Quick Mask not Working.

[Chris_...@adobeforums.com]

What is it with Photoshop? This issue has been around for the last 4 versions at least, Quick Mask stops working, I am getting fed up with having tio reset photosjhop to its defaults, because this means that it takes me a goo 30 min to reset all of my settings again, and as this has now happened 4 times today, it is costing me money, at least CS3 was a little bit more reliable than CS4, I certainly will not be upgrading our copy of Photoshop.

Has anyone got a simple way to get Quick Mask working again without loosing the other settings from Photoshop...

Or does anyone know why this happens? My system is 4 x Quad Core CPU, running 16Gb RAM and 2 x 8800 Video Cards on x64 Windows XP, so it cannot be down to memory.

Just wish Adobe would sort out these bugs!

[John Joslin]

What do you mean by "Quick Mask stops working"?

One of the most elementary precautions used by Photoshop users, to quickly reset their preferences, is to keep a copy of a 'good' set in a separate folder and to drag these into the appropriate Adobe folder if something goes wrong.

[John Joslin]

Oh dear! We must stop meeting like this Ed!

[Ed Hannigan]

Hmmmm... I've never had that happen. If you are resetting Preferences often there may be a bigger problem with your system.

One way to make it easy is to copy your "clean" Preferences files and stash them somewhere. When you need to reset, just drag or Copy/Paste the clean file in and replace the corrupted one. Takes almost no time at all.

[Chris_...@adobeforums.com]

Good Point... Still very annoying though!

What I mean by Quick Mask not working, is that when you select on it, and start to paint, no red mask appearing. and no mask being generated, this is the most used tool for me, and it just gets a bit annoying that Adobe have not found out why this is caused and at least found a way of stopping it from happening...

[John Joslin]

The Quick Selection tool does the same job without the red effect. With the Masks Panel in CS4 it's even better.

Afterthought: Maybe you could get your red mask back by resetting just the Brush tool. Also, a Wacom tablet may be causing it.

[Chris_...@adobeforums.com]

You mention that a Wacom tablet might be affecting it, this is the first time anyone has mentioned this, do you know why ???? Main reason is that we all use Wacom's here, various versions and obviously various versions of their drivers as well, mind you all are running under the latest version of thier drivers for the tablet in question.

As for the Masks Panel! Never really used it, so use to using quick masks, will have a look and see if this is as useable to us here, I take it that you can just paint a mask as quickly and as user friendly as the quick mask, and that it displays what area you are masking? Sorry for sounding a bit daft here, but we all work differently and I have been using quick mask for most of the masking in the artwork we do for years now, and I know that I am only using about 20% of Photoshops features.

[John Joslin]

Wacoms have a habit of 'neutralising' the brush if the mouse is too near the tablet when using the pen and vice versa. Sometimes it requires the item not in use to be well away from the action. Try temporarily unplugging the tablet if this doesn't help. If that cures it, you may need updated drivers.

[dave_...@adobeforums.com]

move the mouse away from the tablet when using the stylus, and vice versa.

[Chris_...@adobeforums.com]

OK, that wont be it then guys, no mice at all! just tablets, and all running on the latest drivers anyway. Worth a try though!

[John Joslin]

OK, but did you try the other suggestion of resetting the Brush Tool when it happens?

[Ed Hannigan]

Not to belabor the obvious or insult anyone's intelligence, but....when you are using Quickmask do you have an active selection? And is your Foreground color set to black, not white?

[Don_Mc...@adobeforums.com]

Also, in the settings for the Quick Mask, it is possible to turn off the red mask. Is it possible that you are inadvertently doing that.

Just wish Adobe would sort out these bugs!

I just wish people would occasionally consider that user error might be the cause of their problems, and not assume that they are bugs.

[Ed Hannigan]

Agree. If there was a bug in QM it would have been widely known by now, hence....

I have seen (and committed)some astounding user errors in my day, and a few bugs too.

[John Joslin]

Chris

There is one new feature in CS4 which may have escaped your notice.

If you drop the "Select" menu you will see a new entry "Edit in Quick Mask Mode".

Tick this and it works. Un-tick it and it doesn't.

Just a thought.

[Chris_...@adobeforums.com]

Thanks guys for the help, and please let me say that ....

No 'Don McCahill' I am not disabling/turning off the Red Mask. I know it is fairly easy to do this, but nope, that's not it...

And thanks 'Ed Hannigan', but have known that one for a while, caught me out in the early days, but nope that is not it either, it';s just shoody programming or Adobe not really wanting to fix there bugs...

'John Joslin', yep tried reseting the brush tool, but the only real way I have found to do this was your first suggestion of backing up the PSP file and then using a batch file to delete it and copy the backup over it when it happens again. It does still me a restart of the program, but at least my other personal settings are saved, stilkl annoying, but a hell of a lot less time wasted. Still wish Adobe would sort this one out though.

Thanks so much for the help guys.

Chris

[John Joslin]

Did you see post #14?

[Anthon...@adobeforums.com]

I find that if I use my Wacom mouse, I cannot see the quick mask ruby lith if 'shape dynamics' is ticked in the brush dynamics panel. My pen works fine though. Could this be your problem or something like it?

Anthony.