Extreme beginner

OK do call me stupid, but I still have to ask you something. I've just started learning PS and a big problem appeared at the very beginning. I hit Ctrl N, entered some values and a new doc appeared. I picked the rectangle tool, draw a shape and filled it. But when I inserted a new layer and wanted to draw something on it none of the tools were available. I clicked on all of them, their property bars apeared but the pointer was still "the pointer". Then I clicked on the first layer and suddenly the title bar became grayed out like it was inactive. So I closed it and hit CTRL N again. Next I placed a .jpg photo, but when I tried to aply a brush stroke on it., the same thing happened as mentioned above. Am I doing something wrong

OK do call me stupid, but I still have to ask you something. I've just started learning PS and a big problem appeared at the very beginning. I hit Ctrl N, entered some values and a new doc appeared. I picked the rectangle tool, draw a shape and filled it. But when I inserted a new layer and wanted to draw something on it none of the tools were available. I clicked on all of them, their property bars apeared but the pointer was still "the pointer". Then I clicked on the first layer and suddenly the title bar became grayed out like it was inactive. So I closed it and hit CTRL N again. Next I placed a .jpg photo, but when I tried to aply a brush stroke on it., the same thing happened as mentioned above. Am I doing something wrong

Welcome Jane.

First things first: no one will call you stupid. Why should they? We all learn and are often baffled because the train of thoughts of the engineers who designed Photoshop isn't necessarily ours. Me too I'm still having things that don't work like they should.

This said, one of the main things of Photoshop is that when you save and close, it reopens next time with the same preferences you gave it. (There are some exceptions like when there is an image on the clipboard for example).

It would be great, for now and for the future as I (we) hope you will hang around, to know a few more things.

Are you working with a Mac or a PC?

Was the jpg loaded in full colour, greys or black and white?

I only ask because if you should be in bitmap mode, nothing that is not black or white will work, like feathered brushes etc.


Which values did you enter for the new document?
Did you choose RGB mode, or bitmap, or...?

You should start with RGB to be able to work with all the tools, even if your work is in black and white.

As you call yourself a beginner, may I also suggest the tutorials that gave me my first basic insights? You can find them at

http://photoshopgurus.info/


Try to write down the problem step by step. You will get an answer here.

'till soon

Thank, I'll try with that tutorial. I'm working with PC and the photo was in full color, and I chose RGB mode.

Sorry to repeat this, but if I understand you correctly, you opened a jpg image in RGB mode, you then either chose the layer menu and chose new layer or clicked on the icon at the bottom of the layers palette to add a new layer, and then when you tried to use any tools on this layer, you couldn't because all tools were greyed out?

Can you use, for example, the brush or the airbrush directly on the jpg image?
Can you select with any of the selection tools?
Can you drag the jpg in the layers palette to the new layer icon so as to make a copy of it that is no longer a background?

Are you using PS6.1(?) on a Mac or a PC?

I suspect you're in high-bit RGB mode - 48-bit. Almost no tools are available then, so at least make sure you're in 24-bit RGB.

K
www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/
www.klausnordby.com/xara

What version of photoshop are you using? It's important to know, if were going to help you the best way possible. Photoshop 6.0 has options for vector graphics. Which you cannot draw on the vector rectangle in the normal way.
That's why I ask. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Wait I'm not done yet! Ok, now I'm done.

I'm working on Win98 platform and using PS6. I didn't mention but I've been using Corel PhotoPaint for quite some time (3 years that is.) Again I tryed to do the same thing. I placed a jpeg photo, with settings RGB mode and white background. Then I clicked on Create a new layer icon on Layers palette, drew a red rectangle and then I tryed to apply a brush stroke on it but when I chose a brush tool the pointer didn't turn into brush - it stayed the arrow, although the brush property bar appeared on the top. And again I clicked on each and every tool on the toolbar(move tool, hand, zoom...), their property bars appeared on the top but the pointer didn't turn into selected tool.
But when I tryed not to add another layer but apply a brush directly on the photo then the pointer did turn into brush.
Thanks again.

Here's the screenshot of the thing I've been telling you. I placed the photo and when I added a new layer the titlebar greyed out and as you can see the pointer didn't turn into brush tool which I had selected.

Hi Jane,

Thanks for this Printscreen.
To be shure, I tried out the same settings as you, although with another jpg of course, and I could paint on this new layer with black (the foreground colour).

Can you use the Airbrush, or apply a gradient on the layer?

If you open a second image (jpg,...in RGB 24) and you click and drag it on the first one, it should be on a new layer. Does this work? Can you, on the layers palette toggle visibility on and off with the eye icon? Can you play with the opacity settings, and the blending modes (the dropdown when you click the arrow next to "normal")?

If you save the jpg as a tiff file, or a psd and re open this copy, do you have the same problems?

If you open a new document, white and RGB 24bit, can you paint on that? Can you add a layer and paint on it?

Do you use 98, or 98SE?

Lots of questions, but...

If nothing works and I didn't overlook anything, I can only suppose that something went wrong when you installed Photoshop (did you get the free update 6.1 at Adobe's?).

Sorry if you know and did all this, but the best way to install something under Windows is to start with a defrag. (in fact, a clean, new installed Win is best if you tried out a lot of demo's etc.) Then, with Ctrl+Alt+Del you close all progs running in the background except Explorer and Systray. Then you start the install procedure, install the update and at the end you reboot.

Me too, I come from Photopaint (9), and not only I lost my prejudices against PS, but I quickly considered it the tool around which all my other software make their orbits.

May I suggest you also read the other threads here on how to give ramhungry Photoshop sufficient memory etc? Because it is a real Tyrannosaurus.

And keep on posting and asking.


Success.

First of all I wish to thank you for patience.
Concerning OS and application installation I always stick to the procedure and I’ve never had any kind of problems, (my PC is on the Win98SE platform).
Now, answers to you questions:
- I tried to open several photos but as I placed them one at the top of the other, nothing happened: all of them remained independent files. Naturally, I couldn’t change any of the settings – merge mode, tansparency…since photos were assigned as background(s).
- When I open a new blank Untitled file, I can use brush etc. but when I want to place a photo in it, the photo opens as an independent file and cannot be moved to a blank file not even on the new layer of the blank file.
- Other thing I discovered today: if I duplicate a photo, then the tools (brush, pen) can be applied on both original and duplicate. But if for a moment I switch to another program, say Acrobat reader, when I switch back none of the photos can be selected – their titlebars became greyed out and again none of the tools was available.
- I tried with saving jpeg photo as tiff and psd, but the same thing happened as with the original.
I’m not sure if that update would help. Maybe it’s something with PS general preferences or such. I even reinstalled it this morning. I’ve never had such problems while working with Photopaint.
That's it for now. Bye...

Yeah, I know that something like this is frustrating.
Far from being paid by Adobe to make publicity for their software, I must say that I never had this kind of problems. That's why I thought that the problem might lie on install level.

And there are some different approaches between Photopaint and Photoshop... Personally, I never got on well with Photopaint.

Will you try this out? Open a photograph in Photoshop, hit Ctrl.+A to select it and then Ctrl+C to copy it to the clipboard.
Now open a second photograph, add a new, empty layer and click Ctrl.+V to paste the photo on the clipboard unto the new layer. This should normally be activated automatically. If not: click on its name in the layer panel. Now try if you can paint on this layer.

If not, then I would suggest you contact the Photoshop forum at Adobe's (you have to be registered to get access to it) because this is beyond my ability to solve. Sorry.

Hmmm... well... this looks like a interesting thread. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Jane, after reading all of the posts, i must concure with Erik here. This sounds like an unusual problem, that might very well extend beyond Photoshop itself.

Just wanna ask you to try a couple things too, to be more sure. Ok?

At first i thought you might be in either Index or Bitmap mode, but you're able to add new layers... so that rules that out. And looking at the screenshot, i see nothing 'locked' on that layer... so... that's ruled out also.

You're not using a Tablet by any chance are you Jane? Or are you using a mouse?

Test:
Either way... have you tried painting on the new layer anyway, even though your cursor doesn't turn into the tool you clicked on? Try that... click on the airbrush, then even though you still see the normal mouse cursor, try painting on the layer like usual.
That would indicate a mouse driver problem if you CAN paint.

Even if Photoshop will not allow you to use a tool on a document, it does NOT usually grey out the title bar. That is an indication, within windows itself, that something else has been given 'focus' by the OS, or application. And if you only have 1 document open, then something is very wrongly going on in the program.
And even if it turns out to be something grossly simple that's wrong... it would be something that i myself have never come across; and thus wouldn't recognise.

My guess is that you're having one of a few problems:

1) Mouse driver conflicts.
2) Graphics driver conflicts.
3) Bad PS install (or corrupted program files)
4) Something is wrong with Windows, or one or more of it's essential files.

In any case, seeking more advanced help is preferrable for you. Chris Cox and a few other guys that helped create Photoshop, answer questions at the Adobe forum. I suggest you sign up there (for free), and post this problem to those guys on that board.

Good luck Jane and please let us know what happens ok? I'm REAL curious about this now.
Thanks.

Since I’ve never been a panic type I decided to do the only thing left – I upgraded my OS to Win2000 professional and guess what! Photoshop is working perfectly. None of the things mentioned earlier happened. Therefore, I guess that the latest version of any software is far more compatible with the latest versions of OS.
Though I still don’t understand why all of that happened ‘cause I’ve been working in Illustrator 10 as well and I’ve never had any problem with it. Anyway, thanks for your nerves and time. Now I’m going to step on some real work.
Bye. (and yes, I’ll bug you some more when I get stuck)

hehee ya go ahead and bug us Jane... that's what we're here for. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Glad you got things sorted too.

Jane, I'm very glad this is finally solved. And, being on Win2K myself, I can assure you that you won't regret it.

And keep on posting. Why not post an image you did in Photopaint? We are not single-minded here, and we're all learning from one another.
Some people prefer portraits to have an impression of someone, I prefer something they created.

Good luck.

If you don't work against time, time often works for you.