One of the most powerful features of Photoshop is the ability to download and install custom brushes. Easy to use, Photoshop brushes let you apply instant texture, draw freehand, or create simple details.
Let’s look at what Photoshop brushes are, how to install brushes in Photoshop, how to edit those brushes, and how to use them.
What Are Brushes in Photoshop?
Photoshop brushes are used to paint in Photoshop and are the digital equivalent to a paintbrush. Using a series of strokes with your mouse, you can create lines and shapes. You can also change their color and basic settings to suit whatever you draw.
The Brush tool in Photoshop is raster or pixel-based. Resizing or transforming a stroke made by the Brush tool will permanently change the pixels.
Saved Brush files in Photoshop will export as .ABR files. When downloading custom brushes only, .ABR files will be compatible with Photoshop.
Now that we have this basic understanding, let’s look at how to install new brushes in Photoshop, so you have more than the default brushes that come preinstalled.
How to Install Brushes in Photoshop
Step 1: Download a Custom Brush
Let’s start with how to install brushes in Photoshop from different websites.
Find a site that offers custom Photoshop brushes. Thousands of sites offer both free and premium custom brush packs. Today, I will be downloading and using this set of Free Lens Flares Photoshop Brushes from Brusheezy.
Locate the Download prompt on whatever site you choose to use. The brush will download as a .ZIP file.
Step 2: Export the Brush
Once finished, click the downloaded .ZIP file to open it. Drag the .ABR brush file either onto your desktop or a dedicated brush folder.
Once a brush is installed, you no longer need the .ABR file. However, if you reset your Photoshop preferences or delete the brushes, you will need the .ABR file to re-install the brushes.
It’s a good idea to store all downloaded brushes into their folder so you can easily access them in the future.
Step 3: Import the Brush into Photoshop
Open Photoshop, and select the Brush tool in the Tools toolbar.
Select the Brush Tip > Settings (Cog Icon) > Import Brushes
Now locate and select the downloaded .ABR file. The new brush tips will populate the brush tip panel. The new brushes will appear below the originals if you already have preinstalled brushes.
While most custom brushes contain multiple brush tips, some may have only one.
Step 4: Use Your New Brush
Select one of the new brush tips, create a new layer, and either stamp or drag using your mouse to use your new brush.
You can change the color of your brush using the Background and Foreground colors at the bottom of the Tools toolbar.
How to Create Custom Brushes in Photoshop
Step 1: Create a Shape or Pattern
Now that we know how to install new brushes in Photoshop, let’s look at how we can create our own. Let’s create a new brush from an image of a flower. You can also draw or create your shape or pattern from scratch.
To create custom brushes, open a new large Document in Photoshop, ensuring it has a white background.
Drag and drop an image of a flower onto the canvas. Use the Lasso tool to create a quick selection around the flower.
Go to Image > Adjustment > Black and White to turn the image grayscale. You must convert all images, shapes, or patterns to grayscale before being exported as a Custom Brush.
You may also need to add contrast to the image. I like to use a Levels adjustment layer, but you can also use Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast or Curves.
The darker the area on the brush, the more opaque those areas will be on the brush. White will result in complete transparency.
Step 3: Export the Image as a Brush
Crop any excess canvas using the Crop tool and go to Edit > Define Brush Preset.
Finally, name your new brush.
Step 4: Save and Export the Brush
If you’d like to share this brush with other people, select the Brush tool, select the new brush tip, and go to Settings (Cog Icon) > Export Selected Brushes. Your brush will export as an .ABR file that you can share or re-install.
If you want to export multiple brushes into the same .ABR file, make sure they are also selected when exporting. Select multiple brushes by holding Ctrl or Command and selecting all of the brushes you want to export.
How to Edit Brush Settings in Photoshop
Step 1: Open Brush Settings
Open the Brush Settings panel by going to Window > Brush Settings.
Step 2: Edit Brush Settings
Let’s look at some of the most common brush settings you may want to change.
Size — The Size will control how large or small your brush is. You can change the Size in Brush Settings and Brush panel by using the given sliders. You can also change the Size of the Brush by using the [ and ] keys.
Hardness — Hardness dictates how hard or soft a brush’s edge will be. 100% hardness will give you a sharp edge, while 0% will result in a soft, feathered edge. You can’t change the Hardness on custom brushes that are not based on a default round shape.
Opacity — Opacity changes how opaque the brush is. The lower the Opacity, the more transparent the brush will be. You can change the Opacity of a brush in Brush Settings, the Brush panel, and in the upper Options bar when the Brush tool is active.
Spacing — Spacing changes how far away each brush stamp will be from the other. If you want to create a solid line, you should set the Spacing no higher than 10% and as low as 1%.
Shape Dynamics — Shape Dynamics holds all of the settings regarding the shape of your brush tip, including Jitter options. Adding a Jitter to a brush will cause the brush to paint inconsistently, changing size, angle, and shape depending on the settings. You will also find Pen Pressure options if you have a drawing tablet. Pen pressure is not available if only a mouse is being used.
Scattering — Scattering will spread the brush tip. A Scatter of 0% will cause the brush tip to stamp one directly one after the other. The higher the scatter, the larger the spread will be between stamps. Count will give you the option to add more than one stamp at a time. Count Jitter will randomize how many stamps are placed at once.
Color Dynamics — Color Dynamics will give you Color Jitter options. These settings give your stamps the ability to be multiple colors without manually changing the Foreground Color. The Foreground/Background Jitter setting will introduce the Background color into the stamps depending on the settings chosen.
Smoothing — Smoothing is found in the Upper Options bar when the Brush tool is selected. It smooths out your strokes, making it easier to create curved shapes. By default, it is set to 20%. The higher the percentage, the smoother or steadier the stroke. A stroke of 0% will pick up all movements from the mouse.
Step 3: Save the New Brush
Now that we have added some custom settings to our brush, we’ll want to save it using the Save Brush icon found in the bottom-right corner of the Brush Settings panel. Look for it as a square with a plus sign in the middle.
The brush will appear at the bottom of your brush tips. If you do not save a brush with custom settings and switch to a new brush, you will lose those custom settings.
How to Organize your Brushes in Photoshop
Moving and Renaming Brushes
You can move around brushes simply by clicking and dragging on the brush tips in the Brush panel. To rename a brush, Right-click > Rename Brush.
Creating Brush Groups
To further organize your brushes, you can create groups. Create a brush group by going to the Brush Panel > Settings (Cog Icon) > New Brush Group.
Searching for Brushes
It’s easy to have hundreds of brushes installed in Photoshop at any given time. To quickly find a brush by name, you can use the Search bar in the Brush panel.
The search bar works on keywords, so the name does not need to be exact. It will pull up all brushes with the keyword in the brush name.
Conclusion
And that is how to install brushes in Photoshop! Brushes are one of Photoshop’s most powerful features thanks to the robust community of custom brush makers and sellers. This includes anything from premium brush packs containing hundreds of brushes to free brush packs that anyone can use.
If there is a brush shape, pattern, or type you need, I can guarantee you’ll be able to find it. Luckily, if not, you can always make a set of your own custom brushes in just a few clicks!
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About Abbey
Abbey Esparza is a mixed media artist whose composites are all based on photographs that undergo an intense treatment to transform them into the surreal, unusual, and macabre. She typically creates surreal themes, but is experienced in all different kinds of styles and genres, including child-friendly fantasy! She works with The Glorious Company, a content-marketing agency
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That again was no use: he but got another smile and a friendly look of the sort he no longer wanted. I said I thought I could gallop if Harry could, and in a few minutes we were up with the ambulance. It had stopped. There were several men about it, including Sergeant Jim and Kendall, which two had come from Quinn, and having just been in the ambulance, at Ferry's side, were now remounting, both of them openly in tears. "Hello, Kendall." We have this great advantage in dealing with Plato—that his philosophical writings have come down to us entire, while the thinkers who preceded him are known only through fragments and second-hand reports. Nor is the difference merely accidental. Plato was the creator of speculative literature, properly so called: he was the first and also the greatest artist that ever clothed abstract thought in language of appropriate majesty and splendour; and it is probably to their beauty of form that we owe the preservation of his writings. Rather unfortunately, however, along with the genuine works of the master, a certain number of pieces have been handed down to us under his name, of which some are almost universally admitted to be spurious, while the authenticity of others is a question on which the best scholars are still divided. In the absence of any very cogent external evidence, an immense amount of industry and learning has been expended on this subject, and the arguments employed on both sides sometimes make us doubt whether the reasoning powers of philologists are better developed than, according to Plato, were those of mathematicians in his time. The176 two extreme positions are occupied by Grote, who accepts the whole Alexandrian canon, and Krohn, who admits nothing but the Republic;115 while much more serious critics, such as Schaarschmidt, reject along with a mass of worthless compositions several Dialogues almost equal in interest and importance to those whose authenticity has never been doubted. The great historian of Greece seems to have been rather undiscriminating both in his scepticism and in his belief; and the exclusive importance which he attributed to contemporary testimony, or to what passed for such with him, may have unduly biassed his judgment in both directions. As it happens, the authority of the canon is much weaker than Grote imagined; but even granting his extreme contention, our view of Plato’s philosophy would not be seriously affected by it, for the pieces which are rejected by all other critics have no speculative importance whatever. The case would be far different were we to agree with those who impugn the genuineness of the Parmenides, the Sophist, the Statesman, the Philêbus, and the Laws; for these compositions mark a new departure in Platonism amounting to a complete transformation of its fundamental principles, which indeed is one of the reasons why their authenticity has been denied. Apart, however, from the numerous evidences of Platonic authorship furnished by the Dialogues themselves, as well as by the indirect references to them in Aristotle’s writings, it seems utterly incredible that a thinker scarcely, if at all, inferior to the master himself—as the supposed imitator must assuredly have been—should have consented to let his reasonings pass current under a false name, and that, too, the name of one whose teaching he in some respects controverted; while there is a further difficulty in assuming that his existence could pass unnoticed at a period marked by intense literary and philosophical activity. Readers who177 wish for fuller information on the subject will find in Zeller’s pages a careful and lucid digest of the whole controversy leading to a moderately conservative conclusion. Others will doubtless be content to accept Prof. Jowett’s verdict, that ‘on the whole not a sixteenth part of the writings which pass under the name of Plato, if we exclude the works rejected by the ancients themselves, can be fairly doubted by those who are willing to allow that a considerable change and growth may have taken place in his philosophy.’116 To which we may add that the Platonic dialogues, whether the work of one or more hands, and however widely differing among themselves, together represent a single phase of thought, and are appropriately studied as a connected series. Before entering on our task, one more difficulty remains to be noticed. Plato, although the greatest master of prose composition that ever lived, and for his time a remarkably voluminous author, cherished a strong dislike for books, and even affected to regret that the art of writing had ever been invented. A man, he said, might amuse himself by putting down his ideas on paper, and might even find written178 memoranda useful for private reference, but the only instruction worth speaking of was conveyed by oral communication, which made it possible for objections unforeseen by the teacher to be freely urged and answered.117 Such had been the method of Socrates, and such was doubtless the practice of Plato himself whenever it was possible for him to set forth his philosophy by word of mouth. It has been supposed, for this reason, that the great writer did not take his own books in earnest, and wished them to be regarded as no more than the elegant recreations of a leisure hour, while his deeper and more serious thoughts were reserved for lectures and conversations, of which, beyond a few allusions in Aristotle, every record has perished. That such, however, was not the case, may be easily shown. In the first place it is evident, from the extreme pains taken by Plato to throw his philosophical expositions into conversational form, that he did not despair of providing a literary substitute for spoken dialogue. Secondly, it is a strong confirmation of this theory that Aristotle, a personal friend and pupil of Plato during many years, should so frequently refer to the Dialogues as authoritative evidences of his master’s opinions on the most important topics. And, lastly, if it can be shown that the documents in question do actually embody a comprehensive and connected view of life and of the world, we shall feel satisfied that the oral teaching of Plato, had it been preserved, would not modify in any material degree the impression conveyed by his written compositions. breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five The bargaining was interminable, something in this manner:— Then follows a long discussion in Hindi with the bystanders, who always escort a foreigner in a mob, ending in the question— There was a bright I. D. blanket spread on the ground a little way back from the fire, and she threw herself down upon it. All that was picturesque in his memories of history flashed back to Cairness, as he took his place beside Landor on the log and looked at her. Boadicea might have sat so in the depths of the Icenean forests, in the light of the torches of the Druids. So the Babylonian queen might have rested in the midst of her victorious armies, or she of Palmyra, after the lion hunt in the deserts of Syria. Her eyes, red lighted beneath the shadowing lashes, met his. Then she glanced away into the blackness of the pine forest, and calling her dog to lie down beside her, stroked its silky red head. The retreat was made, and the men found themselves again in the morning on the bleak, black heath of Drummossie, hungry and worn out, yet in expectation of a battle. There was yet time to do the only wise thing—retreat into the mountains, and depend upon a guerilla warfare, in which they would have the decided advantage. Lord George Murray now earnestly proposed this, but in vain. Sir Thomas Sheridan and other officers from France grew outrageous at that proposal, contending that they could easily beat the English, as they had done at Prestonpans and Falkirk—forgetting that the Highlanders then were full of vigour and spirit. Unfortunately, Charles listened to this foolish reasoning, and the fatal die was cast. "They said they were going for our breakfast," said Harry. "And I hope it's true, for I'm hungrier'n a rip-saw. But I could put off breakfast for awhile, if they'd only bring us our guns. I hope they'll be nice Springfield rifles that'll kill a man at a mile." "Dod durn it," blubbered Pete, "I ain't cryin' bekase Pm skeered. I'm cryin' bekase I'm afeared you'll lose me. I know durned well you'll lose me yit, with all this foolin' around." He came nearly every night. If she was not at the gate he would whistle a few bars of "Rio Bay," and she would steal out as soon as she could do so without rousing suspicion. Boarzell became theirs, their accomplice in some subtle, beautiful way. There was a little hollow on the western slope where they would crouch together and sniff the apricot scent of the gorse, which was ever afterwards to be the remembrancer of their love, and watch the farmhouse lights at Castweasel gleam and gutter beside Ramstile woods. "Yes, De Boteler," continued the lady, "I will write to him, and try to soothe his humour. You think it a humiliation—I would humble myself to the meanest serf that tills your land, could I learn the fate of my child. The abbot may have power to draw from this monk what he would conceal from us; I will at least make the experiment." The lady then, though much against De Boteler's wish, penned an epistle to the abbot, in which concession and apologies were made, and a strong invitation conveyed, that he would honour Sudley castle by his presence. The parchment was then folded, and dispatched to the abbot. "A very pretty method, truly! You know not the miners and forgers of Dean Forest!—why I would stake a noble to a silver-penny, that if you had discovered he was hidden there, and legally demanded him, he would be popped down in a bucket, to the bottom of some mine, where, even the art of Master Calverley could not have dragged him to the light of day until the Forest was clear of the pack:—but, however, to speak to the point," perceiving that the steward's patience was well nigh exhausted—"I saw Stephen Holgrave yesterday, in the Forest." HoME欧美一级 片a高清
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