Perhaps I am missing something, but when I press CTRL T to transform raster pixels, I get this insanely stupid alert. No, I'm not trying to edit a path. WTF? When I go to the edit settings, there are only options for transforming paths.
Yes, I'm on the correct layer. Yes, it is unlocked. Yes, I'm 100% the pixels are within the selection. This is some BS Photoshop issue.
This update of photoshop SUCKS. I hate how they consolidated A HUGE AMOUNT of tools into a seperate bar. WTF, WHY?
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I have to admit that’s a very strange error, and I’m not finding it easy to reproduce intentionally. Because Free Transform Path should only be available if a path is selected. So...
By Dane23340138dnz3Yes, I'm on the correct layer. Yes, it is unlocked. Yes, I'm 100% the pixels are within the selection. This is some BS Photoshop issue.
…the one thing that isn’t mentioned there is what the status of the Paths panel is. Is any path selected there?
By Dane23340138dnz3
Are you talking about the Contextual Task Bar shown at the bottom of your screen shot? That’s totally optional. It’s mostly a shortcuts bar, because practically everything on it is a shortcut to a command that is also accessible from a menu or panel. If you hate it, turn it off (Window > Contextual Task Bar).
But having been a Photoshop user for around a third of a century now, I have to say I appreciate the Contextual Task Bar. The answer to your question “why?” is for convenience. I personally appreciate that some of the most often used options are now right up front for me, saving me the trouble of having to drag the mouse up to the menu bar to dig through menus, or remembering what a keyboard shortcut was. For example, if I want to feather a selection, I’d much rather choose the Feather command from the convenient button on the CTB then have to maneuver the mouse to get to the Select > Modify > Feather command two levels down in a 1990s-style submenu. If I want to edit arrowheads for a Line tool path, the arrowhead controls are right there on the CTB. I think it’s super handy.
I think the Contextual Task Bar is especially useful for beginners, who don't yet know where to find an option buried in the endless menus and panels in Photoshop. They can just use those buttons for immediate access to popular commands like Fill, and the Subtract To Mask/Add To Mask buttons on the CTB are far more intuitive for a beginner than the old way (that still works) of going back and forth between the mask in the Layers panel and swapping foreground/background colors.
My guess is that a major reason the CTB was added was for the touch versions of Photoshop, where it makes a lot more sense in terms of usability compared to desktop-style menus and panels.
Thank you for the reply.
There are not paths in my file. I'm not trying edit a path. I'm trying to use the free transform tool, which now seems to be linked with 'free transform path' which is USELESS if i'm not working with paths. Why would free transform be replaced with free transform [specific usecase]? Makes no sense. Unless this is a bug. But this is a fresh install of photoshop on a fresh install of windows.
There may have been a miscommunication. I'm not trying to transform a path (unless I am unknowingly mis-attributing the name), I am attemping to transform a selection of pixels. I know this works because I have done it countless times. I could hop on my laptop and it would work..
I like the CTB. It's very handy. You don't need to convince me. I'm talking about the toolbar on the left. I realize I could have worded my post better, but this it what I was referring to;
It won't let me open the menu and take a screenshot, but basically the Magic wand tool (and many other from other catergories, like the polygon lasso) got moved to this cluster at the bottom
The thing is..... you can still cycle to the tools if you press SHIFT + (W) to cycle from the selection options or for example SHIFT + G to cycle from the gradient to the bucket, which,....... WHY WOULD YOU REMOVE IT?
Now there 20+ tools in a stupid drop down menu, which is annoying to search through because everything was neatly organized before. Its like taking folded shirts and throwing them in a drawer with pants, shoes, socks, and random bits of garbage. This is the first photoshop update that really actually is a regression.
OK, thanks for the clarifications. I should clarify too…I fully understand that you are trying to transform pixels, not a path. Because the menu you showed had Free Transform Path on it, I was puzzling over why Photoshop would put the word “path” in there, because as we both know, that should only happen if a path is active. So my questions were about looking for a possible path that was selected unintentionally.
About the toolbar arrangement…there might be an explanation. For years, users asked to be able to customize the increasingly crowded Tools panel, so they added that to Photoshop. As part of that, Adobe decided that you can tie your custom toolbar to a custom workspace you make, and they also made a custom toolbar optimized for each default workspace.
The picture below shows the toolbars Adobe designed for each of the five Photoshop default workspaces, from left to right: Essentials, Motion, Painting, Photography, and Graphic and Web.
It does happen, from time to time, that someone will be surprised by a completely unfamiliar Tools panel arrangement, and it turns out they switched to a different workspace, and didn’t know that workspace could have its own Tools panel arrangement.
So the question is, which workspace is Photoshop set to? (in the submenu Window > Workspace)
I think the Essentials workspace is the closest to what Photoshop has been traditionally. If you’re in Essentials and the Tools panel is still not right, edit it using Edit Toolbar, and you can reset it by clicking the Restore Defaults button. If Edit Toolbar has been hidden on the Tools panel, you can still get to it by choosing the command Edit > Toolbar. Notice that how the tools are grouped in the list determines whether a tool is on its own, or has other tools grouped with it on a pop-out menu.
That's a long way of saying: If you don’t like the Tools panel layout for the current workspace, customize the Tools panel the way you want, or reset it to the Photoshop defaults if that’s what you’re most comfortable with.
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