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Auto erase with the pencil tool, Changing the brush cursor, Brush presets – Adobe Photoshop CS4 User Manual

Page 344: Select a preset brush, Auto erase with the pencil, Tool

background image

337

USING PHOTOSHOP CS4

Painting

Last updated 1/10/2010

5

Drag through the area you want to erase. The Background Eraser tool pointer appears as a brush shape with a cross
hair indicating the tool’s hot spot

.

Auto Erase with the Pencil tool

The Auto Erase option for the Pencil tool lets you paint the background color over areas containing the foreground
color.

1

Specify foreground and background colors.

2

Select the Pencil tool

.

3

Select Auto Erase in the options bar.

4

Drag over the image.

If the center of the cursor is over the foreground color when you begin dragging, the area is erased to the background
color. If the center of the cursor is over an area that doesn’t contain the foreground color when you begin dragging,
the area is painted with the foreground color.

Changing the brush cursor

The painting tools have three possible cursors: the standard cursor (the icon from the toolbox), a cross hair

, and a

cursor that matches the size and shape of the currently selected brush tip. You change the brush tip cursor in the
Cursors preferences dialog box.

1

Choose Edit > Preferences

> Cursors (Windows) or Photoshop

> Preferences

> Cursors (Mac

OS).

2

Select the desired cursors in both the Painting Cursors area and the Other Cursors area. The sample cursors change
to reflect your choices. For a Brush Tip cursor, choose a size and whether to include a cross hair in the cursor.

Normal Brush Tip restricts the cursor size to areas of the brush stroke that have 50% or more opacity.

Full Size Brush Tip sizes the cursor to the entire area affected by the brush stroke. For soft brushes, this produces a
larger cursor size than the Normal setting, to include the areas of the brush stroke with lighter opacity.

3

Click OK.

For the Pen and Brush tools, the Caps Lock key toggles between the standard cursor and the cross hair.

Brush presets

A preset brush is a saved brush tip with defined characteristics, such as size, shape, and hardness. You can save preset
brushes with the characteristics you use often. You can also save tool presets for the Brush tool that you can select from
the Tool Preset menu in the options bar.

When you change the size, shape, or hardness of a preset brush, the change is temporary. The next time you choose
that preset, the brush uses its original settings. To make your changes permanent, you need to create a new preset. See

Create a new preset brush

” on page 339.

Select a preset brush

1

Select a painting or editing tool, and click the Brush pop-up menu in the options bar.

2

Select a brush.