Issue: Under specific conditions, Photoshop causes the cursor in other apps to switch to the default arrow cursor or to flicker between the correct cursor and the arrow cursor. Photoshop version: 26.1.0 20241113.r.121 158e617 arm64 OS: macOS 14.7.2 I apologize in advance. This one is complicated, and was difficult to track down. It occurs on all my systems, including a completely clean installation of macOS and Photoshop, and has been present in many versions of Photoshop, over quite a few years.   Steps to reproduce: (See below for Definitions.) 1. Close Photoshop if it is already running. 2. Start Photoshop. 3. Drag a document from the Finder into the Photoshop window. 4. Document opens in Photoshop. 5. If the currently selected tool is a Brush-Based Tool and the brush-shaped cursor is visible, the Cursor Problem will occur in other apps. 6. If the currently selected tool is a Non-Brush Tool, switch to a Brush-Based Tool. As long as the brush-shaped cursor has appeared once (over an editable layer), the Cursor Problem will occur. 7. Close the document in Photoshop. 8. Cursors in other apps will be normal. 9. Open a document in Photoshop by any means, such as the Open dialog box, double-clicking in Finder, dragging onto the Photoshop icon, or dragging into the Photoshop window. 10. Go to Step 5 and repeat. The only way to break out of the sequence is to close Photoshop.   Note that Step 3 above can be performed with or without a document open in Photoshop. If a document is already open, the dragged file will appear as a new layer in the open document. If this happens, you may need to switch to an editable layer in order to get the brush-shaped cursor to appear. Then the Cursor Problem will occur.   Expected result: Cursors in other apps should not be affected by Photoshop. Actual result: The Cursor Problem (see below)   🙂   Definitions (not at all official) Brush-Based Tool: A tool whose cursor has the same shape as the selected brush when over an editable layer. Includes Brush, Pencil, Clone Stamp, Dodge, Eraser, etc. Non-Brush Tool: A tool whose cursor does not have a brush shape. Includes Move, Marquee, Lasso, Crop, Frame, Eyedropper, Patch, Paint Bucket, Pen, Type, Rectangle, Zoom, etc. Cursor Problem: Any custom cursor in an app other than Photoshop will revert to the default arrow cursor, or will alternate between the correct cursor and the arrow cursor. In some apps, such as Capture One, it is difficult to predict what your tool will do, because the brush shape is not visible in advance. I have observed this in Acrobat, Preview, Capture One, and Affinity Photo. Others have seen it in a variety of other apps. (There are quite a few reports of this issue online.)   See attached screen captures. Thanks! This one has been around for a long time. Hopefully we can finally get it fixed. ... View more

Description: Photoshop will currently draw a straight line if you click in one place and then hold the Shift key and click in another location. However, if you change the brush size or color after clicking in the first place, it forgets that location. You then have to go back, click there again, and then Shift-click in the new location. I want Photoshop to never forget the first clicked location while the current tool is active, except when clicking without Shift, or choosing Undo, or maybe a few other cases.   Why it’s valuable to me: I do a lot of precise masking around architectural subjects using the Brush or Pencil tools. This involves drawing many straight lines. Often, when I get to the other end of the intended line, I realize that the brush size needs to be tweaked slightly in order to do what I want. (It's usually when masking a thin object in front of a window view, such as a pane divider or blind tilt rod.) In Capture One, I just change the brush size on the fly and then Shift-click in the final location. In Photoshop, I have to resize the brush, click again in the first location, and then click in the second location. Because these clicks have to be precise, it does take a few seconds each time, which add up to a fair bit of time in some cases. This also applies to color changes, which include swapping foreground and background colors. In my case, I often swap between white and black while editing masks. This also resets the initial click location, when in my opinion it shouldn't. I previously posted this as a bug report, and Chad Rolfs said: “We would also need to specify what happens to that line if this worked; would it be a gradient from foreground to background of that straight line or just a solid line using the current foreground color? Should there be options to specify what happens and if so, where do those options live and what's the UI/UX?” I'm proposing that Photoshop draw a solid line, as normal, from the previously clicked location to the Shift-clicked location, using the new brush size and color (this is what Capture One does with brush size changes; it used to actually taper from the old size to the new size, but doesn't anymore). A gradient would not be good in my case. I suppose it will have to draw over the top of the previous line end (as usual). If someone doesn't like the result, they can Undo and proceed as usual. Maybe Undo should also reset the clicked location. As for UI/UX, I suppose it could go in the Tools preferences pane. Something like “Reset Constrained Draw when Changing Brush Size or Color,” enabled by default. I assume that very few users will even notice if the new behavior became default, but maybe someone has an action that would be screwed up by the change—hence the the reason to make it an option. ... View more

Version: Photoshop 23.2.2 (but has probably been this way for many years) OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Version 21H1 Steps to reproduce: Choose the Brush tool. Click once. Change the brush size or foreground color. Hold down Shift and click again. Expected result: Photoshop draws a straight line between the two points, with the new brush size and foreground color. Actual result: Photoshop draws a single brush shape in the second location. It appears that Photoshop forgets the previously clicked location when brush parameters are changed. I haven't tested farther, but there are probably other parameters that cause the same behavior.   Why it matters: I edit a lot of architectural interiors, and frequently draw narrow, straight lines when masking window dividers, etc. I often change brush size and color (black or white) on the fly. The current behavior often requires me to go back and click a second time, after I've already lined up the mouse on the second endpoint. This isn't a big deal, but does slow me down somewhat.   I think that Photoshop has been this way for years, so this may not be a "bug" per se, but it would be very useful to me if it were changed to match the behavior in, e.g., Capture One Pro, where changing the brush parameters does not cause the software to forget the last clicked location. I can't think of a good reason, from the user's perspective, to keep the current behavior. ... View more