I lose my full size brush size and get the tiny cross hairs

[alanm31307838]

I have had this problem for many years

I've reached the point where I can't take it anymore

I must restart my computer to gain back my full sized brush

that I only use for burning in and dodging

I can lose the full size brush at any time

It now comes back intermittently.

I am using Photoshop CS6.  I have the DVD for the software

Any Ideas to help me?

I have reinstalled the software many times when my computer crashed

and I have always had the same problem.

I only use Macs  My current computer is the I mac

I use OS 10.11.6

alan melnick. [email address removed on April 8, 2017 by moderator—this is a public forum]

Any suggestions

Thanks

[katew32506491]

It doesn't look like anyone has answered your question, but if you press the capslock button while using the brush in adobe photoshop, you no longer see the brush circle and instead get crosshairs. To fix, turn off capslock. Another issue I had with a super simple fix is all of my tools (workspace) disappearing. Apparently that happens when you press tab. To bring back tools, press tab again. Hope this helps!

[alanm31307838]

this is the second response that I received with the same warning about the

capital lock.

I never ever use the Capital lock when I'm working on my images in PS.

The full cursor size just leaves me and then later on returns.

I must save my images where I need the full size brush for when it returns.

Very frustrating.

I sometimes am force to use my eraser tool to actually see the size of my

brush tip so as to know which size brush tip I need for a particular job.

Thank you for your attempt to help me

alan melnick

On Sat, Feb 18, 2017 at 10:06 AM, creativejake <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[Sheena Kaul]

Moving to Photoshop General Discussion​

[davescm]

A couple of reasons why you might see crosshairs instead of the circle:

1. You press Caps Lock (you say above this is not the case)

2. You have a large brush and have zoomed in (if the circle would be off the screen , then you will see crosshairs)

3. You have set crosshairs in preferences cursors

If none of the above - then try the following :

1. Reset the brush tool
Click the down arrow in the the options bar - then the cogwheel then reset tool

2. Reset Preferences

Dave

[Chuck Uebele]

I don't recall if this was fixed with CS6, but certain video cards would cause the circle of the bush cursor to disappear when the cursor size became too large. Does this happen when you only have a large brush size?

[Trevor.Dennis]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Chuck+Uebele  wrote

I don't recall if this was fixed with CS6, but certain video cards would cause the circle of the bush cursor to disappear when the cursor size became too large. Does this happen when you only have a large brush size?

That started with CS4 and CS5 IIRC, and was GPU related.  We were see half of the brush preview on the screen as I remember it.  I also think that was sorted out by CS6. 

Alan's issue sounds like something that should be fixable, but the time frame is a worry.   Reinstalling Photoshop does not affect your Preferences, but Alan has surely tried resetting Preferences during the 'many years' this has been plaguing him.  If not, then he needs to try resetting Preferences, because I can definitely see this sort of issue being related.

Then he needs to experiment with different GPU settings. Turning GPU acceleration off completely, and trying different Srawing mode settings.  It might be a problem if this is intermittent, and we don't know how often, and under what circumstances the problem occurs.

Alan, can you give us more information?

Does it happen with particular brush presets?

Does brush hardness make a difference?

What are your cursor settings in Preferences?

When you reinstall, do you use the Cleaner tool?

Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems 

Is your video card driver up to date?

Is 10.11.6 the latest version of El Capitan (Sorry, I am a Windows user)

Are there other OS updates available?

Do you have other hardware that might be causing conflicts?  This would have to be pointer devices I'm thinking.

I notice you are referring to multiple Mac computers, with the current system being an iMac.  This suggests that the issue is not computer related, so I'd be looking for other points of correlation like third party hardware (tablet, ShuttlePro) or software (third party plugins). Try starting Photoshop with the Shift key held down to force it to ignore them.

What is the constant between the different computers you have had this issue with?

(My thoughts are coming full circle to brush presets.  Can you exclude that?)

[JoeLib]

Do you have a full size keyboard or small keyboard.  When you hit Caps Lock, does the key light up?

I see this problem with old worn out keyboards, with keys that misbehave.

Try a new keyboard (different one) to eliminate a faulty keyboard.

There are 2 types of crosshairs.  A large crosshair with a hole and dot in the center, and a tiny solid crosshair.

Go to Photoshop preferences to the Cursors and put a check mark in "Show Crosshair in Brush Tip"

Now If your brush is enormously huge 4000 or 5000 px, it is bigger than the screen can show it, then all you see is a tiny solid crosshair representing the center of the huge brush.

Look at the brush size in upper left corner for it's size.

If however, the crosshair is the large crosshair with the hole & dot in it, then that means Caps Lock is ON.

The Usual fix is...  Your full brush circle will turn into a crosshair if you put Caps Lock on on your keyboard.

Just cancel Caps Lock and your brush comes back.   Or try a different keyboard.

Hope this gives you some help.

Joe

[Trevor.Dennis]

Joe, this problem has apparently migrated across more than computer, so the keyboard would be a long shot unless Alan has kept an old favourite keyboard when changing computers.

The brush not fitting the screen idea has some legs, but since a single click with the mouse would be the same as filling the screen, and zooming to fit-to-screen with Cmd 0 would negate the off screen cursor effect, I'm guessing that Alan would have sussed that if it was the answer.  Worth a look at though.

[cyberwasp]

Coming in late here but may I suggest something. What is your displays resolution set at (recommended) . If not that have you tried doing a clean install of your video card driver, "not via windows," but rather the video cards website.