Oval brush problem PSE 9

Question

I am running photoshop elements 9 under Windows 7 x64 Home Premium.
I started PSE 9 today, imported an image, and tried to use a brush.   Instead of the usual round shape, I have an oval.   The lines it draws are thicker vertically than a horizontal line.   As such, it makes PSE completely useless to me.
Nothing I can find to adjust will remove this oval shape brush.  I have tried resetting brushes, looking for every possible adjustment, in every likely menu, searching help files, and checking on Google for some help - somewhere.  Zilch.
Other people have had this problem judging by a Google search - but no-one appears to have an answer to it.  Its looking like a serious bug in PSE 9, but before I complain to Adobe, I though I would ask you folks to check there isn't some simple solution lurking in the menus somewhere.
Richard

Answer 1

I guess maybe the scanner is either trying to compensate for a document that doesn't quite fit in the scanning area or something to do with
the method of compression the scanner is saving the files with. Does your scanner offer different compression settings for tif files?
Saving images using Save for Web strips most of the exif type imformation in files so the files are as small as possible for web use. It was just a way of eliminating any information in the file to see if maybe the pixel aspect ratio had some bearing on the problem. (i'd forgotten that elements won't save bitmap files with save for web)
If you have a bunch of files that exhibit the same brush cursor problem, the script below will be placed on Automation Tools menu, so you don't have to open the script for every file, just acess the script from the Automation Tools menu. Also if you hit the cancel button in the dialog, elements won't show an error like it would in the previous script.
As before copy the script and then paste into notepad and save as:
SetPixelAspectRatioSquare.jsx
Then right click on the saved script and choose copy, then navigate to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 9.0\Presets\Scripts
and in the scripts folder right click and choose paste, then start or restart pse9 and
the script should be listed under File>Automation Tools>Set Pixel Aspect Ratio Square.
<javascriptresource>
<name>Set Pixel Aspect Ratio Square...</name>
<about>set pixel aspect ratio</about>
<category>scripts</category>
<menu>automate</menu>
</javascriptresource>
ErrStrs = {}; ErrStrs.USER_CANCELLED=localize("$$$/ScriptingSupport/Error/UserCancelled=User cancelled the operation"); try {var idsetd = charIDToTypeID( "setd" ); var desc131 = new ActionDescriptor(); var idnull = charIDToTypeID( "null" ); var ref73 = new ActionReference(); var idPrpr = charIDToTypeID( "Prpr" ); var idpixelScaleFactor = stringIDToTypeID( "pixelScaleFactor" ); ref73.putProperty( idPrpr, idpixelScaleFactor ); var idDcmn = charIDToTypeID( "Dcmn" ); var idOrdn = charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" ); var idTrgt = charIDToTypeID( "Trgt" ); ref73.putEnumerated( idDcmn, idOrdn, idTrgt ); desc131.putReference( idnull, ref73 ); var idT = charIDToTypeID( "T   " ); var desc132 = new ActionDescriptor(); var idVl = charIDToTypeID( "Vl  " ); desc132.putDouble( idVl, 1.000000 ); var idNm = charIDToTypeID( "Nm  " ); desc132.putString( idNm, "Square Pixels" ); var idpixelScaleFactor = stringIDToTypeID( "pixelScaleFactor" ); desc131.putObject( idT, idpixelScaleFactor, desc132 ); executeAction( idsetd, desc131, DialogModes.ALL );} catch(e){if (e.toString().indexOf(ErrStrs.USER_CANCELLED)!=-1) {;} else{alert(localize("$$$/ScriptingSupport/Error/CommandNotAvailable=The command is currently not available"));}}
Added: You have to make one small change in the script because of the lack of formatting
           options in the forum software. After you paste the script into notepad, on the second to last line change T he to The and then save the script.
MTSTUNER