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Photoshop CS3 tool inaccuracy under Leopard: fix likely coming in 10.5.2
There exists a significant issue in Photoshop CS3 when running under Mac OS X 10.5.x (Leopard) where the crop tool does not work properly, eliminating a large portion of the selected portion of the image. In other words, the cropping tool is wildly inaccurate, using values different than those expressed by the tool or otherwise entered by the user. The same inaccuracy pervades other CS3 tools.
MacFixit reader Bob Burgess writes:
"Since installing 10.5.1 I have found that, in Photoshop CS3 (version 10.0.1) the crop tool reduces the image to a small dot in the middle of the frame. Gone, but recoverable with the Command-Z keyboard combination (Undo)"
Tools affected by the problem include: Art History tool, Blur tool, Brush tool, Burn tool, Color Replacement tool, Clone tools (all), Crop tool, Dodge tool, Eraser tools (all), Gradient tool, Healing tools (all), History tool, Lasso tools (all), Line tool, Magic Wand tool, Marquee tools (all), Paint Bucket tool, Pencil tool, Polygon tool, Quick Selection tool, Red Eye tool, Rounded Rectangle tool, Sharpen tool, Smudge tool, Sponge tool, Slice tool, Type tool.
Kirsten Harris, a Product Support manager at Adobe Systems, recently issued the following statement regarding this issues, indicating that a fix for this issue will appear in a forthcoming release of Leopard (hopefully Mac OS X 10.5.2):
"Adobe and Apple are working closely to provide a fix to a known issue running Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended on Mac OS X Leopard (v10.5.1). Currently, when you enter values in numerical fields to set sizes for the brush, crop, marquee, lasso, type, and other Photoshop CS3 tools, those values revert to previously entered values when you try to apply them.
"While we have identified workarounds for some of the affected tools, this issue prevents people from working as precisely and intuitively as they expect. Providing a fix to customers is a top priority. Please note the following: The fix will be provided through an update to Mac OS X Leopard. Consequently, it is not part of the Photoshop CS3 (10.0.1) update."
"Apple is collaborating closely with us to get this fix incorporated into a Mac OS X Leopard update. No public schedule is available at this time, but both companies understand the urgency of this fix. As soon as the appropriate update to Mac OS X Leopard is available, we will immediately alert our Photoshop users."
Adobe's current workarounds are as follows:
- "Workaround for tools with sliders: Instead of typing in a number, use the sliders to change the value."
- "Workaround for tools with pop-up menus: Enter a value for the size but don?t press Return/Enter to apply the value. Instead, choose it from the top of the Size pop-up menu to commit it."
- "Workaround for tools which do not have sliders or pop-up menus: For certain tools, such as the Line tool, you may want to set up presets that you can load to set common sizes. Alternatively, you can restart Photoshop CS3 to clear the problem. You will then be able to enter values again. However, the issue typically re-surfaces quickly. "
If you absolutely cannot live with the inaccuracy issues until a Mac OS X update, you can use our instructions for reinstalling the system to revert to Tiger.
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
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I would suggest waiting until something like 10.5.5 is released before even considering introducing Leopard into a production workflow.
If Photoshop CS3, which is the reason for most of Mac Pro sales and even XServe sales fails under 10.5.1 on such a critical tool, it seems video professionals will wait like a year to move to Leopard, even more.
Remember old Win2K days pro people were insisting and staying on NT 4.0 and proved to be right many times? Interestingly same trend started on OS X/Mac. Once people get afraid of upgrading their OS, they really don't. No matter how you push them. Ask MS about it.
What did Apple exactly test? Booting to Finder is enough? Isn't it the rumor/urban legend quoting BillG as "If it compiles, ship it"? Did it reach to Cupertino too?
It is not some rarely used 3rd party expensive plugin issue, it is CROP which fails under Leopard. This is Adobe, Creative Suite. Did Apple forget their core business?
Also there is a feeling that we are expecting too much from 10.5.2 update. If Apple ignores my bug report and others bug reports about OpenGL performance under Leopard especially on Pro machines, decides to "punish" us via blocking our IP from their discussion boards which we NEVER posted (no kidding) , we will be reading "OS X 10.5.20 will be fixing this and that" next year.
Apple should be careful about Adobe CS issues since those people using them have no obligation at all, they can easily move to Vista/XP in a single day donating their workstations to some school. Getting a new Tyan based workstation is not a issue for a professional. They care about the Tool rather than OS running it.
As noted in this article's suggestions... restarting PS CS2 allows me to regain the ability to change font characteristics but soon it begins not working again.
This is one of the worst bugs I have seen from Adobe in many versions... and I have been using Photoshop since version 5.
This is totally unacceptable.
Adobe and Apple trying to be nice to each other but as it is very unlikely OS X update will include a Adobe update, it is OS X 10.5.1 BUG, period.
Just goes to show you that not every one encounters the same program glitches.
10.5.1 with last update presents no Photoshop problems on my 2.16 Intel core duo iMac (plastic case), but the crop tool problem <b>is</b> present on my MacBook Pro, same software running with or without a wireless mouse.
The notion that graphics pros would switch platforms rather than wait for Apple and Adobe to iron out the kinks is preposterous on its face. Just because they are professionals doesn't mean they have money - or time - to burn. And changing platforms in a production environment is never a simple matter. Even upgrading on the same platform can be treacherous and time consuming and is no more a walk in the park on Windows than it is on the Mac OS.
While it is regrettable, to say the least, that Apple didn't adequately test Leopard with Adobe's products, there may be a simple explanation: The release of CS3 and Leopard came fairly close together in time, suggesting, to me at least, that they were both under development at the same time and that there were simply no final release candidates of either product to be thoroughly tested with the other. Since Adobe had no intention of certifying CS or CS2 apps with Leopard, in all probability neither they nor Apple tested these. As a result, the problems that have since cropped up (pardon the pun) were left to intrepid early adopters to discover.
It has ever been the case that early adopters are the final beta testers for most products. This is nothing new. Thus, complaining because your eager migration to OS X 10.5 has plagued you with an entirely predictable set of problems is disingenuous, to say the least. None of this mitigates the problems for those so afflicted, but it does explain them.
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Don't anthropomorphize computers.
They hate that.
- by Struktur January 11, 2008 3:16 AM PST
>This is a reply to a previous comment by WhiteDog
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(13 Comments)I can sense some logic in your phrase about early adopters being final beta testers. I have never been very keen on upgrading my OS but I did upgrade to Leopard. To me a crop tool in Photoshop that doesn't do it's job is not something to file under beta testing, it's one of the primary tools in the app. Next to this I am also experiencing some other severe problems with other apps. Since I did spend a whole lot of money on my machine, my new os and most of all my version of Creative Suite these companies can be sure that I am not too happy with this situation to say the least.