This is Photoshop in CS5. Sorry.
I do a lot of image manipulation, and I use Quick-Mask a lot. My normal routine is:
• Select a hard-edged brush, click Quick Mask button
• Use brush to mark area I want to copy
• Exit quick mask, select Inverse (because for some reason Photoshop initially selects everything outside the area you marked)
• Copy/Paste. No problems. (Yes, it's a lot of hand work, but it keeps the process fun.)
Today, though, I am getting this:
• Select a hard-edged brush, click Quick Mask button. As soon as I select Quick Mask, all of the color selection boxes...in the main tool palette, in the Color palette, and in the Type palette change to gray. If I click the dropdown in the Color palette, only the Grayscale slider is available. This is new behavior.
• Use brush to mark area I want to copy... You know how when you brush over an area to mask, it's a nice bright transparent red? Now, the red is very pale and very transparent.
• Exit quick mask... All the color selection boxes return to color.
• Select Inverse then Copy/Paste. The selection I copy/pasted is roughly 50% transparent, not solid. I have no idea why. The layer transparency is set to 100%. Interestingly, if I don't select Inverse, and then copy/paste, the pasted selection is solid, not transparent.
I'm tearing my hair out trying to figure out what double-secret function I might have accidentally enabled. Brush opacity and flow are at 100%. Mode is set to Normal. Layer Transparency is set to 100%. I get the same results using Pencil instead of Brush. If I use, for instance, the Lasso tool to select an area and copy/paste, it looks fine. Not transparent.
The color selection panels going gray when I enter QuickMask is a real puzzler. Well, the whole thing is a puzzler, of course.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!