Font selection issues in Paintbrush.app with macOS Tahoe

Question

Level 1

4 points

Font selection issues in Paintbrush.app with macOS Tahoe

The fonts in Paintbrush.app are wonky now with iOS Tahoe. You used to be able to highlight text to change the font for that entire selection- change the typeface, font size, and style (bold, italic, strikeout, etc.). Now it's very finicky. I can sometimes change the typeface and style, but only one time and then it gets stuck on that new style. I can't change the font size.

Googling around, I saw a very similar question on Adobe help Q&A forums, dated only a day or two ago and specifically about Tahoe.

I fast-clicked through the "welcome to Tahoe, let us show you the awesome new features" slideshow so maybe I missed this one, lol. I'm getting déjà-vû from when I used to get buyer's regret after downloading and installing one of those Windows Service Packs, hahahaha. Hopefully somebody prints this out and sticks it up on a bulletin board in Cupertino for motivation.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: iOS Tahoe fonts

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Sep 29, 2025 9:30 AM

Reply

Answer 1

JimC314 Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 29, 2025 4:19 PM in response to JimC314

Update- using the dropdown menu seems to be kind of a workaround: highlight the test, click on "Font" for the dropdown, click on bigger/smaller. (Or skip the dropdown menu and just highlight the text and hit ⌘+ or ⌘- a bunch of times.) The Font dropdown works for most of the other functions. It's the GUI buttons in the toolbar that don't work.

Fair points about the app not being updated in four years, but this is a pretty basic app, like TextEdit (when was the last time that updated and why should something so rudimentary need an update at all?). Seashore is a mixed bag. That one's pretty old since the last update (they used to have pretty regular updates).

The thing with all these off-brand picture editing apps is each one does something that the others don't, or there's something each one does well that the others don't do nearly as well. For example, Seashore lets you rotate the picture an exact number of degrees instead of only ±90° or "flip image." It also lets you cut an exact shape out of an image (can have jagged edges with dozens of bends and corners) but the copy-and-paste in Seashore is clumsy. On the other hand, you can copy that jagged shape from Seashore and paste it into Paintbrush, which lets you slide it around to the exact pixel before finalizing the paste action.

Reply

Answer 2

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,520 points

Sep 29, 2025 9:42 AM in response to JimC314

Tahoe is macOS, not iOS.

Beyond that, there can be multiple reasons why Paintbrush is not working as expected.

One would be - it's old. If this is the app you're referring to, it hasn't been updated in 4 years. That alone is a problem. As operating systems change, Mac or Windows, this can break old apps.

It's one reason why it's never a good idea to install a .0 release of any OS and expect everything to continue working.

I installed Tahoe on a blank volume for both our M4 Pro and M2 Pro minis, then installed all of our current software from scratch on each one. If something doesn't work, you know either the new OS needs a fix, or the apps need up update. This method allows you to start up in the older OS where things still function until they're fixed (if ever) in the new OS. When they are, then you can boot in the new OS and use Disk Utility to delete the older OS volumes.

Reply

Answer 3

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,520 points

Sep 29, 2025 10:35 AM in response to JimC314

Here's a list of similar apps.

https://alternativeto.net/software/paintbrush/?platform=mac

GIMP would likely be overkill for what you want. It's more of a free Photoshop alternative than Paintbrush. But there are several free apps you can try.

The apps on the linked site are always ranked by how many people have given any app an upvote. So, starting at MyPaint and working your way down with the various free apps would be what I would do.

And, oh! You can't download the apps from the site I linked to. You have to then find the developer's site. Which is usually as easy as putting the app name in a search. Such as, the very top Google return for MyPaint is the official site:

https://www.mypaint.app/en/

Reply

Answer 4

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,520 points

Sep 29, 2025 4:47 PM in response to JimC314

TextEdit, and all apps included with the OS get an update with each major OS release. That on top of point updates to fix bugs in those app updates.

Heck, I made a very simple app with Script Editor in Sequoia. It was already saved as a Universal app, but it wouldn't run in Tahoe. I had to take the original script and save it out as a new app in Tahoe.

Reply