Photoshop Brushes
- Instructions -

File Type:  Adobe Photoshop^® Brushes file for pre-CS versions of Photoshop

File Extension:  *.abr
Purpose:  Photoshop's default brushes are not necessarily the ones most commonly used by photographers.  The brush set I created here contains the shapes and softness I find the most useful.

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Download the File

Make sure you click the appropriate Download button depending on whether you have Photoshop CS or an earlier version.

Follow your web browser's instructions for saving this file onto your computer.  Make sure you remember where you save it.  The file name is tz-brushes-default-8-bit.abr.  If you rename the file, do not change the extension.  Leave it .abr.  Photoshop does not require you to save this file in its directory.  However, saving it in Photoshop's Presets\Brushes folder will save it where the other brush files are stored.  After downloading, if prompted to Open the file or Close the download dialog box, close the dialog box.

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Load the Brush Set

1. With a Photoshop document open, type b to activate the Brush tool.
2. Right click to display the brushes pop-up palette.  It will look similar to Figure 1.
3. Click the fly-out menu icon (see the red arrow in Figure 1) to display the pop-up palette menu.
4. To append this brush set to the existing one, click Load Brushes.
5. Or, to replace the existing brush set with this one, click Replace Brushes.
6. Browse till you find the file.
7. Highlight the file and click Load.  If you chose Replace Brushes, the brushes pop-up palette should look like Figure 1.
8. If the brushes pop-up palette does not look like Figure 1 and you want it to, click the fly-out menu icon and select Small Thumbnail.  Then use the resizing handle (see green arrow in Figure 1) to resize the palette as desired. 
9. Click on the desired brush tip and begin using it.
10. To change brush tip or softness, right click to redisplay the pop-up palette; or use the keyboard shortcuts listed below.

 

This brush set consists of three brush tips: round, square and diamond.  The round brush tips come in five edges: soft, semi-soft, medium, semi-hard and hard.  The square and diamond brush tips are hard edged only.  The standard Photoshop square brush seems to have two sides with a hard edge and two sides with a soft edge.  All four sides of the square and diamond brushes in this set have hard edges.

If later you find that you prefer your old brush set instead, repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 above and click Reset Brushes > OK.  This will restore the default Photoshop brush set.
 

Keyboard Shortcuts

Once a brush tip has been selected, keyboard shortcuts can be used to change the brush size and hardness.

• Press the [ key to decrease the brush width.
• Press the ] key to increase the brush width.
• Press Shift + [ to decrease the brush hardness.
• Press Shift + [ to increase the brush hardness.

 

Spacing

The brush spacing parameter for the round brushes is 15%.  For the square and diamond brushes, it is 1%.  The spacing parameter can be found under Window > Brushes > Brush Tip Shape.
 

Softness Examples

Figure 2 below shows the five softness edges of the round brush.  The brush tip size is 100 in each case.  Top row, left to right: soft and semi-soft.  Middle row, left to right: medium and semi-hard.  Bottom row: hard.