Photoshop CS3 Problems
I’m writing this just to vent. I wanted to get that out of the way. Let me just say that when you’ve had Photoshop training for your whole fricking life, and you suddenly find that a BUNCH of features which you had come to find very useful (in fact you use them a lot) just stop working altogether. Let me describe those things that I have found in the last week - right now.
1.) Pasting a screenshot
I honestly don’t know what the deal is here. This just is not working right now period. I have noticed this problem before, though it hasn’t happened every time. I can however hit print screen and paste to MS Paint, so I know the print screen feature isn’t disabled or dysfunctional or something. Photoshop just doesn’t import the clipboard. For the record, it’s driving me completely insane.
2.) Dragging a guide to snap to center
Not having this feature is obnoxious. The only solution I have found to cirsumvrent this little gem is to ctrl-t whatever you’re trying to drag a guide to the center of - and then drag the guide, and it will snap to the center. Are you kidding???? Why do I have to do this? Again, I’m not so much to the point of wanting to kill myself, but I’m close.
3.) Changing screen modes
One way to tell you have “issues” is when you cannot go to sleep even though it is close to 2am because you have to hit the “f” key 4 times to cycle through the screen modes until you get to “full screen with menu bar” mode. Just give me one icon like before so I can click once and end it. What’s with the cycling?
4.) Causing considerable frustration in limiting windows/tabs
Repositioning the windows used to be sort of like my little way to vent my OCD. There used to be sort of a ’snap’ when you lined up windows underneath each other, but CS3 has taken the window alignment to a whole new level. Now there is a “master window” which is absolutely unmovable. The only way to get your history to show up on top of the layers again is to basically open both windows and swap the tabs by dragging them across. Granted the windows don’t move - but dudes… what’s with the restrictions?
That’s my rant for now. I was going to work on comping out a new flash video player but my wrists hurt and I’m in a pissed off mood. I’m going to bed.
Update:
It seems that this morning the guides are snapping to center and the print screen is pasting. It’s going to be a good day I can tell.
62 Comments, Comment or Ping
kevin
Damn dude you need a tampon or something…
What do you LIKE about it?
Sep 18th, 2007
dennisplucinik
beat it office nerd. CS3 is NASTY overall… I’ll give it that.
Sep 18th, 2007
Chris Coyier
One of the things that gets me the most is the inability to PASTE a hex code color in the color picker when picking a MATTE color in the Save for Web & Devices area. If often find myself saving transparent GIF images, and it’s very important to pick an accurate matte color, and for some dumb reason you just can’t paste values in this color picker. Plus, the Save for Web & Devices area takes up the whole screen, so you can’t sample from your original below.
Sep 20th, 2007
dennisplucinik
I haven’t done any images with transparencies with this new version so I haven’t come across that problem yet. Though it sounds annoying.
Sep 20th, 2007
John
I am having trouble using a screen capture to make images of photoshop screens - for learning purposes. A screen shot will be produced, but mysteriously, the tops of the palettes go missing - for example, channels, layers, etc. Does anyone know what’s up here?
Oct 2nd, 2007
zaizen
Yes u right dennis, 2 month ago, when i’m using cs3 at my first time i dont know how to paste screenshot..it makes me crazy,. Because i’m using vista..i have special features call snipping tools that u can snap the screenshort or picture u like and pste it on PS..it really help me a lot.
Oct 5th, 2007
haff
Strange, I am having an issue where I click or shortcut to save for web and nothing happens. I have to save the file as is, close and re-open cs3 then reopen the same file and only then will save for the web work.
I have to say though that I can paste screen shots in just like I always could, my guides snap to center (with snap turned on of course), I have a screen mode icon at the bottom of my tool pallet as expected and my windows snap to each other when they are moved around…
reinstall perhaps?
Oct 11th, 2007
Perhiniak
PRINT SCREEN
Try Alt+Print Screen in windows on the program that you want to capture. After the paste should work fine!
Oct 27th, 2007
Ben
I couldn’t get over the fact that windows liked to snap inside the bounds of the photoshop application. I work on dual monitors on a PC and I like to have as little of Photoshop showing as I can. This means palettes a menu and the piece I’m working on. I got used to shrinking the app so that just the menu and options are visible and I can see my desktop below. CS3 has made this nigh impossible with the way windows snap around and inside the application window…
Among others, this is the main reason I’m still working in CS2. However, now I am ignorant of any new features included in this release, so maybe Kevin has a point!
Nov 7th, 2007
kaiser
hi. i´m using ps now since 5.5 or 5 … don´t know that exactly, but it´s more than just some years. since cs everything is going the way down. in ps 7 you could switch between font-size with [ctrl]++ and [crtl]+# and move layers up and down with [ctrl]+, or [ctrl]+. … where is that important! feature gone since then? why can´t i double-cklick in illustrator on the grey background to open files like in ps? why do i have px as unit of measurement? this fact still holds layerstyles back from beeing real generic like shaders… and so on.
see it that way: maybe we are happy whit ps-cs15 then… but when i look at adobes strategy i don´t really think so.
until then. keep your heads up!
Nov 8th, 2007
kaiser
hi. i´m using ps now since 5.5 or 5 … don´t know that exactly, but it´s more than just some years. since cs everything is going the way down. in ps 7 you could switch between font-size with [ctrl]++ and [crtl]+# and move layers up and down with [ctrl]+, or [ctrl]+. … where is that important! feature gone since then? why can´t i double-cklick in illustrator on the grey background to open files like in ps? why do i have px as unit of measurement? this fact still holds layerstyles back from beeing real generic like shaders… and so on.
see it that way: maybe we are happy whit ps-cs15 then… but when i look at adobes strategy i don´t really think so.
until then. keep your heads up!
ps. AND ‘BEN’ IS MORE THAN RIGHT: WHERE THE H*** IS A DUAL-MONITOR SETUP? Most of us are working this way… GRRR!
Nov 8th, 2007
kaiser
PLUS: (Ben said it first) Where is our 2 Monitor-Setup? PLUS: Why can´t i get (in illustrator) [ctrl] + + for zoom in instead of [ctrl + [shift] + 0 ….. ?! Why are adobe-products becoming more and more like microsoft ‘not working’-releases?
Nov 8th, 2007
emedoble
I got another problem in PS CS3. When I gone to use “movement blur” effect in some layer, PS CS3’s collapsed.
Nov 18th, 2007
dennisplucinik
EMEDOBLE: It sounds like you’re having a memory problem. As you sure you 1) have a capable machine and 2) have a legit version?
Nov 18th, 2007
dennisplucinik
JOHN: I have problems with screen capture sometimes also. It’s random though sometimes it works fine, other times I get into a shouting match with my computers and you’d think they’d be good listeners but they’re not - they’re assholes.
Nov 18th, 2007
oblivio
I’ve had the same problem. I believe it’s a memory problem, and sadly, the only way to fix it is to close everything I have open, then re-start my computer, and then I get screenshot/paste back. It also feels to me like PS CS3 has a “cumulative” memory hogging problem, so even if you have nothing else open, it seems to bleed away the ability to handle memory-heavy functions over time.
Nov 21st, 2007
dennisplucinik
As an update - I’m still using the [ transform > drag guides to center > cancel ] transform hack to get my guides in the right place. I’m really curious if anyone has figured this out yet.
Nov 22nd, 2007
David
something else that has me so frustrated. I really feel the need the throw my graphic hobbies and work in a trashcan and do something else with my life.
cs3 is nuts with the color managemtn here, doesn’t make sense. I had color mismatched between desktop/web and photoshop using srgb.
found an article about it (which I can’t re-find and seem to have forgotten to bookmark) which fixed it and let me go on doing webdesign and graphics etc. now I opened a older file a yesterday to get a shape i made ages ago and wanted to play with and everything is screwed up, color mismatches with everything.
How can professionals use this combined with oodles of different printers and presses if it can’t even remember my 1 needed setting: desktops/web?
it’s driving me completely nuts, I haven’t felt this tense and pissed in ages. i’ll have to do something else then anything on the computer tonight or else I’ll throw this thing against a wall, hard.
all my previous images now seem to mismatch, i can’t trust my colors
I feel like crap and lost for a solution now. thanks cs3
Nov 24th, 2007
dennisplucinik
I just want to say: venting is always encouraged
Sorry to hear about your problem David. I don’t personally have any words of wisdom for you.
Nov 24th, 2007
RAJESH BHANSALI
Here’s the FOOL PROOF solution to the problem.
http://microsoft.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/09/05/how-to-fix-the-photoshop-clipboard/
Just chill guys!
Nov 30th, 2007
dennisplucinik
That’s frickin sweet.
Nov 30th, 2007
Jeff Boucher
“No snappage……”
I too have no snap functions - CS3…. use to be able to choose a layer drag a guide towards center - bam - snappage…
Anyone with a solution to this aggravation?
Thanks!
Dec 11th, 2007
Grammar Guru
I know what you mean. I use CS3 on my mac, which is where I do most of my design work, but at some clients work places, I get stuck on their pc, and their lack of updated programming, trying to fix something. I feel your pain.
Dec 21st, 2007
CodineDawn
Snap! Where is the center snap! Better yet, why not be able to type in your guide positions like freehand or illustrator? bleh
Dec 22nd, 2007
DanDesigner
the snap to mid is the very first problem i notice in this version. found out that it only works when you have no other layers than the background layer. once i start having layer 1 mid snapping is gone, i think it’s a bug. darn now every time i design a website and forgot to take the mid area i have to do the same procedure you stated. it’s time consuming. my next problem is poor font handling. since it display the font’s appearance immediately and i have more than 2000 fonts it slows down. i have a very good computer but slows down on handling fonts in cs3. i have a font viewer that doesn’t slow down my system so i don’t really need to see them first in photoshop. shall i remove these fonts and keep the system fonts only? is there an alternative way to this since i’m always using different fonts on my designs? i hope to find an answer. thanks. PS. my OS is xp only.
Jan 3rd, 2008
dennisplucinik
@DanDesigner: You can actually turn off the font preview option in PS preferences. I had that same problem until I figured out how to turn them off.
I only use about 500 fonts now so I actually have it turned on. My new computer handles it well.
Jan 3rd, 2008
DanDesigner
Great! thanks! i didn’t know that. it’s working perfectly fine now, when i type fonts no more slowing down. i might remove some fonts too it’s a good practice to keep only those frequently used one. btw nice setup, i like it. i envy those wide screen monitor makes life easier in designing.
Jan 3rd, 2008
Dizyner
I need help… I downloaded and installed some new fonts but they’re not showing up in Photoshop CS3. They show up in MS Word. I am using an imac G5. Any suggestions?
Jan 4th, 2008
dennisplucinik
@dan:Glad I could help, I know personally, if there’s a tiny thing wrong with the program I’m using it kills me… until I find the solution.
@Dizyner: I’m not sure how to field this one, I haven’t ever worked on a Mac - anyone else?
Jan 6th, 2008
curtis
dude CS3 is the greatest adobe could create. . . . get up to date with your shortcut keys buddy because that the new way of how things work!!!! and about the window tabs, there’s no restrictions!! just gotta know the shortcut keys for each window. . . . like f7 for layers ect. . . . knowing shortcut keys means a much faster workflow and never having to use the mouse that often.
Jan 10th, 2008
Ben
As for that snap issue:
Just select a layer that has artwork filling your entire canvas and pull the guide down while that layer is active. It should snap to the center of your canvas. On other layers that don’t fill your whole canvas, PS will try to find the center of that artwork.
@DIZYNER & DANDESIGNER: I manage my fonts on my PC with a program called ‘Suitcase’. The software manages your fonts, allows you to organize them in groups, turn them on and off, preview them, etc. Plus, you don’t have to restart photoshop to get new fonts to show up. As soon as you activate a font its available in Photoshop.
I know for Windows, every time the OS starts it has to load everything in the system>fonts folder. This can bog your system down when you start storing thousands of font files there. With Suitcase you can keep your fonts organized in a directory structure elsewhere and activate them on an as need basis.
Jan 10th, 2008
Comrade Yak
At first I thought I couldn’t move the tools either, but you can actually drag them to where ever you want, by clicking and draging the tab out of that sliding menu bar thing.
Jan 26th, 2008
Ed
Ben, that’s the way the snap to centers USED to work. But in CS3 it does not work… or rather is seems to work and not work almost at random, which is why these people are complaining about it here. I know for a fact there were times that it worked for me and other times it did not. The times it did not work I immediately checked >View >Snap To to see if “document bounds” was selected. It was. Today, it is not working for me, which is why I ended up here.
It’s either a bug, or there is some new setting someplace that we don’t know about that needs to be set.
If anyone knows what is turning the snap to layer center feature off, even when snap to document bounds is turned on, I would very much appreciate hearing about it.
I’m using a Mac Power Book Pro. I don’t know if this is a problem for Windows users as well.
Feb 1st, 2008
Tomas
Hey I´m having a problem with CS3 which never happened to me with CS2. I currently have both versions installed and it is still that way. Sometimes CS3 will work fine but many others after you open a file the mouse arrow will blink very fast all the time switching between the arrow and the crosshair of the tool, so it doesn´t let me perform any actions, it is SO irritating and I basically have to close CS3 and reset the pc, pray and hope it will open fine next time.
Does anybody know what might be going on? CS2 is still fine.
Feb 17th, 2008
PJ
CS3 is a huge problem and Adobe knows the screwed up big time. They don’t know how to fix the permanent problems it is causing in our computer systems. If any out there has not yet purchased and/or installed CS3-DON’T! YOU’LL NEVER COMPLETELY REMOVE IT if you don’t like it.
Mar 17th, 2008
xenon
To get the guides to snap to center you can record an action where you set the rulers to 50% and drag the guides out. Then you can assign that to a function key.
just a suggestion
Apr 2nd, 2008
Photoshop Image masking services
I also think that CS3 has most of the disadvantages….might be they find a solution to it…Does anyone know whether theres a solution to this as I deal in clipping path services….these come most often in my service…
Apr 10th, 2008
clipping path services
Yes cs3 is a problem indeed but is there any solution to it…..
Apr 10th, 2008
Dev
When you uncheck View > Snap To > Layers. PS CS3 will make guides snap like before!
May 21st, 2008
Joe Russa
The problem with the guides snapping to the center without using CTR-T is a memory issue. If you close the file you are working with, and then reopen, it should fix the problem, at least for me it did. I was fretting with this all the time and then noticed that my computer got slower everytime I opened up CS3. So, I closed all artwork in CS3 and just opened up the one I am working with, and I was able to continue snapping with no problems. It is a pain, especially with large files, but it seems to be the only way to resolve this issue as of now.
May 23rd, 2008
kyle
dude, can u help me ? …
when i create a new document in Photoshop CS3, most of the filters can’t be used. especially the sketch filter …
what’s the problem with it ?
thanks
Jun 8th, 2008
dennisplucinik
Kyle - Are you starting out in RGB mode? (Filters don’t work in all modes)
Jun 12th, 2008
Tironius
DEV You’re a genius! That worked! (for snapping to center)
Jun 16th, 2008
Mithilesh
The problem is associated with print screen in Photoshop CS3 when i tried to get Paste a screenshot. some time it works and some time it does not paste the screen shot. for that the work get affected due to this problem kindly short out the problem
Jun 23rd, 2008
Amy
I open some file (Ctrl +O) and it stucks
Cant turn it off and I must use Ctrl+Alt+Del to turn it off
Anyone can tell me how to fix it plz?
Thanks a lot
Jul 4th, 2008
benhaskin
After I design the webpage…when I save it as save for web…it kinds distorts the fonts. The fonts and the area around it get blurry / pixelated…How do I resolve this problem. Can someone advise me on this?
Jul 7th, 2008
raggit
i got 1 source file which has been made through CS3 but the Source file is not opening into it….its giving “it’s not right kind of document”
Jul 28th, 2008
Andreas W
Solution posted above, but it’s a dead link now…. so here it is again…
Photoshop won’t paste clipboard from other external applications and
Print Screen does not work.
Solution 1: Use the Alt+Print Screen combo instead, capturing the active window. This might work for a few.
Solution 2: Run the file AlwaysImportClipbd_ON.reg. You can make this yourself by viewing this site or by downloading it from this site:
http://www.wivestad.no/mgfx/photoshop_resources.php?subaction=showfull&id=1210616225&archive=&start_from=&ucat=18&
Hope this works out for you! I’ve fixed four computers running win Xp sp2 and Win xp media center edition this way.
cheers
Andreas
Sep 3rd, 2008
joe blonde
i am having issues where CS3 keeps resizing my files when i save (changing DPI and pixel size but retaining the same file size. It is starting to drive me nuts! any ideas why? i have checked preferences etc and no joy! ive been using photoshop since version 4 came out and have never had this problem before!
thanks
joel
Sep 18th, 2008
dennisplucinik
@Amy - it sounds like you have some issues unrelated to Photoshop. Maybe get a ‘computer guy’ to check it out.
@Joe Blonde - I have never heard of that. It sounds like you might have some preference checked, like automatic downsampling or something. Which file format are you saving in?
Sep 23rd, 2008
dennisplucinik
@benhaskin - Save for web allows you to control the degradation level to allow more flexibility with controlling file size. What this means is that if you aren’t carefully adjusting your settings you could end up allowing too much degradation thus blurring your fonts.
For a JPEG image I usually don’t go much below 60% quality though it depends on what type of image it is (photograph, illustration, gradients. dimensions, etc.)
I hope that helps.
Sep 23rd, 2008
Castle Steps
I’ve had some of the same problems as listed above, especially with pasting a screen shot. Does anyone know if this problem will be fixed in CS4? I currently work at a hotel in Prague, and we are debating whether or not to upgrade to CS4 in the future. If this problem is solved then I will be more likely to upgrade (despite the issue of CS4 being much more expensive for European users).
Sep 23rd, 2008
R Embree
I am having a problem with the clipping mask. It works on some layers, but will not work on others. Any ideas.
Oct 9th, 2008
mooncaine
Hmm, it seems that a guide will snap to center if I select the base layer, even after I’ve added other layers. I don’t have time to beta test for Adobe, but I should mention, for our sake, that the base layer I’m using is filled with a solid color.
Oops, NEVER MIND. It seems to work at random. Mostly, it doesn’t.
In earlier versions, I learned that I needed to have a layer filled with pixels, if I wanted to snap guides to the document’s center. I don’t recall being forced to choose the lowest layer before, but maybe that was so.
Now, filling a layer seems to make no difference. Snapping just doesn’t happen when it should.
Oct 15th, 2008
prajeesh
not working malayalam lanuage in photoshop sc3 ,what is the remeday,pls help me
Mar 15th, 2009
mathews
Adobe Photoshop CS3
When I save the file in PNG format in Adobe Photoshop CS3 the size varies. eg: the dpi changes to 299… etc…
Let me know how to fix this problem…
Even when I save in JPEG size as w: 2.3 x h 3.3 Inches 72 dpi…
when i save the file… the size varies
pls suggest….
Apr 8th, 2009
Chris
I have just come up with a great little fix for this. It’s quick and it’s painless.
Normally, I select the whole canvas (ctrl+A) and then drag a guide to the center. This isn’t working in PS CS3, so I narrowed down exactly why this bug happens.
Basically, PS CS3 doesn’t like activating the ’snap’ function when the whole screen is selected. I tried larger and larger guides until the marquee filled the whole screen. Snapping to each dragged marquee worked perfectly (to snap on left, right, top bottom and center areas) *until* the marquee was filling the screen 100% vertical and 100% horizontal.
To fix this, you just need to fill the whole document area with a marquee (ctrl+A or just drag select the whole document area). Now, just nudge the marquee 1px to the left or right (with arrow keys). The marquee will still be filling 100% height of course, and here - you can drag a horizontal guide from the top or bottom ruler (the horizontal guide will be positioned at exactly 50% of the height, which is what we are trying to achieve).
The same goes for the vertical guide. The guide needs to calculate where 50% is of the 100% document width, so just select the whole screen again (ctrl+A or just drag select the whole document area) and nudge the marquee area (with arrow keys) up or down 1px, which still leaves the marquee selecting 100% of the document width, and then drag a guide from the top or bottom ruler area, and it will snap perfectly to the middle again.
And there you have it. You have fooled PS CS3 into thinking it is behaving normally.
Here’s how I do all of that quickly at the start of setting up a document’s horzontal and vertical center guides:
Ctrl + A (select all)
Arrow Key left
Drag down horizontal guide from top ruler edge
Ctral + A (select all again)
Arrow Key down
Drag across vertical guide from left ruler edge
This bug workaround should always work for all versions of PS.
Chris.
May 15th, 2009
KAGRAN22
Thanks Chris!
also someone here mentioned before to just use Control+T (that way you can snap to middle/center) and when done just use Escape key
which is probally more simple then your aproach
Aug 1st, 2009
george
How do you get rid if banding when you use the gradient tool or any tonal object.
Aug 6th, 2009
Patrick Reed
CS3 photoshop, save to web is not active.
Any fixes ?
I think I’v tried most easy fix ideas,
Aug 12th, 2009
Donna Embree
my image size box is not working please help fast.
Sep 15th, 2009
Cresha mAE
i am having a problem with the color of my photoshop cs3.
even though i change the color already, it will remain in color “GRAY” ..
i dont know how to fix it.
please help..
May 29th, 2010
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