Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 12-6. Adobe calls these crosshairs the precise cursor. Elements sometimes makes your curs-
or look like this when you're zoomed way out on an image. To get the normal cursor back, try
zooming in, and read the box above for further advice.
Modifying Your Brush
When you click the Brush Settings button in the Tool Options area, Elements displays a pan-
el that lets you customize the brush in a number of sophisticated and fun ways. (You'll run
into a version of this panel for some of the other brush-like tools, too, like the Healing
Brush.) Mastering these settings goes a long way toward getting artistic results in Elements:
Fade controls how fast the brushstroke fades out—just the way a real brush does when it
runs out of paint. A lower number means it fades out quickly (very few marks—see the
Spacing bullet below), while a higher one means the fade happens slowly (more marks).
Counterintuitively, leaving this setting at 0 means no fading at all—the stroke is the same
at the end as it is at the beginning.
You can pick any number up to 9,999, so with a little fiddling, you should be able to get
just the effect you want. If the brush isn't fading fast enough, decrease this setting; if it
fades too fast, increase it. A smaller brush usually needs a higher setting than a larger
brush does. And you may find that you need to set the brush spacing (explained in a sec)
in the 20s or higher to make fading show any visible effect.
TIP
As you tweak the brush settings, the brush thumbnail in the Tool Options area
changes to reflect the new settings.
Hue Jitter . Some brushes, especially the ones you can use to paint objects like leaves,
automatically vary the color of their brushstrokes for a more interesting or realistic ef-
fect. In other words, brushes that use hue jitter don't put down only the two colors, but a
range of hues in between. This setting controls how fast the brush switches between the
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