Photoshop 4 Type tool doesn’t work

"sebt" wrote in message

Hi

can anyone still help with a Photoshop 4 question?

I’m used to using a much more recent version, but all this 2nd-hand machine has on it (and all it can run probably, v old machine) is 4.
Problem is with the Type tool. I click on it, click somewhere within the work; now in later versions I’m used to being able to type straight onto the work. V4 opens up a dialog instead, with font settings and a text box where you can type things. Fair enough – typing right on the work isn’t something I’m going to cry about not having.

Here’s the problem: whatever I type, whatever font I select, whatever font size I select, whatever foreground and background colours I select, all I get for it is a rectangle in the foreground colour. Presumably the rectangle is the text box, as it’s longer the more text I type. But where’s the text? Why does it seem Photoshop is putting the text and background in the same colour?

I’m at 3% physical memory, but the page-file is only 10% used – so if it’s a memory problem, it would show up as slowness, not outright refusal tto do things, no? Resources are about 50% free (yep, I’m using Windows 98!)

Hi Seb,

I no longer have 4.0 running on any of my systems, so I can’t help much. Here are a couple of guesses.

Make sure your text color and background color are different.

As I recall there was a separate install step required for installing maps for certain fonts – try running the install CD again and look for something related to font mapping.

Make sure you have Adobe Type Manager (ATM) installed.
—

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com

In article <qHjVf.59211$>, RE-
says…

"sebt" wrote in message

Hi

can anyone still help with a Photoshop 4 question?

I’m used to using a much more recent version, but all this 2nd-hand machine has on it (and all it can run probably, v old machine) is 4.
Problem is with the Type tool. I click on it, click somewhere within the work; now in later versions I’m used to being able to type straight onto the work. V4 opens up a dialog instead, with font settings and a text box where you can type things. Fair enough – typing right on the work isn’t something I’m going to cry about not having.

Here’s the problem: whatever I type, whatever font I select, whatever font size I select, whatever foreground and background colours I select, all I get for it is a rectangle in the foreground colour. Presumably the rectangle is the text box, as it’s longer the more text I type. But where’s the text? Why does it seem Photoshop is putting the text and background in the same colour?

I’m at 3% physical memory, but the page-file is only 10% used – so if it’s a memory problem, it would show up as slowness, not outright refusal tto do things, no? Resources are about 50% free (yep, I’m using Windows 98!)

Hi Seb,

I no longer have 4.0 running on any of my systems, so I can’t help much. Here are a couple of guesses.

Make sure your text color and background color are different.
As I recall there was a separate install step required for installing maps for certain fonts – try running the install CD again and look for something related to font mapping.

Make sure you have Adobe Type Manager (ATM) installed.
—

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com

Mike,

Didn’t v4 treat Text as a Selection, still? I have a copy on my machine in the office, because I still need do a particular operation for a client, now, and again, and as of v5, the process changed beyond what her printer can handle.

I’ll crank it up on Monday, and see if I can duplicate the problem, but I suspect that it is with dealing with Selections as Type, unlike later versions of PS. I’m thinking that with v5, one had editable Text, and not before (could be confused with v3 v v4 though).

Hunt

—
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth

"Hunt" wrote in message
….

Mike,

Didn’t v4 treat Text as a Selection, still? I have a copy on my machine in the
office, because I still need do a particular operation for a client, now, and
again, and as of v5, the process changed beyond what her printer can handle.

I believe you got a preview of the text in the dialog, then it put the text down in a rasterized form. In quickmask mode this could be used to create a selection.

I’ll crank it up on Monday, and see if I can duplicate the problem, but I suspect that it is with dealing with Selections as Type, unlike later versions
of PS. I’m thinking that with v5, one had editable Text, and not before (could
be confused with v3 v v4 though).

Good idea – I’m curious how it worked.
—

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com

sebt writes …

can anyone still help with a Photoshop 4 question?

I have a copy on a laptop …

Problem is with the Type tool …
whatever I type, whatever font I select, whatever
font size I select, whatever foreground and background colours I select, all I get for it is a rectangle in the foreground colour.

When I tried it I get to type in text which appears in the dialog box, then when I accept it this type appears on a separate new layer, no problems at all … there’s an option for ‘type selection border’ (hold down the mouse on the T symbol to see the fly-out to switch to this) but it makes a selection, not a rectangle as you describe.

Why does it seem Photoshop is putting
the text and background in the same colour?

I get the text in the foreground color … dunno what’s causing your problem but at least on my old machine it works just fine.

Bill

In article ,
"sebt" wrote:

Here’s the problem: whatever I type, whatever font I select, whatever font size I select, whatever foreground and background colours I select, all I get for it is a rectangle in the foreground colour. Presumably the rectangle is the text box, as it’s longer the more text I type. But where’s the text? Why does it seem Photoshop is putting the text and background in the same colour?

I have seen this happen when there is a corrupt font installed on the computer.

I have also seen it happen if the Tracking in the text dialog is set to a large negative number. Make sure there is nothing in the Tracking or Leading box.

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com

In article <VLmVf.59246$>, RE-
says…

"Hunt" wrote in message
…

Mike,

Didn’t v4 treat Text as a Selection, still? I have a copy on my machine in the
office, because I still need do a particular operation for a client, now, and
again, and as of v5, the process changed beyond what her printer can handle.

I believe you got a preview of the text in the dialog, then it put the text down in a rasterized form. In quickmask mode this could be used to create a selection.

I’ll crank it up on Monday, and see if I can duplicate the problem, but I suspect that it is with dealing with Selections as Type, unlike later versions
of PS. I’m thinking that with v5, one had editable Text, and not before (could
be confused with v3 v v4 though).

Good idea – I’m curious how it worked.
—

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com

Ah, the failures of the memory, when you get past 50! Cranked up 4.0.x and I was wrong. It must have been v3.x that I was thinking of – I knew that the basic method of applying Text changed about then, but was not sure when it was. Anyway, v4 brings up the Text dialog box and the typing is done in it. I tried to experience some sort of similar problem, but could not duplicate it. I tried on New Layer, Background (italics here), and on a converted Background Layer, to no avail.

Since the OP has tried other colors, it doesn’t sound like the white type on white background issue, and I am stumped.

Tacit suggests a bad font, and that might be where to look.

Sorry for the deadend here,
Hunt

—
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth

Many thanks for all your attempts to reproduce this!

It’s definitely not a problem with foreground/background colour. I’ve tried all kinds of combinations of foreground/background colour (always different), and I always get the textbox filled with the foreground colour.

I’ve installed Adobe Type Manager, whatever that is. Now here’s a weird thing: if I start up the ATM Control panel, the only fonts listed are about 3 or so standard ones (Courier, Garamond, Times) each in 4 flavours (bold, italic etc). But installing ATM also installed Adobe Illustrator. Now if I try a text box in Illustrator:
– It works fine
– It allows me to select any of the fonts installed on the machine!

So what is Adobe Type Manager all about? How can I add fonts to it (there’s an Add button in the control ATM control panel, with a nasty old Win3.1-style file-select dialog – but God only knows what kind of file it uses)? Should I even bother adding fonts to it, when Illustrator happily uses every font on the machine, ignoring ATM?

I’ve tried this:
– Create a type box in Illustrator
– Copy that object
– Paste it into Photoshop
but all I get is – yet again – the big square blob in the foreground colour.

My only workaround at the moment is to create my text components in Illustrator, Print Screen, then open the bitmap in Photoshop! This is not exactly ideal.

Some of you mentioned "there might be a bad font on my machine". How would I work out if this is the case?

thanks

Seb

In article ,
says…

Many thanks for all your attempts to reproduce this!

It’s definitely not a problem with foreground/background colour. I’ve tried all kinds of combinations of foreground/background colour (always different), and I always get the textbox filled with the foreground colour.

I’ve installed Adobe Type Manager, whatever that is. Now here’s a weird thing: if I start up the ATM Control panel, the only fonts listed are about 3 or so standard ones (Courier, Garamond, Times) each in 4 flavours (bold, italic etc). But installing ATM also installed Adobe Illustrator. Now if I try a text box in Illustrator:
– It works fine
– It allows me to select any of the fonts installed on the machine!
So what is Adobe Type Manager all about? How can I add fonts to it (there’s an Add button in the control ATM control panel, with a nasty old Win3.1-style file-select dialog – but God only knows what kind of file it uses)? Should I even bother adding fonts to it, when Illustrator happily uses every font on the machine, ignoring ATM?
I’ve tried this:
– Create a type box in Illustrator
– Copy that object
– Paste it into Photoshop
but all I get is – yet again – the big square blob in the foreground colour.

My only workaround at the moment is to create my text components in Illustrator, Print Screen, then open the bitmap in Photoshop! This is not exactly ideal.

Some of you mentioned "there might be a bad font on my machine". How would I work out if this is the case?

thanks

Seb

First, ATM is, as the name suggests, a Type Manager. The "light" version used to ship with, and could be installed at the same time, as PS, AI, PM, etc. There was also a Deluxe version for ~US$40. I’ve always had that in ascending releases on all of my machines. It "handles" TT & PS fonts on your machine. There are and WERE better font managers for PC and MAC. Adobe bought one, and then killed it. I noticed recently, that only the lite ver is still around, but have the Deluxe ver from its final years of production on all boxes.

For some reason, PS is not seeing the same fonts, as AI is.

I would go to the Add Fonts tab, and navigate to your various font folders. Unfortunately on a Winbox, they could be anyplace, and, as you pointed out, the navigation is clunky, at best. I have MOST of my fonts in TT Fonts, and PS Fonts folder hierarchy, but then you have the Win Fonts, and Acrobat fonts, and on, and on. Add the fonts that you feel should be installed, especially the ones you KNOW you will be using in PS – I know, it will take some navigating, but its worth the try. Close ATM, and then re-open it. The fonts should still be "installed." Start PS, and try again.

Unfortunately, ATM was never really well documented, and the controls lack most niceities.

All of us should probably get Extensis, or some other font manager, as Adobe seems intent on moving away from ATM.

Good luck,
Hunt

—
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth

"Hunt" wrote in message

In article ,
says…

Many thanks for all your attempts to reproduce this!

It’s definitely not a problem with foreground/background colour. I’ve tried all kinds of combinations of foreground/background colour (always different), and I always get the textbox filled with the foreground colour.

I’ve installed Adobe Type Manager, whatever that is. Now here’s a weird thing: if I start up the ATM Control panel, the only fonts listed are about 3 or so standard ones (Courier, Garamond, Times) each in 4 flavours (bold, italic etc). But installing ATM also installed Adobe Illustrator. Now if I try a text box in Illustrator:
– It works fine
– It allows me to select any of the fonts installed on the machine!
So what is Adobe Type Manager all about? How can I add fonts to it (there’s an Add button in the control ATM control panel, with a nasty old Win3.1-style file-select dialog – but God only knows what kind of file it uses)? Should I even bother adding fonts to it, when Illustrator happily uses every font on the machine, ignoring ATM?
I’ve tried this:
– Create a type box in Illustrator
– Copy that object
– Paste it into Photoshop
but all I get is – yet again – the big square blob in the foreground colour.

My only workaround at the moment is to create my text components in Illustrator, Print Screen, then open the bitmap in Photoshop! This is not exactly ideal.

Some of you mentioned "there might be a bad font on my machine". How would I work out if this is the case?

thanks

Seb

First, ATM is, as the name suggests, a Type Manager. The "light" version used
to ship with, and could be installed at the same time, as PS, AI, PM, etc. There was also a Deluxe version for ~US$40. I’ve always had that in ascending
releases on all of my machines. It "handles" TT & PS fonts on your machine.
There are and WERE better font managers for PC and MAC. Adobe bought one, and
then killed it. I noticed recently, that only the lite ver is still around,
but have the Deluxe ver from its final years of production on all boxes.
For some reason, PS is not seeing the same fonts, as AI is.
I would go to the Add Fonts tab, and navigate to your various font folders.
Unfortunately on a Winbox, they could be anyplace, and, as you pointed out,
the navigation is clunky, at best. I have MOST of my fonts in TT Fonts, and PS
Fonts folder hierarchy, but then you have the Win Fonts, and Acrobat fonts,
and on, and on. Add the fonts that you feel should be installed, especially
the ones you KNOW you will be using in PS – I know, it will take some navigating, but its worth the try. Close ATM, and then re-open it. The fonts
should still be "installed." Start PS, and try again.
Unfortunately, ATM was never really well documented, and the controls lack most niceities.

All of us should probably get Extensis, or some other font manager, as Adobe
seems intent on moving away from ATM.

Good luck,
Hunt

why would one need a font manager in current PS?

in the Windows font folder (control Panel>Fonts) I keep all the fonts I want to use and just put others in another folder
PhotoShop and every other program see all my installed windows fonts I keep a back up file of all my fonts on another drive or re install from a CD

can you set PS to load only some fonts using the pre-set mgr? or is that just for tools