P: Make the brush cursor easier to see (too thin, not enough contrast with some colors)

[michal_j]

In last updates I'm having problem seeing brush (paint and healing) cursor when working with colors similar to cursor grey (grey or brown midtones for expamle).

Sometimes cursor changes to white, but for very short time and very randomly.

So it's really hard to see where I'm just gonna paint or heal. It is really annoying and tiring.

[MscottM]

I have posted before and have seen other posts regarding this issue with the newer releases of Photoshop, but now I can not locate these posts to find out their status. I am not getting emails or any other notifications related to this issue. Can someone please update me on how to resolve my issues?

[michal_j]

@JeffreyTranberry Hi Jeffrey, how is your radar? Still working? It’s almost a year from my initial post. We have new Photoshop version again and no brush visibility solution yet.

I remember Adobe promised better snd Photoshop, when changed bussines model to subscription. Oposite is reality. Basic features are still not working properly and working with PS is a pain.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

The range of colours where the cursor does not invert or inverts at the wrong time is so large that I just have to shoot blind in the dark too many times in a day. Or land a random first stroke to see where the hell the cursor is and keep working from that point  - not pleasant.

[mspiraino]

I've had the same issue with both the brush and spot healing tools.  I was sure it would be remedied in the new version, but no joy there.  I don't understand how such a basic issue can still exist.  It really slows down editing.

[johna34581168]

I have a laptop with an ultrahigh def. screen. As I move the tool ring across my work, it appears and disappears. It seems to be according to the background colour as to whether I can see it or it vanishes completely. This is the same for all the tools that use a ring (paint brush, spot healing etc..) and does not matter if I make the tool ring big or samll or zoom in and out of the photo.

IT IS NOT the "caps lock" problem.  and changing anything in Prferances > Cursor, does not help.
I have talked to Photoshop but they got tired of taking to me and gave up. I don’t think they understood what the problem was.
I am pretty sure it is to do with the outline of the circle be a number of pixels and because the screen has a very high pixel density, it makes the outline of the circle very thin. (to the point it can not be seen especially against some background colours)
Is anyone else getting this problem on UHD screens please?     

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

YES! I'm dying - retouch for a living and I'm losing my mind. Getting new glasses that I hope might help...working large as possible but lose my cursor so often it's impeding my work. Please prioritize this. Those of us who are heavy, daily users are really having problems.

[jbunds]

This seems to be a big problem, that many people have reached out for, and also left a lot of feed back for, but doesn't seem like anyone has any answers! It is very frustrating!

[jbunds]

The brush thing is very frustrating... hopefully adobe is working on a solution!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

@fernandoluizdealmeida   Thanks Fernando.  The exclusion mode  idea works for me

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

As others have mentioned, a workaround is to press the space key, which shows the hand used to move an image. The hand is easy to spot and at least lets you spot the cursor/tool. I press space and move cursor to where I want to work and then let go. It's a clumsy workaround but it's easy and efficient.

[DV23]

There is a very simple solution for Adobe. At the moment they just invert colours. Meaning with mid grey it will stay mid grey. They just have to offset this color by say 10 - 20%. 

A couple of updates they did change something giving the cursor a slight white or black edge but here on a 5K iMac it makes no difference at all. Offsetting the color would be way more effective. Can't imagine this would be hard to implement...

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

To the point others have made, yes we can use the space bar as a workaround, but that doesn't help me see the edges of my brush when I'm trying to gauge if I'm in the exact right spot. It just seems ridiculous that I would have to keep pressing the spacebar to find out where my brush is, then go where I think the pixel edge is that I need to exactly hit, get it wrong by a pixel or two, undo, try again, etc. when a solution doesn't seem super difficult (but then again...people think "just swap the hands!" in a photo is easy...so...quite willing to be wrong). 😉

[Andre Schneider]

Seriosly Adobe. We've been asking for over a year for this. This is something that adds time and stress to our daily work every time we use Photoshop. When dealing with skin it's extremely easy for the skin tone to fall in the area where the cursor is simply impossible to see. Yes, we can press the spacebar to find it, but this is still not a viable solution most of the time. If we're dodging&burning it's simply not feasible to press the spacebar after every stroke to make sure we are painting exactly where we want. 

When Adobe went the subscription way the excuse was that "we're not going to have to wait all the way to a new release to fix problems". Well, how about we get this (huge) problem fixed before the next big release?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I have used Photoshop for nearly 10 years, and although I was dissatisfied, I understood and respected Adobe. But I leave feedback for the first time. It's the most important feedback for the user, so Please pay attention this happen.

If you look at the picture I uploaded, you can see that the brightness of the cursor changes to white and black as the cursor moves.

The picture I uploaded was captured on the FULL HD monitor, but I can't see the cursor very well. You can't see it at all on the 4K resolution. No, actually, apart from the resolution of the monitor, if you're working on a photograph that's close to the gray shade, you're almost invisible.

This happen seems to have been intentionally patched by Adobe. (Thought it was a bug at first.)

I understand the intention of Adobe's update. mayebe..? ( = the purpose of changing the brightness of the cursor in a fluid manner according to the brightness of the pixel, so that it can be visually checked better.)

"BUT"

The intentions were good, but the results were disastrous. It's so uncomfortable. We've had these updates since the 2018 version, and it's really uncomfortable.

Many people all over the world are uncomfortable with this. Some people say this. "If you can't see the mouse cursor well, can't you use a hand tool to locate it, or can't you press the Ctrl button (using windows10 Function) to locate it?"

Well... Of course you can. But before 2018, we were always able to locate the cursor without having to do such a hassle, and we were able to know exactly where we were working. But with updates in the wrong direction, it's really... It's too hard.

In fact, if you don't work on a lot of pictures in gray, there are a lot of people who don't know. There are a lot of people who don't even know. However, most of the Retoucher are uncomfortable with this. A quick update is required.

Adobe's recent updates to Photoshop have been incredible. Especially the great features of Adobe Sensai...

But before those wonderful functions, wouldn't we have to know the location of the cursor that we're most basically moving? I'm sure the priorities for the update are well established. Please update it as soon as soon as possible. Please...

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Same here, difficult to see the brush.  Seems like a basic function.

[rp48]

All of the responses to this problem are unacceptable. Surely Adobe, the premier program, can do something as simple as making the cursor visible when working in black and white which I do often. This is inexcusable and lazy on Adobe's part. Get on the ball folks!

[Andre Schneider]

Adobe, will we ever get a fix for this or at least an acknowledgment from Adobe or one of the technical people here? This is one of the most annoying things for us who work day in and day out with Photoshop, and Adobe simply ignores us for more than a year?

[Andre Schneider]

Is going back to PS 2017 going to be the only way out?

[Yves-CH]

Ne soyez pas plus royalistes que le roi.... Simplement configurez correctement la représentation de la forme du curseur et utilisez la touche CapsLock pour passer du curseur en X au curseur à la forme du pinceau et vice-versa, ce n'est tout de même pas très compliqué

Be not more royalist than the king.... Simply configurez correctly the presentation of the form of the cursor and use the key CapsLock to pass of the cursor in X to the cursor to the form of the brush and vice versa, it is not really very complicated

[Andre Schneider]

@yves_crausaz You really want to tell us that it's really no big deal to have to press CapsLock hundreds and hundreds of times on something that was working perfectly before? Apparently it's not us that are more loyalist than the king. 

[boris_banneker]

I have complained to Adobe several times over the past two years about this. They don’t seem to understand that the cursor is invisible most of the time.

perhaps going back is the best solution. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Photoshop:  All brush and tool outlines are hard to see on high resolution monitors.  Allow the user to change the color and width or make it bold or extra bold.  The brush, clone stamp tool, spot healing brush, etc. are all way too thin.  Limiting the color to gray, white, and black is a very poor color choice that does not offer enough contrast and is not visible especially on midtone colors.  This feature has been requested a long time ago by lots of users.  We are paying you premium subscription prices to use software with problems that should have been fixed long ago!

[joram_gornowitz]

It's so incredibly annoying and makes it nearly impossible to work with b&w help layers. But even without it's an imposition to work like this. Does Adobe take note of this issue at all??!

[Andre Schneider]

Maybe we should just keep posting and maintaining this thread on top until Adobe decides to either fix it or let us know it's not going to be fixed...

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Going to send Adobe my ophthalmologist bill for the eyestrain they are unnecessarily causing!