This one gets more people because it’s a feature that acts like a bug. Has this ever happened to you? You’re working in Photoshop, you’re using the Brush tool (B), and everything seems fine. But a little later in your session, you get the Brush tool again, and it no longer displays the size of the currently selected brush tip. Instead, it displays a little crosshair cursor. So you go to the Preferences menu and choose Display & Cursors, and sure enough, you’ve got Normal Brush Tip chosen as your preference, but for some strange reason, it’s not showing your brush size; it’s showing that stupid crosshair. Here’s the problem: Check your Caps Lock key. It’s turned on, and turning it on changes your Brush cursor from displaying brush size to displaying the crosshair. This is actually a feature to be used when you need to see the precise center of your brush. The problem is it’s assigned to the Caps Lock key, so every time you turn on Caps Lock when you’re working with type, you just temporarily switched your Brush cursor (or any cursor for that matter). Does Adobe need to find a better key for this feature/bug? You betcha! Will it happen? Not as far as I know.

12 Comments

1. Kim said on — August 4, 2008 @ 5:28 pm

   Thank you so much for that tip. I have had that happen a few times and wondered what I did to make that happen. You’ve just made my DAY!

2. Kamui said on — August 5, 2008 @ 12:25 pm

   omg… sometimes i went crazy because of that “bug” ^^
   thanks a lot for that tip!!

3. Emmy said on — October 15, 2008 @ 12:23 am

   Thanks a bunch for writing that!
   I was going nuts trying to figure out what was wrong in Photoshop.
   Thank God for google and thank God for your site and your contribution!!!

4. Andrew said on — February 27, 2009 @ 1:26 pm

   Seriously, I think I was restarting Photoshop every time that happened. I’m glad that I looked this up, but I’m especially grateful that you posted this. Thanks friend.

5. SBBurnette said on — March 22, 2009 @ 2:00 pm

   Thank you so much!

   Now I understand why restarting my computer seemed to be the only thing that fixed this every time it happened =)

6. Andreas said on — July 20, 2009 @ 7:15 pm

   LOL

7. 667 said on — May 29, 2010 @ 3:52 am

   =)) would’ve never thought of that!

8. Waz said on — September 19, 2010 @ 2:13 am

   Thanks heaps for this what a pain in the butt!

9. Judy said on — September 23, 2010 @ 12:56 am

   Wow Wow Wow I have searched and searched and searched and just scrolled down the page and saw something about the caps lock being on and I hit it and zippidoooodaaaa there is my circle brush I have been searching for for God only knows how long………this is amazing ……..I just want to thank you so much don’t know who you are but you sure are awesomeeeeeeeeeeeee………….thanks judy

10. picna domer said on — October 10, 2010 @ 4:22 pm

    thanks, i gone crazy cause of this stupid problem, your really helped me, i thought some problem with ps and had restarted ps several times, nyway thanks…

11. James Shadle said on — February 16, 2011 @ 12:09 pm

    Lifesaver!
    Thanks.

12. Kádár János said on — April 23, 2011 @ 4:19 pm

    WHaaahahaahaaa! Oh my god, I never thought that! It’s a funny thing

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website