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I'm in the middle of a huge commercial project and while working I needed to change a background color. I picked up the magic wand tool and ... nothing. It will not select anything. I was working earlier this morning, now nothing.

This is the kind of stuff that drives me crazy using Painter. Seems like there's always some damn thing the slows down my flow. Now I have to repaint all the backgrounds by hand ... loosing $ because I don't feel right charging a client because my software has LAMED OUT ON ME.

I tried on a different image. Nothing.

I restarted the program. Nothing.

I restarted my computer. Nothing.

Amazing.

Okay ... so I've been messing with this for a bit and here's what I have found. I cannot select a grayscale color ON A LAYER. If I drop the layer to the canvas, I can select the gray colored areas. Then I have to lift them back up to a layer again.

Not happy about having to work like this ... but it will get me by. IMO, this is a bug and should be fixed.

- John

Was the Magic Wand working without this limitation for you before?  If it was your workspace may have corrupted.  I've had tool bug out on me before and sometimes a reset has helped (not always... if it's a true bug - the selection tools are still buggy for me in this version).  Sometime switching from you personalised workspace to default and back again works too (that's why I always leave default as it is and create my own workspace straight away). 

Have you tried a reset (hold down the shift key as the program starts and choose reset)?  Export your workspace and save ALL custom pallette etc first or they'll be deleted.  You may be lucky and reimport and the problem not return.

I'm not sure ... it is just something I noticed today since I had to work this way. I don't remember not being able to select colors in layers before ... this seems like an obvious bug ... or if as you said the workspace is "corrupt" ... I would consider that a bug too, since I just reset the workspace a few days ago.

I'm pretty sure there are still some things Corel needs to fix in this version of painter. This is just one.

My workaround, flattening the layers and doing selections is working and getting me through this project. Serious deadline in progress.

Thanks for the note!

- John

Yes, I occasionally find myself with a non-working Magic Wand Tool. Well, I say occasionally but it's a little too frequent for it to be simply an annoyance. I have never tried your workaround because I always work in PSD format and take my work into Photoshop to make good selections. I cannot risk the delays you describe (I'm sure you can't either) therefore I have to sacrifice the functionality of RIFF format for the sake of partnering up with PS.

johnjmcmullen:

I'm not sure ... it is just something I noticed today since I had to work this way. I don't remember not being able to select colors in layers before ... this seems like an obvious bug ... or if as you said the workspace is "corrupt" ... I would consider that a bug too, since I just reset the workspace a few days ago.

I'm pretty sure there are still some things Corel needs to fix in this version of painter. This is just one.

My workaround, flattening the layers and doing selections is working and getting me through this project. Serious deadline in progress.

Thanks for the note!

- John

Hi John,

Another workaround you may be able to try now or sometime in the future, when the circumstances are right.

Instead of using the Magic Wand tool, I've found that it's often easier and it works better to do the following:

1.  Use the Dropper tool to select the background color and make it the Main color.

2.  In the Select menu, choose the Auto Select > Using: Current Color.

3.  If the selection contains areas that you do not want to change (for instance ones that are not part of the background), either:

• Ignore them or
  
  
• After saving the original selection, deselect those areas, using (can't check right now but as I recall, in Windows, hold down the Alt key while selecting with the Lasso tool or, on Mac, hold down the Option key while selecting with the Lasso tool).
  

4.  When you have the selection the way you want it, save it again.

5.  Choose the new background color and make it the Main Color.

6.  Using the Paint Bucket tool, click inside the newly saved selection to fill it with the new background color.

I hope you'll find this helpful.

Jinny

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Thanks for the note Joe. Even though it's not cool to learn that this is happening to other users, I feel it's important for the Painter Dev's to know it is happening ... so they can fix it ... hopefully before charging me more than half of the cost of the program for another "upgrade".

Jinny, I mean no disrespect, but your solution - even though it probably works - is not a solution. It's a pain in the you know what.

I do own CS6 and I could easily save to PSD and move my image over there to make selections. Is that what Corel wants the Painter workflow to be like? Interesting.

Painter Devs ... just fix the magic wand.

My solution is the easiest way to fix the problem quickly and works good enough for the project I am working on - grayscale shading behind detailed technical line drawings of climbing self-rescue technique. However, Corel Painter looses 10/100 respect points for making me do it.

Dear John,

The only reason I took the time to share my workaround was that you seemed so terribly miserable, it was the right thing to do. 

That'll teach me!  ;o)

Not to worry, I still have my self respect intact, even if I can't help you.

Glad you're not quite as miserable as you seemed earlier.  You can finish your project. Yay!!

Jinny

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