Photoshop Brush Basics

Creating a brush

Note: This tutorial was made for Photoshop CS3, but it should work for previous editions.

1. Open the file containing the image you want to make into a brush, or make a new file and paste in the image you’d like to make into a brush.
2. Select the image (this can be done either with ctrl + A, if it’s the only thing in the file, or the lasso tool or something similar if there are other parts you don’t want to include).
3. Go to Edit » Define Brush Preset and give it a name; click OK. Alternately, you can select the brush tool (shortcut: b) and click on the small arrow next to the preview of a brush. Next to the Master Diameter option, there’s another small arrow. Click it and select New Brush Preset… You’re all done! :)
   

Installing brushes

1. Download the brushes from your source, save them in an easy to find place, and unzip them if necessary to get the .abr file(s).
2. Navigate to C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop XX (XX is your edition)/Presets/Brushes and move the .abr to this folder. Technically, at this point your brushes are installed. If you want to use them immediately, continue on to the next step.
3. Open Photoshop, select the brush tool, and and click on the small arrow next to the preview of a brush. Next to the Master Diameter option, there’s another small arrow. The name of the .abr file you moved should be included in the menu; select it and click OK to replace the current brushes (which you can always reload by selecting them) or append to add them to the end of your current brushes.

Making a brush set

A brush set is a .abr file containing multiple brushes. This makes it much easier to organize your brushes (for example, you could put all grunge brushes in one set, or all brushes by a specific person in a set), especially if you want to offer them as a resource.

1. Open the brush menu by selecting the brush tool and clicking on the small arrow next to the brush preview.
2. Make sure that only the brushes you want to combine into a set are displayed. If there are other brushes shown, you’ll have to delete them individually (right click, Delete Brush).
3. Click the small arrow next to the Master Diameter option and choose Save Brushes… Pick the name and location to save them (the best place is probably the default brushes folder, mentioned in the above tutorial) and you’re all set!

Offering your brushes for download

This doesn’t have much to do with Photoshop, but it is relevant to resource suppliers, so it’s included here. Photoshop brushes are saved as .abr files; you’ll need to locate the brush set you want to offer (you should know the location, since you would have set it as in the previous tutorial).

1. Windows: Right click on the .abr file you’d like to offer for download. Select Send to… and choose Compressed (zipped) folder. If this is not an option for you, get a program such as 7-Zip that will compress files for you and follow its instructions.
   Mac: Control + click on the .abr file and choose Create Archive.
   Zipping is not required, but decreases file size, saving you bandwidth.
2. Upload the compressed file to your web host and find its URL (this varies with your host). Use this URL in a link and you’re all set!

Posted 12/24/2009 - Photoshop Tutorials | 9 comments