhere who dont know the basic basics will forever hunt me down and slaughter my career/talent/lack there of. All in all thanks for pointin out the tricks of the trade to all those that dont know bitt.
wow…wow WOWWWWW!!!
This thing annoyed me for EONS!!!!!
thanx a lot dudes
Now i can belive in God…or Carrots(?!)
DOH, I can’t believe it is that simple….. seriously, thank you!!!
I love finding out that things I once attributed to computer error are actually my fault — so much easier to fix that way, eh?
I’m more than willing to feel completely stupid in order to find an answer to this annoying, self-induced “bug”! Thanks!
Unbelievable! I’d NEVER figure this one out… and to think I hated Adobe so much for that…
man i just figured that one out a couple months ago… i thought it was a bug or something i was doing wrong… and ive been using photoshop since v4.0…. i guess thats what happens when you dont goto school for graphic design….
thank you.
Gosh you killed a monster there Bitt.
the precise cursor should be very handy when doing pathing, or lasso that requires high precision.
every function serve different purposes. but i do found it annoying too hahah.
@ people like Ymikimono and FistForce:
In case you idiots never went to college, “101″ classes are the preliminaries, teaching only the basics to prep you for the real work. So if you’re not at that stage anymore, then don’t bother reading articles with that label.
Just because you happen to know something already doesn’t meant that “DUH! EVERYONE KNOWS THAT”, ok?
And for comments like: “People who don’t already know this should shoot themselves…”
If so, then there was a time back when you should have shot yourself as well, because you don’t just automatically “know” something, you have to learn it at one point or another.
Thanks, bitt, I ran into this problem just yesterday, and had no idea what the problem was. I already knew about setting it in Preferences, so I checked there, only to see that it should have been displaying normally, as that’s what was showing up in there.
I already knew this, but I only found out recently, and it used to bug me like crazy! Would just happen every now and then, I’d restart Photoshop and everything, but obviously to no avail.
Can’t hurt in posting it up =)
and here I was, thinking I was paranoid the whole time. I thought Photoshop was playing tricks on me…thanks for clearing it up!
Hey folks. I don’t consider anyone who doesn’t know something that I do an idiot. Actually, netiher does (I guess) Ymikimono, though FistForce might have went little too far (though I personally like the irony).
Anyway, reaction of most ppl shows how low your self-esteem is. Someone says something, half of you takes it personally. Hello?
However, someone who types words such as these must truly be an idiot:
“i guess thats what happens when you dont goto school for graphic design….”
That happens when you DON’T READ THE F***IN’ MANUAL, you don’t really need education in graphic design for it…
Bottom line, boys&girls: RTFM, helps a lot.
Amen. Bitt, will you relate to the previous posf of mine? :>
@bitt
many thanks man. big tip.
@matt
traffic or no traffic, bitt’s helping us out. and that’s the only thing that wud matter to most of us. there’s no one stopping u fm setting up ur own blog and helping to ur own bit of sponsorship, does it? wud b nice if u stop being smart alecish. btw, quite curious to know ur ’selfless’ contribution to mankind. hope u will relate to this post. :>
OK, I will admit it. I did not know of this little tip. I am an advanced user but do not know all there is to know about everything in photoshop. Maybe because I have not used it in a while while switching over to ILlustrator for a while.
And I too used to restart, check my preferences and a whole lot more.
This is a Handy tip.
Thank you.
wowweee thx!!
Thank you!!!!
i really wish i had known about this years ago.. since then ive found out this was the problem all along but on behalf of all frustrated photoshopers ill thank you anyway. i have actually uninstalled and reinstalled photoshop in my early years bc of this problem. its that annoying.
WHOA! That’s a GREAT TIP!
Thanks a lot!
Omg thank you!! I’ve been wondering why this happens >_> I usually have to restart PS everytime or I give up…
i cant believe i never knew this!
Sometimes it’s the brush size that’s too big to fit in the screen.it happens especially when your document size is too small.
Haha how stupid XD
thanks for the tip! It was really annoying.
puto mi hermano, thank´s
Flowers are suddenly blooming beside me!
Thanks so much!
Couldn’t you just use your bracket ([ ]) shortcuts and re-scale?
@bjornsvein
No, because it’s not a problem with the brush scale. When Caps Lock is on, the outline of the brush shape doesn’t show at all, no matter what size the brush is, so you can’t immediately see what size it is.
Many people, like myself, have run into this problem, not knowing what the root of it was & how simple it is to fix, so bitt’s just letting us know.
Doh? How’d somebody keep the Caps Lock key activated while editing some image and never notice it?
I thought you were gonna teach a way to make the cursor more visible when it’s size is set to 1px. THAT’s really annoying and irreversible, unless you zoom in a lot to see it.
Just made me lose my hope lol
Good tip, this littel bugger anoying me for years
OMG Thank You so much…….. I have always thought that it was just a photoshop bug that they never wanted to fix.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks a lot, i also feel a little bit stupid about this…..also like millions of people, i have to restart, but that´s why this page is for…..to COMMUNICATE and share tlps!
Maybe there are to many intelligent people that already knows all of this stuff, but instead of complain about this help, why they don´t share all their knowledge with us….
Thanks everybody for the usefull tips posted in this page.
Whats the most comments you’ve had on a post Bitt?
Dude you are a life saver. This also happens in Illustrator and it would drive me crazy not knowing how to fix it.
@DBdesignCo,
The record so far is 221.
~Bitt
I say thanks too as I’m a newbie to PS and have had this problem and didn’t know what had happened. Thanx to ppl like you and your helpful hints I know no what to do…it’s really too easy when ya know how :)
Oh my goodness! That’s it?!?! THANK YOU!!
@matt, Ymikimono
I’m a professional graphic/web designer and I’ve been using Photoshop since v5. I know it inside and out, and I’m willing to admit that I didn’t know this piece of information.
It has nothing to do with experience or ad-rates, etc. Personally, it just never bothered me enough to investigate. You can climb off of your high-horse now. In case you have forgotten, you weren’t born an expert in Photoshop, and no one knows everything there is to know.
We all start out knowing nothing (yeah, remember?), and even “advanced” users like myself can learn something new from time to time.
So heres a question… i recently installed CS3… and no matter WHAT i do, it wont show up… it is NOT because of caps lock, or because of enabling precise cursors. is it b/c of a plugin?? is it some other error?
ps– i do get an error when i start up that some of the plugins have not loaded correctly.
It reads as follows:
Plug-ins that failed to load:
AltiVecCore NO VERSION – – from the file “/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Plug-Ins/Extensions/AltiVecCore.plugin/”
AltiVecCore NO VERSION – – from the file “/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Plug-Ins/Extensions/AltiVecCore.plugin/”
Embed Watermark NO VERSION – – from the file “/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Plug-Ins/Digimarc/DigiSignMachO.plugin/”
Embed Watermark NO VERSION – – from the file “/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Plug-Ins/Digimarc/DigiSignMachO.plugin/”
PPCCore NO VERSION – – from the file “/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Plug-Ins/Extensions/PPCCore.plugin/”
PPCCore NO VERSION – – from the file “/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Plug-Ins/Extensions/PPCCore.plugin/”
Read Watermark NO VERSION – – from the file “/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Plug-Ins/Digimarc/DigiReadMachO.plugin/”
Read Watermark NO VERSION – – from the file “/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Plug-Ins/Digimarc/DigiReadMachO.plugin/”
Installed TWAIN devices: NONE
OKAY BITTBOX!! prove yourself and help me out pleeeease!!!!
sweet thank you sooooo much. It’s very annoying.
didnt read all the replies but i always remedied this problem by making sure the capslock button wasnt toggled…
i always thought this was just my program!!
thankyou for all the wonderful tips!
little things like this can be massive time savers!!
Thank you so much! It also happened to me, but I thought it was because my copy was deteriorated or something.
About looking at it in the manual… I’ve never looked at a full manual since I’ve never had one. I have learned by practice and tutorials. I hope I can buy the original program next february, so I will have a manual and won’t feel so stupid anymore.
Anyway, thank you very much! I could have gone without knowing this for years… I must read the photoshop bible from first to last page, so I will avoid this problems in the future.
Thanks again :) You rule!
You save me a lot of frustratin’ time
Thanks
damn. this made my day.
i thought my photoshop had a bug when i encounter this so many times.
simple solution for an annoying problem.
yea!
That problem has driven me loopy for ages. Problem solved -thank you!!
WOW…now I feel like an idiot…how simple was that? hahaha
Oh, thanks a lot for the explanation! I always got annoyed with this terrible sudden vanishing of my brush. Thanks!
lol- it was so simple i feel so dumb
WOW that is awesome… and I always thought I had to just “deal” with it…duh…
finally lol
i felt so dumb when i found out the answer =]
NUFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
RESSSSSSSSSPEKKKKT
I LIKE U SO MUCH…THE BEST TEACHER I EVER SEEN
http://WWW.YOUNGANDFRESH.CH
YOU ROCK!! I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST ME!!!!
This is one problem that bugged me everytime I use Photoshop and suddenly seeing the cursor turn into a crosshair. I thought there was no remedy for it until now.
Awesome! I’ve been using Photoshop for some while(starting with out with 7.0) and I’ve always been messing with the preference settings when this showed up. Funny how something as annoying as this has such a simple fix.
Thank you for sharing!
haha… love reading all the comments
just my thinking :-)
i was so shocked, when i once found out…
by the way: went to graphic school, didn’t learn it there… guess even the teachers didn’t know
THANK THANK THANK THANK THANK THANK THANK THANK THANK THANK THANK THANK THANK
WOW, i learn something new everyday…..and i was just wondering how do i fix this exact problem, and i stumble upon your site! thank you soooo much!!
lmao, thanks.
Gracias !!!
Algo asi pasa en el AfterEffects con el CapsLock. Es para ahorrar RAM en el display
Thanks so much!
Used Photoshop casually for years.
I never had this problem till today and you saved me lots of pain.
[...] bittbox.com The Annoying Phantom Brush [...]
Thanks a lot.
The annoying problem is gone.
[...] Tutorial per creare brushes accattivanti 3) Photoshop 101: The Annoying Phantom Brush 4) Come Installare brushes, salvare un set di brush, realizzare brushes accattivanti e altro! 7) [...]
[...] bittbox.com The Annoying Phantom Brush [...]
thanks a ton, big big help… :) keep up the good work.
ha ha ha..I’m retarded
I thought my photoshop was retarded… It was me the whole time.. Thanks.. :)
Thanks !!!!
:)
Thanks! First page I clicked when I googled the problem and now problem solved thanks to you.
THANK YOU!
OMG!!! You saved my life!!! I’ve been using PS since 3 version, and I never knew this TT…
just press TAB to switch between Precise Cursors
OMG! Thank you so much!!
I’ve had such a hard time finishing my works when this happens.
Errrr… after all these years that’s all it was??? SONUVA!!! Thank you.
[...] 3) Photoshop 101: The Annoying Phantom Brush [...]
…..wow
thank you, i thought i was alone with this problem :)
Wonderful… Some things are not easier for the Newbies like me.
A lot of thanks. Bless
Ymikimono: Remember there’s a big population just learning to use the application.
I would go and change the precise setting every time, however i didnt know realize why it happened to me, now i know it’s the fucking caps key that was buggin me all this time, that basterd imma take it off my keyboard i swear
It’s still a nuisance though, I’d rather just be able to replace the default cursor for the brush with a custom one. Even the precise cursor with bolder lines would be a simple solution, or a combination of the precise cursor with the outlines. Frankly it’s an issue that should have been fixed already.
*THANK YOU!!!
Im a recent user of photoshop and that was something I hated thx =D
One Sentence fixes my pain for 3 years !!!
Thanks a Ton, that dude that said that everyone knows that is a loser.
The mystery solved!!!! Thank You!!!
OMG! thankyou! its such a simple tip but so easy to miss or not to know… The number of times I have worked in photoshop with my nice big brush only to have it switch to the cross hairs without me knowing why… you have just saved me alot of furture frustration :)
SERIOUS THANK YOU (WITH CAPS ON TOO)!!!!!!!!!
thanks a bunch…now i don’t have to get mad at photoshop and shun it for a few days
Omg THANK you! I just sat here laughing at my stupidity!
You really helped me, thank you!
…. wow. i like these kinda posts.
R u kidding me?! I have been a designer for 10 years, never figured it out or it bugged me enough to search for it! Thanks!
THANK YOU SO FREAKING MUCH I WAS SO ANNOYED I WAS ABOUT TO COMMIT SOME DOMESTIC ABUSE ON MY COMPUTER!
LOL I was wondering why It left. I thought my Cat messed PS up when she stepped on the keyboard turns out she just hit the caps lock. I was gonna reinstall Photoshop if I didn’t find a fix. haha Thanks alot!!
Thank you so much! It was driving me absolutely bonkers!! GENIUS!
You saved me man
i have suffered from this
ive almost reinstalled photoshop for this
thanks allot
ZOMG thanks
/facepalm
Thanks.
OMG I feel so stupid…thanks a ton
Thanks a lot. You’ve solved the mystery!
OMG, THAT easy??!! Thnx dude! It’s always annoying when it happnes.
PS: To those dissing this article, grow up. Get a life!
That’s a Great Tip for me ;-)
Thanks a lot!
THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG, thank u so much!
Thank you so much!! Damn that was freaking annoying! I didn’t know WHAT the hell was causing that. Who’d have thought the fix would be so quick and simple!
omg, thank you! you saved a 23″ apple cinema display from having a fist put through it!!
THANK YOU. it’s so simple yet so frustratingly unintuitive. Surprising that this seems to be one of the only posts addressing this issue available on the web.
I was sooooo thrilled to find this answer as my computer at work has not allowed me to see my brush shapes for some time. I zoomed into work, all ready to work on a project and still have the problem. Can anyone give a self-taught newbie any other things to try? And just for the record….your help here rocks!
I greatly appreciate this little secret that help us resolve a big frustration.
I can’t count the times I’ve sat and stared at Photoshop bewildered, at what to do when this happens! Thanks for this one bud!
GUYS! Brittbox does rock the world. This is true. But this didn’t work for me. I’m having the problem as MQ above (posted Nov 17, 07 at 7:32 am), who said:
“…no matter WHAT i do, it (the brush tip) wont show up… it is NOT because of caps lock, or because of enabling precise cursors. is it b/c of a plugin?? is it some other error?”
Does any one have any ideas? Or has this happened to anyone else?
ARE U FRIGGIN SERIOUS. MAN, I’ve been a Photoshop junkie for like 10 years and I NEVER figured this out. I just assumed (which I should never do anymore since I’m always making an ASS and out of U and ME) it was a glitch and never bothered to search “photoshop brush cursor” until now…wow I feel so retarded. But I AM SO THANKFUL!!
Thank you so much! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!
I can finally work with out losing my nerves or cursing my computer. Thank you!
OMG..this is the best thing i learned all day..i been working with photoshop for a long time and always wondered why this happened. THANX!
HOLY CRAP, this happens to me all the time and i’m always confused on what happened and it annoyed me so much….NOT ANYMORE! Thank you so much!
Thank you, this is very frustrating. I would just usually go back into preferences and change it to another brush setting in order to get it back, thanks again.
sometimes i see only a part from the brush, for example if my brush is a rectangle,i see only the right side…do you know how can you change that? if you can change it?
So how do you fix it when the stuck on precise bug crops up? It’s NOT caps lock on nor is it the selection in display and cursors, which is on brush size, but all the cursors are shown in precise mode. Restarting PhotoShop or the PC doesn’t fix it.
Photoshop CS2 on XP Pro SP3.