Photoshop question

shotgun

Hi all, I'm trying to figure out a way to get something done quicker in photoshop:

In the old versions (until 4.01, i think) the 'A' key is used as the Airbrush tool, which allows me to switch quickly between hard-edged (B)rush to smoothy Airbrush. In the later versions the smoothyness is per-brush-described rather than tool-described. Does anybody know of a way I could create such 1-key-combo?

(note.v1: i use photoshop 7. would anyone actually recommend me to switch to CS3?)

(note.v2: its impossible to edit the title of the post!)

pior

Shift-bracket your way through, Bboy.

But it does not work on non-qwerty keyboards. On azerty It's something like 'shift-,' (try the keys somewhere near the bottom-right corner of the keyboard)

And if you don't like the gradual smoothness when pressing the brackets ... you can aswell make a tool preset for the B tool, with the smooth edge you want. Don't know if it's possible to hotkey specific tool presets tho!

shotgun

Eh? Shift-Bracket does nothing. No function. Could it be because I'm using ps7?

(Bboy??? you mean, brackets-boy? lol)

pior

So you must be on a non-US keyboard. Try shift with ',' or '.' or ':' and so on. It's hidden somewhere.

Iirc shift-braketting appeared with PS7...

shotgun

ho yes!! its a miracle! pior for the rescue

thanks bud.

dur23

Pior est comme un petite ange d'information.

shotgun

parce que Pior a un grand zizi

Here's another one:
When the brushes window is expanded, I can flip through the brushes using regular '' and the brush settings will remain. However, if the brushes window is compact, PS will reset the brush settings to default, where shape dynamics is on and other dynamics is off. I like it the other way around. Is there a way to avoid this resetting while keeping my brushes window small and compact?

It smells like a bug.

moose

i think what happens there is that may cycle through brush "presets" and not brush shapes. With the brush pallete open, the top most thingie shows your pressets, which can have unique settings (pressure, op, etc).

my guess is that [ ] work when you have the second thingie down selected in the pallete, making it cycle between shapes and not presets. I *think* there is a way to do it... gimme a bit and ill play

shotgun

yes moose, you got it. Somewhy changing a preset and then moving on to the next, will rest the first once i click it. so long as i dont click any other brush in the preset window it will remain so and during the [-] switching as well.

so what, CS3 ain't worth it? l33t gfx designers only?

StJoris

I think it's because if you alter a preset and want to save it, you have to say "make new preset", and it will save your new brush with the settings you have. That way you can preserve your changes, I think that's what your trying to do no?

System

Instead of a new thread I thought I would add a question to this - Are there any Photoshop scripts or is there somehow a way to copy tangent handle information from one handle to another? I often use vectors and find that this would speed the process up somewhat, ta.
Edit - I use cs3

Michael Knubben

Are you talking about the pen tool? I must confess to being a bit overwhelmed by your wordsoup, but that's what it sounded like to me. If so, try this: insert two points next to the point you want to copy. Copy the isolated segment. Create line from previous point to close the shape, and remove the points you created to isolate the previous point.

So yeah, that's wordsoup as well, but I hope you understand. And that it works, ofcourse, since I never use the pentool in photoshop. I'm banking on my assumption of it being similar to Illustrator's pentool, which I've used a hell of a lot in the past.

System

Thanks for your reply Mighty but now you have me confused! What do you mean by copy the isolated segment? This must be an illustrator thing as I haven't seen any options in cs for segments, just points.
I wasn't necessarily meaning for use with the pen tool just for any vector shapes in general, anything with tangents. Say I make a curve on a side of a shape and there is a point opposite that I want to copy that curve information to, that's basically it.

Michael Knubben

You're going to need the white arrow to select and copy parts. Just select the relevant points and ctrl-c ctrl-v. Then you should be able to just rotate/mirror/whatever.

edit: that's 'a' in photoshop cs3. If you get a black one, press shift-a, or just go to the arrow that's below the pentool in your toolbox, and hold down the mousebutton untill a litte menu pops out. In that menu, select the white arrow.

System

Hey thanks for the info, since you mentioned illustrator I had to go check it out and man was I impressed - downloaded the trial version and saw the clarity of text and vectors even at tiny resolutions... I won't be using Photoshop anymore for that, that's for sure.