Resetting Photoshop Tools

By Linda Sattgast

Why You May Need to Reset a Tool

Every Photoshop tool in the Tool Bin is adjustable using tool options that are specific to each tool. You’ll see the Tool Options Bar at the top of your screen. When you first open Photoshop, the options are in their default settings, but over time, the settings get changed, which is to be expected.

Some tools can load sets different from the default set. If you’re trying to follow a tutorial and the instructor’s screen doesn’t look like yours, or if your tool begins to act up and not work as expected, you may want to reset your tool.

Here’s how to reset the Brush tool, the Gradient tool, and the Custom Shape tool, the most problematic tools when it comes to following tutorials.

Reset the Brush Tool

• In Tool Options, to the far left, click on the down facing triangle next to the tool icon to get a drop down panel.
• Click on the icon in the upper right corner to get a fly-out menu and choose Reset Tool. This will take you back to the default settings in Tool Options, but resetting the Brush tool does not affect the Brush Picker.
• To return to the default set of brushes, open the Brush Picker fly-out menu and choose Reset Brushes.
• You’ll get a dialog box with the choice to either replace the current brushes or simply append the default brush set at the end of the current set. I usually just click OK to replace them with the default set. This brings me back to the set used in most Photoshop tutorials.

Occasionally instructors will tell you to load a different brush set from the fly-out menu or ask you to load a brush set they provide, but unless they give you specific instructions otherwise, you can bet they’re using a brush from the default brush set.

Resetting the Gradient Tool

• Get the Gradient tool.
• In Tool Options, click on the down facing triangle next to the tool icon to the far left to get a drop down panel.
• Click on the icon in the upper right corner to get a fly-out menu and choose Reset Tool.
• To reset the gradients to the default set, in Tool Options open the Gradient Picker.
• Open the fly-out menu and choose Reset Gradients.

Custom Shape Tool

The Custom Shape tool is another tool that has additional shape sets in the Custom Shape Picker. With custom shapes it’s usually better if you load all the shapes right away so it’s easier to find the shape you need.

• Get the Custom Shape tool.
• In Tool Options, open the Custom Shape Picker.
• Click on the icon in the upper right corner of the Custom shape Picker to get a fly-out menu and choose All to load all the custom shapes.
• When the dialog box comes up, click OK to replace the shapes.
• It also helps to open the fly-out menu and choose Large Thumbnail so you can see the shapes better.
• You can always go back to the default custom shapes by opening the fly-out menu and choosing Reset Shapes, though for this tool it’s better to view all the shapes, in my opinion.

Conclusion

So the next time you’re going through a tutorial and you can’t seem to get the same result as the instructor, try resetting your tool, and if that doesn’t work, choose the Reset option in the fly-out menu to get back to the default set for the Brush and Gradient tools, or load all the Shapes for the Custom Shape tool.