inverting a photoshop mask with cmd+I

[Egozalan]

I used to invert a photoshop mask or invert anything by pressing cmd i now it opens a grid and select menu doesnt have option to invert it has on inverse which doesnt work. How can i invert a mask with photshop can you please explain and please adobe dont change shortcuts.

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

Nothing has changed, and no shortcuts have changed, in many many years.

Does the demo below show what you see? If so, then the confusion probably comes from not recognizing how an inverted mask appears under different conditions. The demo shows inverting three different ways:

1. Inverting a mask with an opaque layer under it. This is probably what you’re used to. 

2. Inverting a mask while viewing only the mask as black and white (Option-clicking the mask). You might be familiar with this view too.

3. Inverting a mask when the opaque Background layer is hidden, or not present. Without the opaque Background layer, any area not covered by any layer reveals the standard checkerboard grid that indicates that an area is transparent, not opaque white. Is this the grid you saw? This would be normal if you are editing a document where the background must remain transparent.

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@Egozalan wrote:

…and select menu doesnt have option to invert it has on inverse which doesnt work.

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The Select menu has never had an Invert menu on it, only Inverse. The Invert command, which does and always has worked on masks, is actually on the Image > Adjustments submenu, and that is where you can see the keyboard shortcut Command-I is and has been for many years. So, Select > Inverse is for selections, and Image > Adjustments > Invert (Command-I) is for pixels (layers or masks).

[Egozalan]

thanks alot for help. 

[Stephen Marsh]

In addition to the excellent post from @Conrad_C there is also the Properties panel for a selected mask, which also offers an invert option (which does the same thing as the previously mentioned methods):

[Bojan Živković]

I use Windows, where changing the input language is easy. Do you have that option on Mac? I think you do. Check what input language is set.

[Conrad_C]

That’s a good idea because the shortcuts can be different in various languages.

Yes, it’s easy to change the language on a Mac; and for those who need do it often, it’s possible to configure a list of favorite input sources, and there’s a configurable keyboard shortcut for cycling through that list.