what would make the history brush inoperative? the document has about 8 layers and 5 or 6 history states, but when i go to use the brush, the barred circle is all i get. nothing's selected. i tried each snapshot as a source and each different layer, same thing. any insight?:confused:

*Very* wild guess! Is it possible that you have an adjustment layer as the active layer when you're trying to use it?

Ed

nope.

i worked around that problem another way, but still wonder. the other thing that keeps happening is the eraser starts erasing to the background color instead of the background layer and i didn't tell it to do that and don't know how to make it stop. thankful for the more than one way to skin a cat feature at moments like this. kitty apologies.

I wonder if it would help if you deleted your "preferences" file? I've been told a time or two to do that when things don't work the way they should. Just a thought.

Ed

i was thinking the same thing. i promise i looked in the book before asking about the history brush, but just now looked re the eraser and sure enough i had inadvertantly checked preserve transparency, which caused that particular problem.

thanks my friend.

Boy that happens to me too with the history brush and the eraser. I sometimes hate that little circle with the line in it. :D I guess I will have to look into that transparancy thing next time that happens. Good thread Kathleen. I get those little glitches sometimes and it usually turns out to be some little tiny oversite but finding it is like a needle in the haystack sometimes.
DJ

yeah. your creative juices get flowin then you have to stop to do mechanic work. keeps me grounded i guess. :rolleyes:

DJ,

Like you, I too hate that little circle with the line though it. And you know what I've found out? No matter how exasperated I get, and no matter how brutally hard I push down on my left mouse button, the darn thing still won't work! Amazing isn't it? :)

Also, if you resize your image the history brush will only work from the point were you resized forward (cannot work on differently-sized image)

I hear ya Tim. :D

Doug
I didn't know that. Damn, I bet that is what happens during those times I can't figure it out for the life of me. That must mean after you use the crop too as well as the resize command. Alas, my needle in the haystack has been located. Thanks Doug. You wouldn't believe how many times I trashed my prefs trying to figure that one out, to no avail. Makes me feel like getting up and dancing. :wavey: (closest smilie to dancing I could find0
DJ

Good tip Doug. I never thought about it, but it sounds like common sense.

Debbie,

Although I don't know for sure, I tend to think that even if you do crop, it will work as long as you don't change the size because the underlying information should be the same. Could be wrong though. Comments Doug?

Ed

Sounds like a good excuse for an experiment.

Let us know how it comes out :)

Experiment done. Wrong as usual. Now I have to wonder why it won't work with a cropped image. I can understand it when you change image size (I think) (but I'm probably wrong again). :). But the important thing is I learned something.

Ed

I assumed it would be the same with crop because you do change the image pixel size. I believe from what Doug has pointed out that the history brush views a photo as x amount of pixels by x amount of pixels and when you crop you cut off some of those pixels. So it's basically the same as resizing. Instead of having an image that is 1000 x 1000 pixels say, you use the crop and your image is maybe 980 x 700 pixels. That leaves the history brush without the same reference grid. I believe that is what is happening. When Doug said it, it suddenly made sense to me. Kind of like a light bulb coming on. :D
DJ

Hmmmmmmm. Okay - good thinking. That's why I keep you around here! :D

Ed

Doug
That might be a good tip to list on it's own in the tips area so others can see it. I bet I'm not the only one who wondered why my history brush didn't work no matter what I did, not even thinking about having used the crop tool. It could save alot of mind bending time to figure out the problem. Like me, I imagine alot of people do a crop as one of the beginning processes even to straighten out a slightly crooked scan. That would also mean that the rotate arbitrary would affect the history brush also as Tim pointed out in a tip to straighten a scan. As would any changes to canvas size. It might be a good idea to point out that anytime you resize or crop you might want to create another snapshot for future history brush use.
DJ

Don't wait for me, go right ahead :)

Anyone can post tips, just like any other forum.

so if you crop right out of the gate or otherwise change the image size, you should/could paste it into a new document which would be none the wiser, right?

Basically but why not just make a snapshot. It's alot less hastle.
DJ

when i read your tip post i realized that. duh. :D