Are you starting to use Adobe Photoshop and confused by the cursors? One of the first things you’ll want to learn how to do is how to change the crosshair or brush cursor in Adobe Photoshop , as this can be what makes a design look really good. Discover how to change the crosshair or brush cursor in Adobe Photoshop and personalize your editing experience. Learn the different methods to customize your cursor in a few simple steps.
What is Adobe Photoshop and what is it for?
Before we begin, we must know what the Adobe Photoshop tools are and what they are for . This is a very popular and versatile image editing program , with multiple tools that allow us to change almost every aspect of a photo and create incredible designs from scratch.
We must know that, when we work in Adobe Photoshop, the cursor changes according to the tool we are using.
For example, when we use the tool that allows us to write a text when we want to create a cover or banner for Facebook or another social network, the cursor looks like a vertical bar.
Another example of this is when we choose the zoom tool the cursor looks like a magnifying glass, or when we choose the cropping tool to make a collage of photos . Adobe Photoshop allows us to modify and create almost anything.
Steps to change the cursor in Adobe Photoshop.Changing the crosshair or brush cursor in Adobe Photoshop can be done through the software’s preferences settings. Here’s a step-by-step guide in a tabular format:
| Step | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open Preferences | Go to Edit > Preferences (on Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences (on Mac). |
| 2 | Choose Cursors | In the Preferences window, select the Cursors category. |
| 3 | Select Cursor Type | Under the Painting Cursors section, choose the type of cursor you prefer. Options include Standard, Precise, and Brush Size. |
| 4 | Additional Options | If desired, adjust the Other Cursors section to change how other tools’ cursors appear. |
| 5 | Apply Changes | Click OK to apply the new settings. |
| 6 | Test the Change | Select a brush tool to see the new cursor appearance in action. |
Note: The exact wording of menu items and options may vary slightly depending on the version of Photoshop you are using. This guide is based on the general procedure common to most recent versions.
Sometimes it is difficult to calculate the area (in pixels) that a tool will modify when we use it; that is, your hotspot. This is made easier and more precise if we adjust the cursors so that a cross appears , alone or combined with the brush.
Next we will describe the steps to follow to change the crosshair or brush cursor in Adobe Photoshop . You should know that you can also install the best brushes in Photoshop easily and quickly, and thus have more options to create a clean and elegant design.
- Open Adobe Photoshop, and open a file (either a photo to edit or a blank file to design from scratch).
- With a file open in Photoshop, we go to the top bar and select the ‘Edit’ menu. Once this is displayed, we select the option ‘Preferences’, and then ‘Cursors’. This will open a new dialog window.
- In the ‘Cursors’ window, we choose the option ‘Paint cursors’ or ‘Other cursors’, and there we can select the pointer settings .
- Once we have selected the option of our preference, we click on the ‘Ok’ or ‘OK’ button to save the changes we made and continue editing.
What cursor options do I have to choose from?
Adobe Photoshop offers several options for us to choose the type of cursor that best suits the design we want to make. For example, you can modify the crosshairs to brush tip . Below we briefly explain the different varieties of cursors that we can select.
- Standard: it is the option that Adobe Photoshop brings when we download it, in which the cursor changes its shape depending on the tool we are using.
- Precise: with this option the cursor turns into a cross, which helps us to better calculate your hotspot.
- Normal brush tip: In this option, the outline of the cursor represents approximately 50% of the hotspot of the tool.
- Full-size brush tip: As the name implies, with this option the cursor outline will represent almost 100% of the hotspot.
- Show cross in brush tip: this option allows us to combine the brush pointer with a cross shape in the center, to give more precision to the stroke.
- Show only crosshair cursor when painting : this is a good option if we need to use a large brush.
There is a trick to quickly switch from the precise (cross-shaped) cursor to a brush and vice versa. With just pressing the ‘Caps Lock’ or ‘Caps Lock’ key, the cursor will switch between these two forms automatically, so we can continue editing without having to do all the process that we described before.
We hope this short tutorial has been useful to learn how to change the crosshairs or brush cursor in Adobe Photoshop , and that it is helpful for you to learn how to better use this incredible application. If you liked it, don’t forget to share it on all your social networks.
