TechNote

Presets are missing from Photoshop CS3

Issue

When you load an Action, Mode, Brush,or Adjustment preset in Adobe Photoshop CS3, the Preset folder is empty.

Reason

Adobe Photoshop CS3 comes with preset files for various adjustment types, actions, color modes, and brushes. For example, Curves includes presets for Color Negative, Cross Process, Negative, Strong Contrast, etc. These presets are located in the Adobe Photoshop CS3 folder by default. You can also create your own presets for these adjustments. These User presets are stored in your user folder. When you click on Load in an adjustment window, Photoshop will show the User location by default.

This behavior applies to the following presets:

Actions
Black and White Brushes
Channel Mixer
Color Books
Color Swatches
Contours
Curves
Custom Shapes
Duotones
Gradients
Keyboard Shortcuts
Layouts
Menu Customization
Optimized Colors
Optimized Output Settings
Optimized Settings
Patterns
Scripts
Styles
Textures
Tools
Web Photo Gallery
Workspaces
Zoomify

Solution

To load an Adobe Photoshop default preset:

Open the adjustment you wish to edit and click Load.
Navigate to the following folder:
- On Mac OS: Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/[adjustment name]
- On Windows: Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/[adjustment name]
Select a preset and click Load.

To load a User preset: