CS5 screws up brush strokes drawn in CS4

I have a drawing that was created in CS4 and which uses many brush strokes created with an Intuos4 pen. When I open the file in CS5, everything looks OK, but if I try to make ANY edit to the stroke - whether changing color or moving or re-orienting an anchor point, the complete character of the brush stroke is destroyed.
I might add that often, these strokes had a specified thickness defined with their brush that was later altered with the strokes thickness setting (usually made thinner). But since no such corruption would ever take place in CS4 when making such trivial edits, I can only assume there is a problem with the way CS5 handles this kind of altered brush stroke.
Here is a screen shot:

Monika,
If I change the Options of selected object for one particular stroke in CS4, the same one I showed in the screen shot, here is what happens. The specifications were for it to be 1.7 points. I had manually specified .3 point in the path stroke settings. If I make the specifications .3 point, the stroke loses all its character and is barely visible. I think the expressiveness of the stroke may have to do with the fact that I made this manual tweak.
Also, I have SEVERAL THOUSAND such strokes in this particular file, and they were based on a variety of brush designs and were all manually overriden in this way (not one at a time though; I just kept drawing with the manual override and it maintained it).
I cannot imagine how many weeks it would take me to revisit them and tweak them to fit new brush behaviors (if this is not a CS5 bug). I really want to take this and other files into CS5 because the performance of everything else is so much better.
I hope someone will chime in who knows what's going on between CS4 and CS5 in this regard and has a solution. I don't want to resort to using Expand Appearance or Outline Paths to solve this - I want to maintain their integrity as brush strokes at least until I am completely done drawing...

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h,
As I (mis)understand it, (in effect) just by clicking the Reduce to Basic Appearance button in the Appearance palette (and setting the desired Stroke Weight, if different from 1pt).
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so this first is the pattern/image i want to change the colour of:
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laur,
It sounds as if the Layer were permanently converted to Grayscale or something.
If no brighter solution comes up, you may try the list.
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

WHY DON'T YOU AT LEAST IMPROVE THOSE BRUSH STROKES?!

I'm a professional digital artist-illustrator for about 7 years now. using photoshop since early years of my career. CS2, CS4, CS5.. on more than several mashines, top line HP workstations and EliteBook.
and one thing that bothers me and most of my colleagues is the quality of the brush strokes that PS provides.
why don't you improve em for christsake?!?
I must admit, this is a software issue, not mashine. neither the resolution, some options or tablet series has anything to do with this.. and it's especially visible on thicker strokes.
we work on intuos3, intuos4, intuos5, apple, win and whatnot. ant it's most obvious that the brush lines are as ugly as hell in this program entirely through all series.
when it comes to non-vector lineart, thats' basically why most of the artists/designers go for other progams, such as paint tool sai, sketchbook pro, manga studio and etc, and do the effects/coloring only in PS.
here's an ex. how the brush lines end. + if you work slower/move your pen more precise they go even worse!
I won't go further, like talking about the LAG with mixer brtushes and etc. most of the CG forums and communities are allready full of those discussions. you cannot even compete on this issue with other products.
that might be also a solution to rise your sales around the globe. cos now - why to buy a <1200$ worth PS program in europe when you'll probably end up mainly using paint tool sai or sketchbook pro for around 90$ and go for GIMP (free software) for effects.

I can understand a certain level of frustration, PAUZAK, but really? Are you a part of the same universe I'm in?
Your answer seems defensive; I'm just trying to help.
Points answered:
>then why other products managed to make it work?
I was only commenting on the points made in the thread YOU linked to. Apparently at least some people see the shoelace thing in the Wacom control panel. Given that evidence, which I doubt was manufactured, your pretense seems to need questioning. I suppose it's possible (actually, a certainty) that some products send different commands to the drivers than others, and that the drivers are doing things wrong only under some conditions. That's why I asked whether the Smoothing setting affected your setup.
>just like this forum.. can't make a reply like in other normal forums, or edit anything
I'm having no problems replying, or editing using any of the major browsers, including Firefox. I can't edit posts on an iPhone or iPad (not allowed to even try), but if you're using an actual computer and you can't even make the forum work, you have problems on your system.
>adobe is. cannot make the most simple things to work right and not LAG
Some operations in Photoshop are complex and when done with big brushes and all kinds of stuff (fuzzy edges, mixing, etc.) turned on they slow down, but with reasonable sized brushes I've been able to paint stuff, and I certainly don't have the world's fastest computer by today's standards. And even so, I'm not sure that's a situation where it's not working right per se... Maybe just one where a better computer is needed to paint with really big brushes and all the fancy stuff turned on. That *could* be a better computer than any invented yet, but that's okay - see next year's lineup...
>looks like the staff is obviously looking somewhere else
Wow, and you posted that *right* after one of the senior Photoshop scientist/engineers at Adobe responded specifically to you. When's the last time an engineer from any other big software company responded to you?
>Photoshop is still a huge and expencive disappointment so far. ask any pro
Yeah, all the pros just avoid Photoshop. That's why Adobe is doing so poorly as a business. They can hardly sell any copies at all!
PAUZAK, I'll go out on a limb and say making things up and trolling for shock value and blaming the world for your own problems probably aren't going to help you reach a solution.
-Noel

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When I apply a filter to a duplicate layer and then add a layer mask OR of I add an adjustment layer and try to fine tune the effect by painting on the mask, the brush strokes show up in history but they have no affect on the mask. It typically happens mostly on very large files such as those from my 5DMKII but also happens if I've added several layers and masks to smaller files.
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The brush problem is only related to masks. I can create a new layer, for instance, and paint on it with black or any color.
I've also had this issue when trying to use the spot removal tool or when cloning. Again...very large files.
I've entered every imaginable query and haven't had any luck! I'm hoping someone here has a clue.
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Thanks for your reply. I sure wish it were that simple but no....that is not the problem. I'm an advanced PS user and know the workings of a computer well. I've been through every imagineable possibility and now am wondering if my video card isn't up to the task of redrawing the brush strokes on huge files. I'm grasping at straws.
Thanks anyway.

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/Users/jpb1343/Desktop/Picture 13.png
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Sorry. Does this work?
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<a href="http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1kJXbKAzdBCZJGbXWiNzfGQPfS0ur1" /></a>
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I am an animator, and the brush tool is something I constantly use. I might have access to flash CS3 or CS4, and I heard CS3 is pretty close to the macromedia version.
I heard toon boom animate is amazing, but when I tried it, there's no vector lines. Or maybe I am doing something wrong, but my strokes in toon boom animate are pixelated.
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If you are planning an upgrade, Flash Professional CC 2014.1 comes with custom brushes, using which you can custom-make a brush that suits your drawing needs. You can read more about it at:
Flash Professional Help | Custom Brushes
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Need info about making brush strokes into objects

I have been using a Wacom graphics tablet and Freehand to create my illustrations for many years (since Freehand v.2). Since Freehand's days are obviously numbered, I have finally decided to make the switch. So far, it hasn't been that difficult, but I seem to get stuck on one problem, and for me, it is a pretty big one.
In Freehand, I select the "variable stroke" tool in order to make a variable width line. It actually doesn't make a stroke, though. It makes a shape. I can then select the points anywhere on the edge of the shape and make adjustments.
In Illustrator, I do basically the same thing. I make a stroke, and the more pressure I put on the tablet the thicker the line gets. So far, so good. But, I can't do any adjustments to the thickness, make the ends of the line taper to a point, etc. So in order to make that stroke into a shape (with points along the outside edge) that I can adjust, I have to select the stroke, go to Object, then Expand Appearance for each stroke I make. This is a tremendous timewaster for me.
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Norris,
Illustrator 7 and earlier drew all brush strokes as filled shapes. (It only had calligraphic brushes.) The live centerline arrived in AI 8, along with the other brush types.
While Illustrator does not have any "auto Expand" option, and one could theoretically be added, I wonder if it might not instead be preferable to give direct user interface control over the data collected by the tablet.
For example, take the following brush stroke:
If expanded, it would look like this:
But even though the individual anchor points of the fill shape would then be editable, it would still not be convenient to do most kinds of editing. The centerline kind of edits would become very difficult. But even doing things that preserve the centerline, such as thickening the stroke or adjusting the apparent pen tilt, you would have to move anchor points on both sides, possibly adding some, adjusting handle lengths, etc.
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If the tablet data controls had the I-beam shape shown above, there are four easily distinguishable aspects of the control: its length, its angle relative to the centerline, the width of the crossbars, and the tilt of the crossbars relative to the I-beam vertical.
(One could imagine assigning more variation, such as controlling the two crossbars independently, or moving the I-beam offcenter, but the more variables one allows, the trickier it gets to manipulate.) One could say that the length controlled whichever tablet data point was attached to the diameter or size of the brush, the I-beam angle controlled whichever tablet data point was attached to the brush angle or rotation, the crossbar width controlled whichever tablet data point was attached to the brush spacing or roundness, and the crossbar tilt controlled whichever tablet data point was attached to the scatter distance of a scatter brush. (One could also imagine calligraphic brushes having a symmetry setting, that controlled whether the brush shape was elliptical or squashed like a pear, and attach that to the crossbar tilt.)
Since there would be way too much visual clutter to show every sample point, I think it should be sufficient to show them at anchor points, and possibly at max and min values for the variable data. If the user wanted to gain control at a position where there was no marker displayed, they could always add an anchor point.
Although I am calling it "tablet data", a path drawn with a mouse or with one of the shape tools could still have the controls. It would start initally with all "average" values since no data was collected, and tablet data would be artificially constructed by moving the controls and then saved.
If controls like that were available for live brush strokes, would you still prefer to auto-expand your brush strokes on mouse up instead of leaving them live?
(For all I know, there may be some third-party plugin that already provides some such controls. The tablet data can be accessed and modified through the AITabletData suite in the public SDK.)

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When I use any other brush besides the Calligraphic Brushes from the "Artistic Ink" brush library, I press down with either my Wacom Tablet or mouse, and the line does not appear to draw. Then I release the button on the mouse or lift my pen tablet up, the lines appears. Sometimes, a little "dot dot dot" line appears when the brush stroke it going to appear. But most of the time, it's just nothing, and then the line appears after I've drawn it.
However, with the preselected brushed at the top, and the Calligraphic Artistic Brushes, the line appears as I am drawing it. This is what I want for the other brushes.
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Hi!
Hope I'm not hijacking this thread.
First time posting to a forum.
I'm having the same problem and followed the advice for changing the file name in the Illustrator CS# Settings folder.
This solved the problem of seeing predicted brush paths for very basic brushs, but I still can't get a preview path for any of the ink brushs.
I've seen video tutorials which demonstrate inking techniques and the ink brush predicted path was clearly working in those tutorials.
I'm assuming therefore that I should be able to see some type of preview when using the ink brushs.
Any advice would be great!
Cheers!

CS6 is messing up my brush strokes?

I've had some trouble with Photoshop lately with my tablet. Whenever I'm trying to draw, it suddenly creates a brush stroke that I didn't do. Basically, it takes the brush stroke, extends it, brings it back, and thickens it like pen pressure was freaking out. I have a Genius tablet (not sure what model), and it never does this in Paint Tool SAI for me. Is my tablet just not compatible for CS6? I've tried it on CS5, too, and it does the same thing, so maybe it's not Photoshop friendly?
Is there any setting or something I can change to fix it?
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Stilanion

This is what I mean by it messing up my strokes.

Looking for free vector brush strokes (not brushes)

Hi,
I'm looking for free vector brush strokes. Not brushes, but actual pre-drawn brush strokes, in vector format (looks something like this).
The first few pages of Google results yield pay websites, and I just didn't have the patience to keep hunting for the free ones. Can someone help me cut to the chase?
Thanks!

If those are vector shapes, they'd need a million points each!
This claims to be a Shape though, and they pretty rough round the edges.
http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/custom_shapes/id/2032/
Google Photoshop "Brush Shapes". The quotes should make a difference.

Error when holding Shift to constrain a brush stroke.

When we hold Shift while painting with the brush or pencil tool the stroke is constrained to a 180, 90 or 45 degree angle.
This is helpful, however, ever since CS4, when we do this, a faint brush line appears to connect the end of the first stroke with the beginning of the next creating all sorts of unwanted effects. This happens regardless of where we make the next stroke.
The only way of not having this happen is to keep reselecting the brush tool (keypoard shortcut B) after each stroke. When there are many lines to draw, doing this creates unnecessary delay in workflow.
Has anyone found the same problem or perhaps a solution to this?

If you insist on working that way, try turning on the grid. When you get to the end of a brush stroke, release the mouse button, and make sure the cursor is close to the end of the last stroke before starting your next stroke. So long as you have 'snap to grid' turned on, this will prevent any overrun - if that is what is causing you problems. But much better to do what advised in #1 and realease the shift key > move to the next point, and hold down the Shift key while clicking with the mouse.
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CS5 screws up brush strokes drawn in CS4

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