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Is there a way of adjusting the traction of the cursor on the layer?


Agnes Matilda Pye

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I'm not very good at writing notes so I use photoshop to edit the original papers I read for my studies. It actually works really well, but my one problem is this:

I use the pen selection tool alot cut out selections of text. It would replace a highlighter perfectly, were it not for the fact that I find the process too 'slippery'. It's difficult to make precise selections as alot of the time I move my hand slightly too much and end up selecting way too much.

Is there any way to add some traction between the cursor and the layer, to make the selection less fluid? Or a way to make the tool select little bits at a time in fast succession, like the hightlighter on Word?

I'd really appreciate some tips, something like this would be a lifesaver.
 

IamSam

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Hello and welcome. I understand you question, but I'm not sure what tool your talking about.

This is the Pen Tool.
Screen Shot 2015-12-12 at 10.23.55 PM.png
 

theKeeper

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I'm not sure exactly what it is you're doing.

Are these 'papers' active or live? Or are they PDFs or static images?

If the text is 'active' or 'live', then hold they Shift key while tapping the left/right arrow keys will select a single letter. Holding down Ctrl+Shift while tapping the left/right arrow keys will select entire words. To select an entire line of text hold Ctrl+Shift and tap the Down arrow key to select in front of the xursor, Up arrow key to select behind the cursor.

This is common word processor app stuff.
I have to wonder why someone would be using a heavy graphics program like PS to read text files/documents though.

You can use lots of other methods to select things in PS. In your case the Rectangle selection tool should work to select lines of text and put a highlight on them. Or, you could use Quick Mask Mode and a brush tool that is the same size as the height of your font, then hold down the SHIFT key and click at the start of your text selection, then where you want your selection to end, and the brush tool will draw a perfect straight line. There are other methods also that may proof much more effective than using the Pen tool. That seems a little cumbersome for something like this.

That is... so long as i'm understanding your problem correctly.

Could you elaborate more on what it is you're doing Agnes?


Mark (aka theKeeper)...
 

Tom Mann

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I'm not sure exactly what it is you're doing. ... This is common word processor app stuff.
I have to wonder why someone would be using a heavy graphics program like PS to read text files/documents though. ... That is... so long as i'm understanding your problem correctly. Could you elaborate more on what it is you're doing Agnes?...
To be honest, I had exactly the same thought.

For example, by some chance, do the pages that you want to annotate consist of a lot of graphics, and the vocabulary of the text is esoteric (eg, a medical textbook), so you just scan or photograph the pages, but putting them through an OCR program would result in too many errors and hence the whole process would become very labor intensive? So, as Mark said, a bit more background info would be very helpful in guiding you.

Cheers,

Tom M
 
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Agnes Matilda Pye

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Right I'll try and explain a little better. Mine is a pretty atypical case I admit.

Basically what I do is load the PDF onto photoshop and then read through each page, using the brush selection tool (not the pen tool, my apologies) to select chunks of text, and then making each one a new layer. I'm used to doing this quickly in drawing, where I adjust my tools so that 'new layer via cut' and 'select bottom (aka background) layer', can be executed with two quick keystrokes. TheKeeper, the process you described with holding down shift for a straight line is exactly how I do it.

The reason I choose to do it this way, instead of in a word processor, is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I find just dragging chunks of text into place a hell of alot quicker than formatting it Word. Another reason is that the pages I work with are laid out in a very specific way with a clear structure, and I want to keep my note pages as identical as possible to the real thing so that I can visualise them more easilly in my mind.

It's bizaare, but it happens to work very well. The only thing that could be better, as I say, is precision, as my hand sometimes slips and I select too much at once. Hence my question about traction.

Hope this makes things clearer :)
 

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