Use the Eraser tool

This question was posted in response to the following article: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshopelements/using/WS287f927bd30d4b1f71abaa0b12e28aec742- 7feb.html

As long as you have the eraser mode set to brush and select one of the round brushes you can use Shift + [ or ] (Shift + the bracket keys) to adjust the brush hardness
and just the bracket keys to adjust the size.
Or set the normal Brush tool to the clear mode to have more control of the brush properties:

Similar Messages

Can't use the erase tool inside a Layer Mask

Recently after updating Photoshop CC I noticed that I can no longer use the erase tool inside of a Layer Mask to add or remove areas from/to the mask. The paint brush tool still works inside the mask but the erase tool does not. Any ideas why?

Make sure your foreground/background colors are set to BW. And, make sure your foreground color is set to the same color you want to erase from the Layer Mask: Black if you want to erase (turn white) the black part of the mask, White if you want to erase (turn black) the white part of the mask.

Found Bug in PS CS6 While Trying to use the Eraser Tool

I was editing an 8 bit JPEG that I imported from Adobe Lightroom 3. While using the standard eraser tool to erase the background it would stop working and then move the screen around until I released the mouse button. This happend about every 10 - 20 seconds. I'm using a Macbook 2,1 with the OSX 10.6.8.
Recreate Steps:
1) Import 8-bit JPEG from Lightroom 3
2) Select eraser tool on main layer (background)
3) While holding the mouse button down start to erase part of the image
4) About 10 - 20 seconds in the eraser will stop working and then when you move the mouse around image moves
5) To stop the movement you have to release the mouse button and the find the correct part of the image again and start erasing again
6) Most of the time I was viewing the image at >150%
Hope this helps and you can find a fix. It's very annoying to have to stop and find the correct area of your photo to erase.
Anyone else having this issue?

I am trying to reproduce this but as of now, mine is working properly.
Can you copy and paste your system information in this thread for me to take a look at? (Photoshop Help>system info)
Pattie

When using the lasso tools, how do i disengage from it, in order to adjust it?

When i am in the process of creating a selection, with the lasso tools, I would like to disengage from the tool, briefly to adjust my selection and then to return and continue to make the selection. If i press the space bar, it does disengage; but the hand tool becomes active at the same time. If i click on the options with the tool, to either add or subtract from the selection, as i drag the mouse to do this, i cause the tool to continue to outline, when i would like it to stop. It seems to remind me of when i used to use an old etcher sketcher magnetic drawing toy, from the late 1970's. ( if you are old enough to know what i mean that is)! Does anyone have a solution to this problem.

The magnetic lasso tool is very useful and is suited admirably for selecting tiles or shingles. It is important to set up the tool for the task at hand. In the tool's option bar I start out with Feather=1px, check anti alias, Width=2px, Contrast=3%.
If things don't go well, the first change that I make is to the contrast setting and give it another try. One can back-track by hitting delete on the keyboard, left click to lay down one or more anchor points, then go on to circumnavigate the area to be selected.
Now, after having made a complex selection, going to Layer>new>layer via copy puts the selection on its own layer, with surrounding transparency (checker-board pattern). One can use the eraser tool to tidy up, if required.
I offer this as my workflow. Not infrequently there are several ways to do things in this program.

I use photoshop CS3. Shortly, when I try to use one of the tools, they react only with the eraser. So I cannot use the other tools. I tried to reset in general preferences all warnings. Then I can use the tools again, but with the next picture I get stuck

I use photoshop CS3. Shortly, when I try to use one of the tools, they react only with the eraser. So I cannot use the other tools. I tried to reset in general preferences all warnings. Then I can use the tools again, but with the next picture I get stuck with the eraser again. What can I do? Joost van Santen

Have you tried resetting all tools?

I am having trouble using the clone tool and eraser tool.

I am not able to see my brush get bigger as I increase the size. Once I clone an area, it selects what I want to clone, but it won't paste it on the photo. I cannot also use my eraser tool. It does not show the line that usually is shown in white before it erases the area. I am working on a background copy.

Suggest that you reset all tools to default.
Look for this box icon with lines in it on a tool's option bar. This is for PSE v. 12 and perhaps for v.11 (I'm not certain about 11)
For earlier versions of PSE, look for a little arrow, top left, on the option bar

How can I add to an existing path using the pencil tool?

This probably seems like a rather elementary question, but
whenever I draw a path using the pencil tool, reselect it,
hover over the endpoint, and the click and drag to extend
the line off into a different direction, Illustrator will often
(but not always) erase the existing path and leave only the
new one that I drew.
To wit:
In step 1 above, I draw a line with the Pencil tool.
In step 2 above, I reselect the line from step 1, hover over the endpoint, and then continue to draw further.
However, as can be seen in step 3, the line from step 1 disappears after I draw the new path.
I am aware of the pencil setting, "Edit selected paths", and I have checked it to edit selected paths
within 12 pixels for the above example. What I am doing in the above example, and what I
want to do, is to be able to add more paths onto an existing one using the pencil tool,
rather than have a completely new path being drawn every time I lift up my pen to finish
drawing the previous path.
I also realize that I can do this with the pen tool; but the pen tool is a more
precise tool (and somewhat more cumbersome), and I prefer to have more
of the rough-handed look from time to time.
Finally, I also know that I can use the direct selection tool to select endpoints
from two different paths and then join them using the join command;
but this seems to be more trouble than it's worth in many cases, especially
if I want to do it frequently for a more long and complicated line.
Am I expecting too much out of Illustrator?
Is my idea of how to use the existing tools wrong in this case?
Is there some piece of knowledge I'm missing?
I'm on Illustrator CS5, Mac OS X 10.6.8, using a Wacom Intuos4 tablet.
However, I have confirmed the above on Illustrator CS4 for Mac as well.
Any help or comments would be much appreciated.
Jeff

Thanks @rcraighead - the Live Paint process seems a bit overkill for simply adding
a new path onto an existing pencil path, but I did try the first idea you suggested,
which was tracing a bit over the last part of the existing path and then continuing
on to extend the path. It's a bit imprecise because the existing path gets slightly
modified, but it seems to work pretty well all in all. Nice idea indeed - thanks a million.
I also found that in AI CS5, I can use the selection tool to select all of the paths
in this case and then join them using the join command. I thought I needed to
select individual anchor points for this to work, but it actually works really
well, better than I thought. I seem to recall that previous versions of Illustrator
were a lot more picky with the Join command, but then again this might just
have been my lack of understanding.
I'm curious to know what other solutions to the above problem that other users
might have, so I will leave this question unanswered for a bit...
but I will use your initial technique described - it seems to work
pretty well, in absence of other options Many thanks again for your timely help.
Jeff

After I used the migration tool to transfer contents of my previous MacBook Pro I cannot log in to my new MacBook Pro. I have tried using old and new passwords but to no effect. I cannot use my Apple ID. How can I re-set my MBook to factory setting pls?

I have been a proud owner of Apple products for many years. However, this problem is very frustrating! Any help will be appreciated. I used the migration tool to transfer the contents of my old MacBook Pro to my new shiny MacBook Pro Retina! After migration finished I tried to access my new MacBook Pro retina. However, when asking me to log in it refuses to accept the passwords from either the new MacBook or the old one! I do not have the option of using my Apple ID either.... Please help! Unfortunately, I am past my 90 day Apple Support!!

Restart holding down the CMD+R keys, launch Disk Utility and erase the HD, quit DU, and restore the OS. On first boot, use the Setup Assistant to do the migration. Details in Pondini's Setup New Mac guide.

A question about using the history tool after using the extraction tool in photoshop cs3..

For example:
http://www.layersmagazine.com/photoshop-...
When I use the history tool, it erases the image instead. Whats up with that?

G'day Chris
I can't tell from the link exactly which tutorial you mean!
If the original layer is a white background and the snapshot is set to this then the history tool will paint back white even if you then paste or drag an image onto the layer above this.
You would have to take a seperate snapshot of your image layer and set this layer as the snapshot you want the history tool to use before you start working on it.
One neat thing you can do is if you paint back some detail with the history brush you can immediately go to Edit > Fade and fine tune how much of the effect you want to apply.
Hope this helps.
regards
John

Using the Gradient tool to change button text

I have had a request to change the text on a number of buttons on the website that I am maintaining. I thought it would be a simple case of cropping the text, editing this using the background colour and then pasting back in. The background colour, however, seems to be graduated so when I paste it back in, it doesn't match. What is the easiest way of using the Gradient tool to achieve this?
Sorry if this seems a bit on a 'RTFM' request, but time is of the essence.
Thanks.

I see, the buttons are all pixels at this point.
That's still pretty easy...
1. Edit the text out of the original button by duplicating the part of the button that doesn't have text over it. You can just use the rectangular marquee and duplicate some of the gradient to the right or left of the text and move it over the text. It will take a little care, but it's pretty easy if you work zoomed-in.
2. Determine what font they were using through a site like http://www.whatthefont.com. In this case it looks like a pretty close match to Tahoma Bold.
3. Choose the Text tool and type the same text, then use the various adjustments in the CHARACTER panel to get it to match very closely. Looks like it needs to be horizontally scaled in width to 110% or so.
4. Erase that text then type the text you want.
Hope this helps!
-Noel

Using the Pen tool to cut out shapes?

Hi fols, I am looking to make a stop frame animation, based on politics
and I plan on doing this all in Adobe Photoshop (i.e move the objects then file save etc t
hen sticking it all into imovie) what I was wondering is in order to cut out pictures of say politicians heads, I have tried using the brush tool to draw all the way around the head and then magic eraser to the background but do you think there would be an easier way to do this via the pen tool?
Regards
Davey

I think you'll find this tutorial useful.
http://is.gd/A90Q5t

Using the clone tool on a picture I have pasted in another background?

I have photoshop elements 9, and took a photo that I wanted to change the background on. I erased all the picture except for my husband and I, then used the lasso tool to outline our photo and I copied it, and pasted it on another picture with a better backround. Now I am unable to use the clone tool on my husband and I, but can on the background. Maybe there is a better way to extract a photo and post it to a new background. But everytime I try to see how to do it on google, I see all these other tools that people use that I don't have. I have only elements 9, so am limited. Any suggestions?

I'm not at all sure I understand how elements 9 is limited in terms of the clone stamp compared to whatever you're googling, but I think your problem is most likely that you are either not targeting a portion of a layer with something in it (trying to clone from the empty area of the layer surrounding the pasted in image of you and your husband, for example) or trying to clone from a layer that isn't active (trying to clone from the background layer when the pasted in layer is the active layer).
You might want to turn on the Sample all Layers checkbox and see if that helps any.

Where is the Eraser Tool

Where is the Eraser Tool in Elements 11? I have been using an older version that has an eraser. I can't seem to find it in Elements 11. The Scratches and Blemishes tools seem to be very difficult to use and confusing.

Press E on the keyboard to see all three choices in the bottom tool options. You should see eraser, background eraser and magic extractor tools.

Both CS4 and PS6 are stuck on the eraser tool

They are both stuck on the eraser tool.
I have quit and reopened. How is it possible that both programs have the same issue all of a sudden.
How do I make it work?
I have quit and reopened but nothing changes.
I don't like PS6 and prefer to use CS4.
HELP, PLEASE! I have a deadline and can't work.
Thanks

You aren't by any chance holding your tablet's stylus upside down? Seriously, I've done it.

Am I using the correct tools ?

I need to edit a series of images for a product cataloge and would need these images cut out so that the back ground is transparent. I've been using magic extractor am I using the correct tool ? I also need the lines to be more precise are there any other tools I can use to make the lines cleaner on cutting out ? I just need it looking more cleaner and straighter ?

Use Magic Eraser tool changes all similar pixels when you drag within a photo. If you’re working in a layer with locked transparency, the pixels change to the background color; otherwise, the pixels are erased to transparency. You can choose to erase contiguous pixels only, or all similar pixels on the current layer.
Original image (left), and after erasing the clouds (right)
In the Layers panel, select the layer containing the areas you want to erase.Note: If you select the Background, it automatically becomes a layer when you use the Magic Eraser.
Select the Magic Eraser tool in the toolbox. (If you don’t see it in the toolbox, select either the Eraser tool or the Background Eraser tool , and then click the Magic Eraser tool icon in the options bar.)
Set options in the options bar, as desired, and then click the area of the layer you want to erase.You can set any of the following Magic Eraser tool options:
Tolerance Defines the range of colors that will be erased. A low tolerance erases pixels within a range of color values very similar to the pixel you click. A high tolerance erases pixels within a broader range.
Anti‑alias Smoothes the edges of the area you erase, making the edge look more natural.
Contiguous Erases only pixels that are adjacent to the one you click. Deselect this option to erase all similar pixels in the image.
Sample All Layers Samples the erased color using combined data from all visible layers. Deselect the option if you want to erase only the pixels on the active layer.
Opacity Defines the strength of the erasure. An opacity of 100% erases pixels to complete transparency on a layer and to the background color on a locked layer. A lower opacity erases pixels to partial transparency on a layer and paints partially with the background color on a locked layer.

Use the Eraser tool

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for