My pen tool won't work

my pen tool won't work when i click on it, is there a way to get it working again?

If it has suddenly stopped working try trashing the preferences with http://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/

Similar Messages

PEN TOOL DOESN'T WORK ANY MORE after PS 2014.2 update!

I just downloaded the latest Photoshop update. Pretty slick......adjustable fonts in the dropdown menus again.....nice guide improvements. One little problem....THE PEN TOOL DOESN'T WORK ANY MORE. The program is totally useless. What the h%+l is wrong with adobe? At least I can still use Photoshop CC. Anyone got a fix for this?
Jim

The program is totally useless. What the h%+l is wrong with adobe?
Venting is not going to do much good, please read these (especially the section headlined "Supply pertinent information …"):
Best practices: Usage | Adobe Community
http://blogs.adobe.com/crawlspace/2012/07/photoshop-basic-troubleshooting-steps-to-fix-mos t-issues.html
On Max OSX 10.8.5 I can not notice a dysfunctional Pen Tool so far.

Adobe CS5 Eraser tool won't work

My eraser tool won't work on any adjustment layers I add. It will erase on a background copy but not on a curves or black and white layer. It's strange because my brush tools are working and the eraser tool has been working up until now. It's not even showing up on the thumbnail image and my opacity is set to 100 % and I have tried pencil, block and brush tool. The burn and doge tools won't work either.
I have tried resetting my tools under the drop down menu awa resetting tool preferences, preferences and restarting the program whilst holding down ctrl, alt, shift. I am working on a Microsoft Windows 7 (OS). Everything else seems to be working okay.
Any help or suggestions would greatly be appreciated
Tamzyn

If you paint Black on the Layer Mask, it will mask the effect of the adjustment in the Adjustment Layer. Likewise if you paint White on the Layer Mask it will cause the adjustment to take full effect. Grays in between will cause the adjustment to be only partially applied in that area.
If you happen to have Black selected for the background color, the Eraser tool will act like a brush painting black (and thus hiding the adjustment) when you use it on the Layer Mask. That's probably what you did to see the Eraser tool work on an Adjustment Layer in the past.
As stated above, most folks use the brush tool for working on Layer Masks.
-Noel

The tools on Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 seemed to have frozen. The crop symbol is 3 of the symbols nest to each other. The hand move tool is not one hand but 3 next to each other. Other tools won't work at all. Really nice!

Ya, okay ! I use a number of PSE programs, one of which is PSE 9. The tools for some reason seem to have frozen. When I use the move tool I don't get just one hand but 3 hand symbols all next to each other. Same thing with the crop tool, I don't get one symbol but 3 all next to each other. There are a couple of tools that just don't work at all. It's like the PSE 9 got hit with some virus or sorts. Oh well, live and learn. Trying to get through to tech service is next to impossible.

Have you seen this other thread you started about this problem?
Photoshop Elements 9 is messed up.
Did you use Barbara's fix?
It would be less confusing if you only posted this question once, not three times:
HOW DO I RESET ALL THE TOOLS IN PSE 9 ? THE CURSOR IS REALLY MESSED UP AND DOES NOT WORK WITH THE TOOLS. I TOUCH THE HAND AND I GET 3 HANDS, I TRY TO USE THE CROP AND I GET 3 SMALL CIRCLES. THE CURSOR IS REALLY MESSED UP. DO I HAVE TO GET ANOTHER PSE 9 ?
Photoshop Elements 9 is messed up.
The tools on Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 seemed to have frozen. The crop symbol is 3 of the symbols nest to each other. The hand move tool is not one hand but 3 next to each other. Other tools won't work at all. Really nice!

What to do after making mask layer adjustment--other tools won't work??

I am new to photoshop and haven't been able to go through the tutorials yet. I managed to make a selection, create a new Hue-Saturation adjustment layer, and adjust the hue-saturation. But then what? There's no save button. The "apply" button is greyed out. I did File>Save but now I can't use my other editing tools (healing brush, clone stamp,etc.) They don't work and the circle are black. Please help!

You don't need to do anything to save your adjustment layer. It's done. But since that's the active layer, other tools won't work till you click back to a layer that has some pixels in it (the adjustment layer only contains the adjustment--there's nothing in it for most tools to work on). Just go to the layers panel and click the layer that contains the actual image, if you only have one layer (probably background) plus the adjustment layer.

Color replacement tool won't work at all

Hi, I am using photoshop CS3 in 10.6.2. The color replacement tool is not a tool I have much experience with, but am wondering why it won't work at all. I have reset the tool to its default preferences and tried using it on multiple documents and with different users and it just won't work. Nothing happens at all. I have watched some tutorials on using the tool and it looks easy enough and quite straight forward to use. I have tried every setting for the tool and still nothing happens. I am working on the top layer and have not selected anything. I have tried merging all the layers onto one layer incase the tool wasn't working because it would only replace the color of what is on a layer.
Thanks for your help.

The mode is color. The sampling is continuous and the limits are contiguous. These are the default settings for the tool.
I am noticing that the tool does work a little. I created a new document with 3 layers. The bottom layer is a white background. The middle layer has a blue square on it and the top layer is blank.
I notice that the color replacement tool won't work on the white background layer or the top blank layer, but only works on the middle layer. Does the tool only work on the same layer that has a color you are trying to replace?
When I hit the command option shift E keys to merge the layers into a copy, the tool only worked on the part of that layer that had the rectangle drawn on it and ignored the white part of the image.

Pen Tool doesn't work on Video Tracks

Hi there,
Today I woke up and found that video tracks in my timeline I could no longer just grab the pen tool, click, and change the levels (such as manually configuring a fade in or out dissolve)
There is just no line in the Video track where I can click and drag the levels up and down.
But the pen tool still works in audio tracks. I can raise lower my volume no problem and also manually configure sound transitions.
The only thing I can think of that I did was I used some h.264 video that had some frame blending in it (not sure what its called but were not every frame is Independent) but now when I go into any project including projects that I clearly used the pen tool before-- no go. The line for the level is just not there anywhere anymore.
Anyone know what it is or if there is a setting that allows you to fudge with the video levels in the timeline. Maybe I disabled it somehow and need to re-enable it?
thanks!

I have just had the same problem thi fixed it for me:
Right click on the clip, go to show clip keyframes, then select opacity. the opacity keyframe line appeared after i did that.

My pen tool won't draw straight lines

When I click the pen tool the cursor shows the pen tool with the "x". When I click to create the first point nothing happens. If I click and drag it will create a point, but I don't want curves. I want a straight line.
Anyone else have this problem?
I'm on OSX Yosemite 10.10.3

The problem was Google Chrome browser! As soon as I quit Chrome my pen tool started working again. I didn't even need to restart Fireworks. I wonder if it is a conflict with one of my plugins/add ons. Most likely.
UPDATE - I did narrow it down to one specific Google Chrome extension. It was "Google Play Music"

Liquify Tools won't work in Photoshop Cs6

I am trying use the liquify effect on my images shot using a Canon 50D and none of the tools seem to work. I have successfully used the liquify effect on stock images obtain/purchased from the internet, so I am confused as to what could be the problem. I am able to select the tools, but to no avail. I tried to start the liquify feature using the CMD+Filter+Liquify action, but it did not fixt the problem.
Using CS6
Mac Mini
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB
4GB RAM

The Adobe published minimum requirements for Photoshop CS6 (or any other version, really) are laughably optimistic. Sure, Photoshop will launch with your measly 4GB of RAM on your laptop, but how well it performs is another story.
These days 8GB of RAM is considered the bare minimum to run Photoshop CS—which of course should be updated to Photoshop CS6 version 13.0.6.

Text Tool won't work

My text tool is "stuck" on horzontal text tool in PSE10, and any attempt to change results in program crash. I cannot even "reset" all tools without triggering the fatal crash (it's telling me that "ATMLIB.dll" is not a valid Windows file).
I've got Win 7 and more then enough resources to run the software. Actually it ran just fine until recently. Is ATMLIB possibly pointing to a font issue?
I've reloaded the software from scratch (that is I've de-installed, and re-installed it now a couple of times). I've reloaded it and used the regirstration code from Adobe's "my products."
It only seems to happen when trying to select the text tool.
Any ideas? (I did post another message pointing to the DLL but I'm now more suspecious that it might be a font or registration issue.)
I've wasted days trying to resolve this, any help would be appreciated.
thanks.

Did you read my last post in your other thread?
Pse 10 needs a good copy of the amtlib.dll in system 32 or the text tool won't function.
Yours might be corrupted.

Refine Edge Problem - Tool Won't Work

Hi there,
I have a problem with the Refine Edge tool in Photoshop CS3.
I make my selection, press "Refine Edge", make the changes I require and the preview shows everything is fine.
I click "OK", the Refine Edge box disappears and my changes do as well! The only difference is that my original selection area has decreased (I'm no pro, but it looks as though the edges have been feathered.)
I have no other layers except for the duplicated background.
I have tried older Photoshop files and this tool does not work for them either - even though I have used Refine Edge at work successfully before, but this was on another computer.
Perhaps I have accidentally adjusted a setting?
Please help, this is driving me crazy!
Thanks!

Are you viewing at 100%? If not the change may not show. Otherwise reset the Refine Edge dialog to default and try again.
If this doesn't fix it try resetting your preferences as described in the FAQ.
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.ef4a07f/1
You either have to physically delete (or rename) the preference files or, if using the Alt, Ctrl, and Shift method, be sure that you get a confirmation dialog.
This resets all settings in Photoshop to factory defaults.
A complete uninstall/re-install will not affect the preferences and a corrupt file there may be causing the problem.

CS4: Pen tool won't fill object when closed

Now i know everyone wants to tell me to fill with the paint bucket ... or make sure i have a fill color selected. I have already tried that. Everytime i make an object, and close it off, it doesnt fill. And if i try to fill the object, it fills everything. And yes, i double check to make sure i am closing the object. After i get done drawing the shape, i can right-click with the pen tool and open the "Fill Path..." option, and tell it to fill it, and it will. But i want it to fill in when i am done drawing each shape. Is there anything that i can do to make this happen. Thanks in advance for your help.

Check the options on the pen/path tools option bar.
Here's visual aid from an older version but it hasn't changed:

Pen tool icon not working

When the pen tool icon is pressed a pencil with a circle (with a line through it) appears. All the layers are unlocked. I am attempting to create a "cut through" for a design. I would normally press the pen icon, the pen would appear and I would click along the desired shape and all the points would connect. None of this is happening. Any ideas?

Denise,
You may try to start from the top of this:
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file (you may have tried/done some of them already); 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

My rotate tool won't work? (FreeHand MX, Mac OS 10.6.3)

Hi All,
I recently loaded FreeHand MX on a Macbook Pro. It seems to run pretty happily, except I can't get the "rotate" tool to select. I added this tool to the default toolbar (using "toolbar/customize" but when try to I select it, the cursor reverts almost immediately to an arrow or magnifying glass (whatever it was just now). So to rotate objects I've had to activate View/Transform Handles, or use the Transform dialogue box and type in my values. The former solution actually works pretty well but I'd really like for the basic rotate tool to work!
I read last month in the forum people were having problems with FH and OS 10.6.2; someone said 10.6.3 solved their problem, so I upgraded to 10.6.3 before loading FH MX. But I'm wondering if this is a 10.6.3 compatibility issue, or if there's something I can do to menus, preferences, or restarting, that would make this tool work. I need a solution that doesn't involve reloading the software from my FreeHand disks.
If you can help solve this, much appreciated! Then I'd just have my usual getting-used-to-MX learning curve (I normally run FreeHand 10 on an old G5 and Mac OS 10.4.11).
Thanks!
Ben Pease

Aha! No wonder the transform panel was always open to type in the values as a workaround.
You were correct; I had used the wrong icon. I found the other one (not one I would have immediately recognized from FH10 and earlier) and it works fine.
Thanks again, Judy!

HMRC tools won't work on my iMac but will load on another iMac of same spec.

HMRC PAYE Tools stoped working so I did a full install and re load of this software but when opened it opens a box that says it's creating history tables and just hangs there. I've tried in stalling the same download on an identical iMac and it works fine but I need it on this Mac.
Any help very gratfully appreciated

Thanks, I had tried that and with the same result. Sincd my lasy reply I uninstalled Flash and the App works. I am assuming that there is a clash between the App and the latest flash player.
I would like to thank you very much for your help and your time. I have only had my Mac for about 5 months so am still working my way through learning the intimacies of it. People like you make all the difference.
Very best wishes
Kevin

My pen tool won't work

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for