Oil Paint filter is grayed out

Last updated on Oct 4, 2026

Learn how to resolve issues when the Oil Paint filter is grayed out in Adobe Photoshop.

If the Oil Paint filter is grayed out under Filter > Stylize, check your Photoshop version and system configuration.

Improved Oil Paint filter

For Photoshop 23.2 and later, the Oil Paint filter uses native GPU resources on macOS and Windows for improved performance, particularly when working with larger files. No other updates were made to the filter.

Resolve a grayed-out Oil Paint filter

For versions earlier than Photoshop 23.2, try the following solutions if the Oil Paint filter is grayed out under Filter > Stylize:

  • Make sure your document uses RGB color mode. Oil Paint doesn't work with other color spaces, such as CMYK or Lab.
  • On Windows, make sure you're using a 64-bit operating system with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. OpenCL requires 64-bit.
  • Make sure Use Graphics Processor is selected under Preferences > Performance.
Advanced Graphics Processor Settings in Photoshop with the Use OpenCL option selected.
Enable OpenCL in Advanced Graphics Processor Settings

Note

If your video card doesn't support OpenCL v1.1 or later, you may need to upgrade to a video card that does to access the Oil Paint filter.

You can find information about your graphics card in Help > System Info.

earn more about using GPU features in Photoshop, including Oil Paint, in Graphics processor (GPU) card usage.