The fickle 'aligned - not aligned' clone tool in Photoshop

[Babine]

I posted this on another forum and heard nothing. Hopefully someone here can help?

Constantly, it switches from the chosen not aligned to aligned causing me to backtrack while trying to match a particular clone area. From what I read, I am aware of the cause of this 'switch' (double tapping on the target) but double tapping again does not revert it back to where I prefer. I cannot find anything in preferences, etc that will prevent this frustrating action. :^(

Has anyone come up with a work-around or is this something that Adobe has never corrected?

Thanks.

 

[JeffK]

Just as a side note - I never was aware of the aligned/not aligned function or check box.
It seems its always been checked. I wonder how many issues I've caused myself!

Regarding the question - a lot of upset creatives out there since 1994 when this issue was first picked up. Doesn't seem like there's a fix - you have to manually go up to the check box to un-check it.

I have a feeling John will come up with a workaround - until then, Adobe doesn't seem to care to fix it.

 

[Babine]

Just as a side note - I never was aware of the aligned/not aligned function or check box.
It seems its always been checked. I wonder how many issues I've caused myself!

Regarding the question - a lot of upset creatives out there since 1994 when this issue was first picked up. Doesn't seem like there's a fix - you have to manually go up to the check box to un-check it.

I have a feeling John will come up with a workaround - until then, Adobe doesn't seem to care to fix it.

Thanks for yur input Jeff. Apparently Adobe is quite happy as is and as you said, check it often.

 

[IamSam]

This has been a long standing problem which Adobe has been aware of for many years now!!!

I myself have tested this phenomenon on three different computers running three different versions of Ps, two different Wacom tablets and three different mouse devices...............and all will check the ALIGN box when unchecked, when you double click/tap while making a source selection.

I don't think this is related to the tablets as has been suggested in other sites, as it seems to work with the mouse as well. I'm not sure if this was intentionally done by Adobe or just an overlooked inadvertent function or it may be related to the Opt/Alt key used in making a source selection that can't be remedied.

One thing I have always suggested when this has been brought up, is to increase the the double click speed on your tablet if that's what you use for clone stamping. Doing so will lessen the chances of a state change in the align option. You should still have your mouse set at a normal (useful) click speed. I rarely use a double click on my tablet anyway so doing this does not bother me.

I will say this, is that unchecking the align option usually leads to clone stamp doubling with almost all newbies. Only the more experienced "clone stampers" should be using the option and only in certain circumstances.

 

[Babine]

This has been a long standing problem which Adobe has been aware of for many years now!!!

I myself have tested this phenomenon on three different computers running three different versions of Ps, two different Wacom tablets and three different mouse devices...............and all will check the ALIGN box when unchecked, when you double click/tap while making a source selection.

I don't think this is related to the tablets as has been suggested in other sites, as it seems to work with the mouse as well. I'm not sure if this was intentionally done by Adobe or just an overlooked inadvertent function or it may be related to the Opt/Alt key used in making a source selection that can't be remedied.

One thing I have always suggested when this has been brought up, is to increase the the double click speed on your tablet if that's what you use for clone stamping. Doing so will lessen the chances of a state change in the align option. You should still have your mouse set at a normal (useful) click speed. I rarely use a double click on my tablet anyway so doing this does not bother me.

I will say this, is that unchecking the align option usually leads to clone stamp doubling with almost all newbies. Only the more experienced "clone stampers" should be using the option and only in certain circumstances.

Thanks Sam. As I suspected but I will play with the various pen settings. Appreciated.

 

[IamSam]

I was just playing with the Pen settings, and off (double tap) seems to be the best choice in stopping unwanted changes in the "align" option. It works for me since I rarely use double tap with the Pen.

 

[Babine]

I was just playing with the Pen settings, and off (double tap) seems to be the best choice in stopping unwanted changes in the "align" option. It works for me since I rarely use double tap with the Pen.

I did try that also and found that it has cut down on the 'mis-align' somewhat. Thanks!

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @Babine, I have been out of town and concur that the best solution as @IamSam has suggested is to turn out the double clicking at the source of the problem of the pen interface (Wacom?)

As other tidbits, I have read that the "inking" feature in Windows 10 can cause some issues associated with Wacom as well from their troubleshooting page. They were not explicit about it causing the double click issue yet the solution for the particular problem they were trying to fix was also turning the slider to "off." Link provided here:
https://amsoft.cz/Produkty/Wacom/manuals/en/TroubleshootingPenTouch_Cintiq.htm

Each input device be in trackpad, mouse, pen/tablet have a feature to adjust double click characteristics. A more extreme approach that may not work in the workflow very well is the use "mouse keys" where the "click" function can be done from the keyboard instead of other input devices. When enabled through Accessibility, on my MacBook Pro a click is done with the "I" key and pretty tough to make a double click (though there is a setting where you can adjust a keyboard minimum delay to consider it a double click to avoid any keyboard click issues as well). Just don't think that would work well when using a pen though.

Just added for completeness
John Wheeler

 

[Babine]

Hi @Babine, I have been out of town and concur that the best solution as @IamSam has suggested is to turn out the double clicking at the source of the problem of the pen interface (Wacom?)

As other tidbits, I have read that the "inking" feature in Windows 10 can cause some issues associated with Wacom as well from their troubleshooting page. They were not explicit about it causing the double click issue yet the solution for the particular problem they were trying to fix was also turning the slider to "off." Link provided here:
https://amsoft.cz/Produkty/Wacom/manuals/en/TroubleshootingPenTouch_Cintiq.htm

Each input device be in trackpad, mouse, pen/tablet have a feature to adjust double click characteristics. A more extreme approach that may not work in the workflow very well is the use "mouse keys" where the "click" function can be done from the keyboard instead of other input devices. When enabled through Accessibility, on my MacBook Pro a click is done with the "I" key and pretty tough to make a double click (though there is a setting where you can adjust a keyboard minimum delay to consider it a double click to avoid any keyboard click issues as well). Just don't think that would work well when using a pen though.

Just added for completeness
John Wheeler

Thanks John. I will work on that approach too. Appreciated.

 

[Babine]

I just updated PS to 23.3.2 and the problem seems to have been solved. I have the pen settings at 'double click off', as I did when Sam suggested it but that didn't do the trick.

It is now. Go figure? Adobe was listening in?

 

[IamSam]

I did try that also and found that it has cut down on the 'mis-align' somewhat.

I have the pen settings at 'double click off', as I did when Sam suggested it but that didn't do the trick.

I had made a post earlier whereby I questioned these statements. After all, by nature, turning the double tap feature off has to work completely. If the Pen "double click" feature is off, it can't cause the problem.

Then the thought occurred to me that I had only tested this solution/fix on one tablet. So I removed the post temporarily to do some testing.

So I tried another newer tablet and the fix DID NOT WORK at all! The only differences between the two tablets is the age and a few settings. In the older tablet (from 2017), my solution seemed to work fine..............even though I had also noticed that the "Touch" feature for the pad was also turned off.

In the newer tablet my solution/fix did not work at all no matter what I tried! The only thing I could change that seemed to help was the double tap/click speed. If I increased the speed I found it less easy to inadvertently cause the align feature to reset. I assume the difference is the age and firmware on the Pen and Tablets.

So............my fix does not work on all tablets.............and I now can understand why Gary made the statements that he did.