Painting Cursor Invisible

With any other application, when an icon or text or object, whatever needs to be visible against an infinitely variable background, the solution is simply to use 2 high contrast colors like Black and white so it's visible against any background.

For example the standard windows pointer or movie subtitles.

So, what's up with photoshop's one color cursor ?
Please, tell me there's a way to change it somehow.
How could they have overlooked something so obvious ?

Sorry, forgot to mention, I have PS 6.0 and my cursors are 50 % gray and therefore truely invisible against 50 % gray
and practically invisible against similar backgrounds. Thanks for any help.

"dave" wrote in message

With any other application, when an icon or text or object, whatever needs to be visible against an infinitely variable background, the solution is simply to use 2 high contrast colors like Black and white so it's visible against any background.

For example the standard windows pointer or movie subtitles.
So, what's up with photoshop's one color cursor ?
Please, tell me there's a way to change it somehow.
How could they have overlooked something so obvious ?

"dave" wrote in message

Sorry, forgot to mention, I have PS 6.0 and my cursors are 50 % gray and therefore truely invisible against 50 % gray
and practically invisible against similar backgrounds. Thanks for any help.

"dave" wrote in message

With any other application, when an icon or text or object, whatever needs to be visible against an infinitely variable background, the solution is simply to use 2 high contrast colors like Black and white so it's visible against any background.

For example the standard windows pointer or movie subtitles.
So, what's up with photoshop's one color cursor ?
Please, tell me there's a way to change it somehow.
How could they have overlooked something so obvious ?

I also hate this and am told it's a Windows issue, Mac users do have changing color cursors!!!
I have tried every way to change it in windows system and no luck Try using a transparent color layer over the gray areas for spotting dust etc

Possibly it's a windows issue, but I have to wonder since after all, the windows pointer is black and white which allows it to
be visible against any background. I could swear I recently used some program that had changing cursor colors or something
in it changed colors to respong to changing background colors, but I'm not 100% sure.

"KatWoman" wrote in message

"dave" wrote in message

Sorry, forgot to mention, I have PS 6.0 and my cursors are 50 % gray and therefore truely invisible against 50 % gray
and practically invisible against similar backgrounds. Thanks for any help.

"dave" wrote in message

With any other application, when an icon or text or object, whatever needs to be visible against an infinitely variable background, the solution is simply to use 2 high contrast colors like Black and white so it's visible against any background.

For example the standard windows pointer or movie subtitles.
So, what's up with photoshop's one color cursor ?
Please, tell me there's a way to change it somehow.
How could they have overlooked something so obvious ?

I also hate this and am told it's a Windows issue, Mac users do have changing color cursors!!!
I have tried every way to change it in windows system and no luck Try using a transparent color layer over the gray areas for spotting dust etc

In article <AFepf.6594$>,
says...

With any other application, when an icon or text or object, whatever needs to be visible against an infinitely variable background, the solution is simply to use 2 high contrast colors like Black and white so it's visible against any background.

For example the standard windows pointer or movie subtitles.
So, what's up with photoshop's one color cursor ?
Please, tell me there's a way to change it somehow.
How could they have overlooked something so obvious ?

The only work around I have found is to momentarily hold down the space bar which will change the pointer in to the hand tool. That way you can at least see where it is. When you get it where you want release the space bar and resume whatever you were doing.

--
Robert D Feinman
Landscapes, Cityscapes and Panoramic Photographs
http://robertdfeinman.com
mail:

The Photoshop cursor color can't be changed in a Windows machine. It's a Windows problem. For a "work around" I add a temporary adjustment layer to the photo and adjust the brightness and contrast of the layer so I can see the cursor again. When I'm finished I just trash the adjustment layer and the photo goes back to it's normal levels.

--
Charley

"dave" wrote in message

With any other application, when an icon or text or object, whatever needs to be visible against an infinitely variable background, the solution is simply to use 2 high contrast colors like Black and white so it's visible against any background.

For example the standard windows pointer or movie subtitles.
So, what's up with photoshop's one color cursor ?
Please, tell me there's a way to change it somehow.
How could they have overlooked something so obvious ?

In article <gsjpf.7680$>,
"dave" wrote:

Possibly it's a windows issue, but I have to wonder since after all, the windows pointer is black and white which allows it to
be visible against any background.

But the Windows cursor is more than one pixel wide.

The Photoshop precise cursor is exactly one pixel wide, so you can't have it outlined in black or white.

If you want to know the technical reason for the limitation: The Mac provides a number of cursor overlay modes, which tell the computer how to draw the cursor against the background. One of these overlay modes is called "xover." In this mode, a 50% gray cursor still shows up against a 50% gray background, because in xover mode the cursor's color is changed using a mathematical function involving the background it's over.

Windows does not provide an xover mode. On a Windows machine, a 50% gray cursor vanishes against a 50% gray background.

Photoshop CS2 on Windows solves this problem by not using the Windows cursor overlay modes at all; drawing the cursor is handled by Photoshop itself, not by Windows, and the Photoshop programmers used the Mac xover mode in the Windows version of Photoshop.

The problem with doing this, which becomes obvious to anyone using a cursor in Brush Size mode (especially with a very large brush), is that handling tasks like drawing the cursor within the application is slow. A common complaint in CS2 for Windows, which does not affect CS2 for Mac, is poor cursor responsiveness, especially with large brushes.

--
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

Hmm, I think a cursor more than 1 pixel wide sounds like a good choice !

"tacit" wrote in message

In article <gsjpf.7680$>,
"dave" wrote:

Possibly it's a windows issue, but I have to wonder since after all, the windows pointer is black and white which allows it to
be visible against any background.

But the Windows cursor is more than one pixel wide.

The Photoshop precise cursor is exactly one pixel wide, so you can't have it outlined in black or white.

If you want to know the technical reason for the limitation: The Mac provides a number of cursor overlay modes, which tell the computer how to draw the cursor against the background. One of these overlay modes is called "xover." In this mode, a 50% gray cursor still shows up against a 50% gray background, because in xover mode the cursor's color is changed using a mathematical function involving the background it's over.
Windows does not provide an xover mode. On a Windows machine, a 50% gray cursor vanishes against a 50% gray background.

Photoshop CS2 on Windows solves this problem by not using the Windows cursor overlay modes at all; drawing the cursor is handled by Photoshop itself, not by Windows, and the Photoshop programmers used the Mac xover mode in the Windows version of Photoshop.

The problem with doing this, which becomes obvious to anyone using a cursor in Brush Size mode (especially with a very large brush), is that handling tasks like drawing the cursor within the application is slow. A common complaint in CS2 for Windows, which does not affect CS2 for Mac, is poor cursor responsiveness, especially with large brushes.
--
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

Now, that sounds like a good workaround ! Thanks !

"Charley" wrote in message

The Photoshop cursor color can't be changed in a Windows machine. It's a Windows problem. For a "work around" I add a temporary adjustment layer to the photo and adjust the brightness and contrast of the layer so I can see the cursor again. When I'm finished I just trash the adjustment layer and the photo goes back to it's normal levels.

--
Charley

"dave" wrote in message

With any other application, when an icon or text or object, whatever needs
to be visible against an infinitely variable background, the solution is simply to use 2 high contrast colors like Black and white so it's visible against any background.

For example the standard windows pointer or movie subtitles.
So, what's up with photoshop's one color cursor ?
Please, tell me there's a way to change it somehow.
How could they have overlooked something so obvious ?

"tacit" wrote in message

In article <gsjpf.7680$>,
"dave" wrote:

Possibly it's a windows issue, but I have to wonder since after all, the windows pointer is black and white which allows it to
be visible against any background.

But the Windows cursor is more than one pixel wide.

The Photoshop precise cursor is exactly one pixel wide, so you can't have it outlined in black or white.

If you want to know the technical reason for the limitation: The Mac provides a number of cursor overlay modes, which tell the computer how to draw the cursor against the background. One of these overlay modes is called "xover." In this mode, a 50% gray cursor still shows up against a 50% gray background, because in xover mode the cursor's color is changed using a mathematical function involving the background it's over.
Windows does not provide an xover mode. On a Windows machine, a 50% gray cursor vanishes against a 50% gray background.

Photoshop CS2 on Windows solves this problem by not using the Windows cursor overlay modes at all; drawing the cursor is handled by Photoshop itself, not by Windows, and the Photoshop programmers used the Mac xover mode in the Windows version of Photoshop.

The problem with doing this, which becomes obvious to anyone using a cursor in Brush Size mode (especially with a very large brush), is that handling tasks like drawing the cursor within the application is slow. A common complaint in CS2 for Windows, which does not affect CS2 for Mac, is poor cursor responsiveness, especially with large brushes.
--
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

one more reason not to upgrade yet then
my comp is biting it now when I use type on a path
everything else is quite fast though

I guess you're talking about bitwise manipulation as in AND, OR, NOT, XOR. I've programmed some in C years ago and I did some of that in Windows. I'm sure I've seen bit inversions done on graphics. I don't know, maybe the cursor is a special animal that
has very narrow programming options. Many years ago when I had an Amiga all that stuff was a no brainer. All kinds of creative flexibility was built in - of course after all the brilliant design work Commodore just let it die.

"tacit" wrote in message

In article <gsjpf.7680$>,
"dave" wrote:

Possibly it's a windows issue, but I have to wonder since after all, the windows pointer is black and white which allows it to
be visible against any background.

But the Windows cursor is more than one pixel wide.

The Photoshop precise cursor is exactly one pixel wide, so you can't have it outlined in black or white.

If you want to know the technical reason for the limitation: The Mac provides a number of cursor overlay modes, which tell the computer how to draw the cursor against the background. One of these overlay modes is called "xover." In this mode, a 50% gray cursor still shows up against a 50% gray background, because in xover mode the cursor's color is changed using a mathematical function involving the background it's over.
Windows does not provide an xover mode. On a Windows machine, a 50% gray cursor vanishes against a 50% gray background.

Photoshop CS2 on Windows solves this problem by not using the Windows cursor overlay modes at all; drawing the cursor is handled by Photoshop itself, not by Windows, and the Photoshop programmers used the Mac xover mode in the Windows version of Photoshop.

The problem with doing this, which becomes obvious to anyone using a cursor in Brush Size mode (especially with a very large brush), is that handling tasks like drawing the cursor within the application is slow. A common complaint in CS2 for Windows, which does not affect CS2 for Mac, is poor cursor responsiveness, especially with large brushes.
--
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html