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A
Anonymous
February 16, 2013
Answered

Photoshop CS6: soft brush suddenly looks pixelated instead of smooth

  • February 16, 2013
  • 12 replies
  • 89026 views

I've never had this problem before. I'm using the standard soft round brush to blend colors, which has always given a smooth effect, but now it suddenly looks all pixelated. The brush strokes also appears in rings instead of a smooth gradient. It looks as if the picture has been sharpened too much or saved in bad quality. I've already tried things like changing the brush settings, deleting photoshop preferences, increasing the RAM assigned to photoshop, but nothing works. Does anyone know what caused this? It's driving me insane! I get the same problem in an older version (Photoshop CS), so perhaps it's not photoshop itself?

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Correct answer neilj58437623

Just to add to this in case anyone else encounters the same problem.

I had banding that almost appeared vector like in photoshop cc 2017 when using any brush much like the problems encountered in this thread.  Luckily I have a dual monitor setup with a 27" LG IPS and a 24" Dell IPS.  What I did was drag the file from photoshop from my main LG into the Dell and noticed that the gradients all appeared perfect.  That led me to believe that it wasn't the video card or photoshop necessarily causing the issue.

It turns out that the monitor profile is what caused the banding.  I calibrated the monitor using a calibrator which created a monitor color profile. I loaded this in windows 10.  Now the important part.  In photoshop under edit > color settings you have to choose that same color profile used in the monitor. When both are the same profile the gradients all magically worked again.  Hope this helps

12 replies

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A
a_squired_taste
Participant
October 30, 2013

The answer is simple. Reset photoshop completely. This worked for me.  I was having problems with my soft brushes having hard edges. I reseted photoshop by this command:

Windows - CTRL-SHIFT-ALT immediately after you double-click the PS icon.

Macintosh - CMD-SHIFT-OPTION immediately after you double-click the PS icon.

hit ok, photoshop will reset, and you'll find the brushes work properly again. boom. You'll most likely loose your custom brushes, but if you saved them as a .abr somewhere you can load them up again.

Noel Carboni
Noel Carboni
Legend
February 16, 2013

Sounds like a problem with your display settings on your system, or possibly a problem with your monitor.

Does it show in a screen grab?

If so, please post a screen grab here so others can see exactly what you're seeing.

Please also describe your system (hardware, OS, etc.).

-Noel

A
Anonymous
February 16, 2013

Thank you for the reply!

Here's a screenshot of the pixelated brush:

http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/y520/Kitsuru/ss_zpsbf2397a1.jpg

And these are my system specifics:

Windows 7, service pack 1

Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30 GHz

RAM 8,00 GB
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce 610M

Noel Carboni
Noel Carboni
Legend
February 25, 2013

Again some brush strokes but in a .psd file in 16 bits, which you can download here:

http://kitsuru.deviantart.com/art/Test-356440769

I clearly see posterization...


I am becoming convinced we have two different problems here. 

  • I DO see posterization in the 16 bits/channel PNG file you posted, Caroline, and I can verify that the data is not a smooth blending of color.
  • R.S.Khan, you've said the problem you're seeing is NOT in your document, just on your display.

These things, if accurate, say the problems you two are experiencing are fundamentally different from one another.

Caroline, I assume you created that blue to pink image initially as a 16 bits/channel document, then painted colors on it.

If so, whatever brush settings, etc. you're using must not be depositing smooth swaths of color into your document.

Exactly what brush and settings are you using? 

Since you now are able to post images (via links), could you please take a screenshot of your Brush panel showing the exact brush you're using and all the settings?  If any of the various Dynamics, etc. are turned on, click those categories so the settings show and take screenshots of them too.

Thanks.

-Noel

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