yes we all have that problem, and apparently theres no solution…its great aint it? cant work on anything near 50% grey or on complex line are because you cant see the cursor, paths, etc etc.
The only way around it i have found is to add a layer of black or something dark on opacity of say 50% and do what you need to do.
I’m struggling to understand the decision making process at adobe who deems it necessary to make the plugin, but then deems it unessessary to make it for osx.
I don’t claim to understand all of the specifics, but this "cursor disappears when working in mid-grays" problem was something we Maccers used to smugly sneer at when Windows users complained about it. And it has nothing to do with plugins. If it did, it’s likely a plugin to resolve this problem would’ve been issued for Windows users long ago.
The problem is manifested at the OS level. The difference goes something like this:
In the Windows OS, the "blending mode" (much like layer blending modes in Photoshop itself) between the cursor and the pixel values over which the Photoshop cursor movedwhich would make the cursor remain visible over those mid-level grayswas not available. This was the fault of Windows, and not Photoshop. On Macs, there was a "blending mode" that kept the cursor well visible in the Classic OS. At one time (before I moved to OS X), I had even made a screen-capture animation to show a non-believing Windows user how well the cursor remained visible under OS 9.2.2, by capturing the cursor as it moved over a Black«—»White linear gradient. I included Info Palette readouts and overlaid graph lines in order to show the shade percentages along the linear movement of the cursor over the gradient. The cursor remained WELL visible, no matter what percentage of gray it hovered over.
Now under OS X, that blending mode which allowed our Photoshop cursors to be perfectly visible no matter what color pixels it was dragged over seems to have been left out. I don’t know if this has something to do with the Quartz rendering engine or what, because I don’t really understand how Quartz works, either.
I surely hope Chris Cox sees this thread and expounds at length on how it used to be, and how it is now.
I’ll admit I used to kind of chuckle, but also empathise, with Windows users who complained about this problem. The subject came up often in many forums, and the little voice in the back of my head used to want to answer "Get a Mac and you won’t have this problem!" But I rarely did, because that would just be rubbing salt in the wound.
Now that I have to deal with it every day, I’d really like to hear a technical explanation of how and why we also have the "can’t see the cursor over mid-grays" problem under OS X.
Chris? Please weigh in on this topic. Thanks in advance if you do…
I remember pointing out this very problem when PS 7 was released and we at last had OSX compatibility. Forget which Adobe engineer finally repsonded (wasn’t Chris), but he said something to the effect, "we pushed for it ["it" being whatever it was that allowed the cursor to behave as it did in OS 9], but we didn’t get it".
This problem drives me nuts.
-phil
that was version 7!?
whoever needed a push, needs a kicking now. Why on earth are we dealing with untidyness like this in an app thats on its 8th version and already on its second version for osx?
I really do wonder about the feature and bug fixing priorities these days on PS.
And here I thought my eyes were just getting worse! I guess I just noticed it was a new problem, but didn’t know why and assumed it was me. It sounds like this is OSX related. How can we put pressure on Apple to fix this? I’m amazed it’s taken so long to be mentioned here.
Wow monte, look what you started over here!
You wouldn’t think that something as mature and well developed as Photoshop is would have such a basic UI flaw. I mean this is really basic stuff – tools just shouldn’t disappear like that!
Adobe has been around long enough to know that you can’t blame the operating system, and you especially can’t wait for the OS vendor to fix it. A $600 application really should behave better!
As far as I understand, this is an OS issue, NOT a Photoshop issue.
There is NO WAY Adobe would have changed the way the Photoshop cursors appear over mid-tones on the Mac OS, unless the OS had changed in some fundamental way so as to prevent it from working the way it did in the classic OS.
This is an issue better addressed to and by Apple engineering.
If it’s not an issue that falls under Apple’s aegis, I’d be most happy to hear the full explanation about what has changed, and why, and to acknowledge that I have no idea what the heck I’m talking about.
Clue us in, Chris…please. And suggest how we might petition Apple to return to us the cursor overlay display method which worked so well under OS 9.x and earlier. This isn’t a minor issue, and I now understand the years of frustration that plagued Windows users.
The problem only becomes apparent in cross-hairs mode over 50% gray pixels (128 R, 128 G, 128 B or close) so most of the time you won’t even notice it.
Hitting the caps lock to see what you are doing will usually help.
That’s on PS CS, on a localized german PS.
Ann
I have it not only with the gray values, but – just one example out of the posted image – with 145/134/114 , too.
most of the time you won’t even notice it.< Don’t agree on that, but this might be work-depending. Apart from that forum, other PS-user face the same problem too – they have (partially) written to the support, without any solution.
Can’t see any difference w-w/o caps lock. The other tools DO change color, so why not the crosshair?
When opening it in preview, one can see how apple handles that issue.
Ann, its not just around midtones that the problem occurs its on anything thats black and white and complex…its a nightmare on pixel art or black and white plans/blue prints etc etc.
Ok, if its the OS’s fault, then hands up who can think of another app including win xp and osx where you lose the cursor…?
I have this problem with PS CS (OSX) too. I’m using 2 different Macs, one with Wacom.
The visibility of hair cross and path tool is really bad and I don’t remember having this problem with PS7.
I heard (in german Adobe Forum) that this cursor problem also exists with Windows.
🙁
I’ve made a feature request, on more than one occasion, and prior to version 7, to be able to change the colour of pen paths to something distinct like a bright red, blue, green etc. I’ve seen it in other apps, and it’s an incredibly useful feature. If something like this could be done with the cursor/tools across the board, even better! How about a few small coloured boxes in the options bar, that the user could click on to change to a colour of their choice?
<< This problem drives ma nuts>>
Me too!!!
I’ve got that specific problem too, and I want and need a better way to deal with that.
Peter, i’ve made the request as well…is anyone listening…if they are then whats happening…and why did it happen in the first place.
It’s partly the OS and partly Photoshop. Right now the brush size cursors have the AddOver mode, but most of the other cursors do not. In OS 9 we had most of the cursors in AddOver mode. OS X makes us jump through more hoops to get it working and we haven’t gotten all of them handled yet.
Chris
thanks for your clarification.
I don’t know about that AddOver mode, but would it be possible to correct that with a plugin, as in the oly OS-9-times? Are there any intentions from Adobe’s side, to get this problem resolved?
Have you the authorization to provide us the information, when this might happen?
It’s a pitty, that such a well build software like PS has this behavior, that can be so painefull in everydays work.
so perhaps Cs 2 then will be what we’re looking for then…
Itwould seem to be a Work in Progress
:~?
