Custom brushes can be very useful. Use them to paint texture onto an object, create seamless tiles, and much more. Any time you find yourself using a symbol repeatedly, you can define it as a brush and you'll always have it handy. Follow these steps to define a custom brush in Photoshop.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 2 minutes
Here's How:
- Make a selection around the area you want to use as a brush.
- In Photoshop 6 or later, go to Edit > Define Brush Preset. You're done!
If you have an older version of Photoshop, continue with the steps below... - Go to the brushes palette (Window > Show Brushes).
- Click the menu button. This is the small arrow in the top right corner of the brush palette.
- Choose Define Brush from the pop-up menu.
- The new brush will appear at the bottom of the brushes palette and will be saved with the active palette.
Tips:
- If you create a brush from a texture, it's a good idea to feather the edges of the selection before defining the brush.
- Adjust the spacing of a brush by double clicking its icon on the brushes palette. Custom brushes cannot be resized in Photoshop 6 and earlier.
- You may find more custom brushes in the "Goodies" folder of your Photoshop installation CD. (Some Photoshop versions)
- To delete a custom brush hold the Ctrl (windows) or Command (Mac) key down while clicking its icon in the brushes palette or preset manager.
- If you have a lot of custom brushes, it's a good idea to make a backup copy of your brush set. Brush sets are saved with an .ABR extension. In recent versions of Photoshop, vou can save them using the preset manager.
