Brush tool cursor turned into a brush?

[karri]

(PS CS 5.5) My brush tool cursor has turned into a brush, no matter what brush I choose the cursor still is a replica of the Brush Tool icon in the Tool Box. I can't make it larger or smaller.

I've tried Reset all Tools, Rest Brush Tool, reset default Photoshop (Ctrl Alt Shift/Open).

Anyone know what I've done now? lol TIA

karri

[Bob]

It sounds like you have the brush cursor set to "standard" which displays the tool icon as the brush shape. Take a look at your Photoshop Preferences (Edit>Preferences>Cursors) and see if the Painting Cursors section has "standard" selected. If so, change it to "normal brush tip" and you should be fine.

[karri]

Yes that did it! Thank you Bob!

How does that happen though? Did I somehow hit a shortcut key? I haven't played with the Preferences.

Thanks again!

[Bob]

The only shortcut key I know of that affects the brush cursor is the caps lock key which toggles to the "precise cursor". If it was working fine and suddenly changed, it's likely the preferences file became corrupted. That does happen sometimes. Resetting the preferences file with ctrl alt shift while launching Photoshop should have restored the defaults. Did you get the dialog box asking if you wish to delete the preferences/settings file?

[karri]

Did you get the dialog box asking if you wish to delete the preferences/settings file?

No, I didn't, which I thought was odd, but I don't do it that often so I thought I had misremembered that it should be there. hmm