P: Decoupling the presetted "usual" brush size from OS operating aids (macOS) [2016]

[Frank Bo.]

1. Photoshop 23.3.1 (and older!)

2. Mac OS 12.3.1 (and older!)

3. The Setting for brush size is put to "usual",

• means the diameter of that temporary circle should be exactly the same as the brushstroke, independent of the selected hardness
• Due to a large monitor, a slightly enlarged view of the mouse pointer can be helpful to some users.
  Thanks to the Mac OS operating aids, you can customise this individually.

4. Now the size of the brushstroke and the diameter of that surrounded circle in Photoshop doesn't match any more.

• While the operating aids of Mac OS display a larger image of the mouse pointer in a fixed solution, the brushstroke in Photoshop is variable and proportional to the zoom factor of the picture.
• Unfortunatelly the OS operation aid zoom for the mouse pointer influences the diameter of that circle, too.
• In this case it ist not possible to adjust the position of the brushstroke exactly, that's a pitty.

5. The best would be, if you can set the Ps brushsize decoupled from the OS operating aids. (Maybe a checkbox at that section, which allows you to de-/activate a professional view)

Thanks for listening. Best Frank

[Dramenon]

Thank you for this valuable feedback, I am adding them to our notes on work under investigation. 

[JennyFrean]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

[PECourtejoie]

All affected users should VOTE on top!

[its_byron]

FINALLY! Crazy that this setting exists as a default.

[VSwy]

Halleyloo! This forum saved my sanity!! My brush wasn't set to normal under System Prefs > Accessibility > Display. I never would have found figured this out on my own. Thank you!

[PETER5C9C]

Brilliant. That fixed it. I'd forgotten that it started doing it after I'd changed those accessibility settings... Thanks!

[italosan]

Hi, I'm glad your problem is solved. If you need help in the future, please contact us 🙂

[mscureman]

Under Brush Settings, check scattering is all the way down.  That's what solved it for me. 

[Glamour Ali]

Thanks a lot c.pfaffenbichler

I had the same issue and it fixed by your solution! God bless you!

[Natalie Pometun]

I installed photoshop on my macbook. And now I have this problem with all the tools. The cursor boundary does not match the actual tool footprint. I have uploaded an example stamp and brush. 
I tried to solve the problem through preference, I deleted and reinstalled all adobe programs, this does not solve my problem

[royr88613215]

On mac you have to press control+option keys and then click and hold with your brush tool. You then can move your cursor  up and down to change the hardness and left and right to change size of the brush.

[Gordon268898540z03]

Thank you!

[jane-e]

Natalie Pometun wrote:

"The cursor boundary does not match the actual tool footprint"

Did you try this:

Apple menu > System Prefs > Accessibility > Display > Set the size to Normal.

Jane

[nathans22061202]

I'm having this problem too, on a MAC, and neither of the "correct answers" shown here has worked for me.  I still can't get the target circle to coincide with the painted result, which is about 50% smaller.  Why can't I find some Photoshop operation to fix this-- or any other solution? 

Regards, salutes,

ns@nathansilver.com

[Jeff Arola]

nathens,

What version of macOS and photoshop are you using?

[nightgolfer]

Thank you for saving my sanity!

I had changed the cursor size inSystem Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Pointer > Pointer Size for a screen sharing presentation the other day, and forgot to change it back.

Incidentally, in my version of MacOS (Monterey 12.6.3), the specific section of System Preferences now looks like this, and it seems they've changed the word "Cursor" to "Pointer" (although this may be dependent on your MacOS language settings; mine is just 'English'). Just typing it out here to help anyone doing a search on this page.
 

[Jeff Arola]

Yes thank you for that.

Apple has changed the whole Settings menu in macOS Venteura 13.xxx

[nightgolfer]

Whoa, that's a rather major change! 😮

Let's see if I make it to Ventura; I'm on a hackintosh and only just managed to update to Monterey last week after 7 straight years on High Sierra 😅

[Burbank-611]

THAT was it! Thanks!

[Frank26496299rdn7]

Yes, changing the pointer size in system settings fixed the brush size problem. However, I have been using a large pointer size for years and did not have the brush size problem in Photoshop until it appeared today. This was true on my old Imac with several OS versions and on my new Mac Studio M1 and Ventura. I did not knowingly change any settings or software versions when the problem appeared. I am now peeved that I have to be stuck with a small pointer but there must be another solution.

[Christina23946577vhzv]

I've had this issue for a freaking year. I wish I could buy you a coffee... FML it's finally over.

[dvanmeg]

Thank you! This was driving me nuts for almost an hour today.

[nightgolfer]

It seems to me that a simple "Use operating system pointer size for brush sizes" or "Ignore system pointer size for brushes" setting would be ideal for solving this remarkably stupid "feature". Preferably the former solution, or just turn it off completely; the amount of people who actually want this behavior could easily be zero. Who needs this?

Operating systems give users the ability to change pointer sizes for a reason, like when a user is visually impaired. That doesn't mean that the user should have to have their brushes not function; Photoshop has a feature that lets you see how big the brush you are using is, if you want that. At the bare minimum, that visual indication should scale with the system pointer scale, exactly like the brush currently does.

[Bozenka]

I am having this issue too. The brush looks much bigger than what it actually puts on the page. Chosen brush size in the below image is indicated by the white circle, but it only paints the black circle. I've checked all the prefs and everything seems to be as it should. Any ideas?

[davidg7747920]

Many many thanks!  This cursor issue was driving me nuts!!