The document discusses Photoshop brushes and options for customizing brushes in the Brush Palette. It provides instructions for opening the Brush Palette, modifying brush properties, saving custom brushes, loading additional brush sets, and creating custom brushes from images. Additional sites for downloading free brushes are also listed.

1. Photoshop CS3 Brushes
Photoshop Brushes
10/21/08
Brush Pallette
When you click on a tool in the toolbar, the options bar for that tool displays automatically at the top of the working
area in Photoshop. When using Photoshop’s brushes, most of the time you will just be concerned about the brush
size (in this case 45 pixels) and the opacity of the paint.
If you want even more options for your brush you can open the brush
palette as shown on the left. Go to Window – and click on Brushes and
you’ll get this screen.
Numerous options are available in the Brush Palette. Along with the
usual ability to change the size/diameter of the brush you get additional
options. Many of these options can be used in combination of other
effects.
Shape dynamics - pen pressure and jitter (some tools for Wacom
tablets only)
Scatter – spread of the randomness
Texture – paint with a texture (can create own textures)
Color dynamics – changes from foreground to background color
After customizing your brush you can save it – click on new page icon at
bottom
And will show up in the brush menu in the bottom of menu
If you create the perfect brush, this brush can be saved for future use.
Just click the small white “New Page” icon next to the trash can in the
lower right of the palette.
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2. Adobe Photoshop CS3
Brush Basics
Additional brushes can be added from the original selection of
brushes. Photoshop provides several additional brush sets
that can be added to the selection displayed. Click the small
down arrow next to the brush size to open the brush selections
then do the following:
A. Click the small triangle in the upper right of the
displayed brush palette. About half way down in the
menu that displays is a large list of additional brush
sets that you can make available.
B. Select the brush set you want (In this case I’m
selecting a set of cloud brushes) Photoshop will ask
you if you want to append or replace the brush set that
is currently available. I usually select “Append” to keep
the original brushes immediately available.
C. Scroll down to see the new brushes. You’ll have the
same options as with any brush. You’ll be able to
change the brush size, opacity etc. with this new brush
set.
*If you ever want to return to the default brush settings select
the “Reset Brushes” noted in the menu.
Loading Brushes
When you find or buy a brush set that you like, you can drag and drop the brush set inside the Photoshop
application folder. Find the Photoshop folder on your computer, go to the Presets folder, and drop the .abr file in
the Brushes folder. The next time you open Photoshop, these brushes will be available to be added as shown in
the instructions above.
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3. Adobe InDesign CS3
Introduction to Desktop Publishing: Text (Level 100)
Another way to load brushes into Photoshop is done from
inside Photoshop. From the Brushes Palette, click the small
arrow in the upper right corner of the palette, and choose
Load Brushes.
Locate the directory where you have stored the brushes
(.abr file) and select it and click quot;Load Brushesquot;.
The brushes will be added to the current brushes. The
additional brushes will be appended to your brush selection.
You’ll just need to scroll down in the window you see to the
left to find the additional brushes.
You could also go to Edit ->Preset Manager, find your .abr
file, and click the Load button. The new brush set will appear
in your available brushes.
To create your own personal brush do the following.
A. Open an image or create your own artwork.
B. Change your mode to grayscale. Image – Mode - Grayscale
C. Go to Edit Define Brush Preset
D. You’ll be asked to give your brush a name
E. Your new brush will now appear in the bottom of your brush
palette.
Numerous sites offer Photoshop brushes for free! If they are .zip files you’ll have to unzip them to access the .abr
file then follow the instructions above to include them in your Photoshop options.
Here are 2 of my favorite sites for free brushes.
http://www.psbrushes.net/
http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes
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