PSBrushesManual

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BRUSHES MANUALBrushes for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (+ Paint Shop Pro and others)

by Andrew Buckle


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Brushes Manual

Introduction

Thanks for the purchase of the brushes

(or if not, thanks for reading the docu-

mentation!) Hope you find the brushes of

interest and use. The manual / guide willhopefully help you install and use the

brushes in Photoshop and Photoshop

Elements and also in Paint Shop Pro,

Photo-Paint and other applications.

All the brushes displayed in this docu-

mentation are from graphicxtras.com,

where you can find 1000s and 1000s of

additional hi-impact brushes for com-

mercial as well as personal use.

Andrew

fig. X Brushes from the X brushes pack from

graphicxtras.com

fig. Rosette brush from the rosette brushes 3

pack. To change the color from black, change

the foreground color to another color


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Brushes installation

Extract the brushes from the zip file (if

in a zip, really depends on how you get

the brushes). Most recent OS should be

able to unzip a zip file but if you cant, I

would suggest finding a copy of PKUnzip

or Winzip or Stuffit Expander (there are

also many others, you can find themwith any good search engine). Once

expanded, you should see a selection of

folders such as

Brushes ABR (or Brushes for Photoshop)

Brushes PNG etc. The ABR files are the

main format for Photoshop and Elements

and are probably the ones you will be

most interested in. The PNG folder / PSP

folder contain brushes for other applica-

tions. The thumbnail gallery foldercontains a display of all the brushes in

the set (in most cases)

After that, please either place the ABR

brushes file in the Photoshop Presets

Brushes folder and access via the brushes

palette dropdown or place the brushes in

an easy located file location and access

the brushes using the load / replace

browser of the brush palette.

Another, and perhaps easier option, is to

just load the ABR brushes file by using

the Photoshop or Elements file > open

command.

Brush files are ABR format

The ABR brushes will only work in Photo-

shop or Photoshop Elements and

cannot be accessed by Paint Shop Pro orPhoto-Paint or even Illustrator (though

now in volume 11 onwards of the packs,

the PNG equivalent files exist) . The

brushes will not work in Photoshop 5 /

4 / 3. Note: none of the brushes have

presets added, they are purely the brush

dab. If you wish to save a preset, you

will need to select the dab, set the angle

/ scatter etc and then save the brush

preset in a later format. Not all brushsets work in PS 6 now

fig. Dot brushes from the dot brushes set

fig. Rosette brush from the rosettes brushes

pack 5


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Brushes palette

The next steps to access the brush files

are 1) startup Photoshop 2) Select one of

the brush tools in the Photoshop toolbox

(such as the paint tool), go to the top

banner and 3) select the brush palette 4)

The brushes are loaded via the right

hand button of the palette. Either selectfrom the dropdown (if the brushes are

located in the presets folder) or use the

brush browser load / replace to locate

the ABR.

Once loaded, you can always restore the

default set by selecting the reset option

of the brushes palette (the default

brushes are not deleted, they can be

restored at any time)

fig. Photoshop brushes palette, go to the

right side of the palette to use the load / save

etc commands

fig. Antique brush (from a play written in the

18th century from the original book)


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Brushes installation folder

Brushes presets folder doesn't vary from

version to version of Photoshop and

elements. In all cases, the brushes can

be found in the presets folder 'brushes'.

c:\program files\adobe\photoshop

...\presets\brushes

or on mac HD:applications:Adobe Photo-

shop .... :presets:brushes

The actual Photoshop... depends on your

version of Photoshop.

You may wish to keep the brushes in a

separate folder and then load the

brushes as required. You can loadbrushes from a different folder by using

the load / replace command via the

brushes palette or the edit->preset

manager

fig. The brushes folder for CS4 PC

fig. Brushes from the dot brushes pack


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Brushes in Photoshop

Elements

The brushes ABR files are placed in the

same folder structure as Photoshop, in

the Photoshop elements 5.0 (or 6.0 or

7.0 or 8.0) presets brushes folder. The

way to access them is slightly differentthan Photoshop

The easiest way is the above, place the

ABR files in the presets folder (a selec-

tion of ABR files, the rest can be kept in

a temp or holding folder for all the

brushes) and access via the brushes tool

and brushes palette

To access the brushes, select one of the

brushes tools

To access the brushes via the brushes

palette dropdown, select the brush file

from the list. As mentioned, you might

prefer to add only a small number of

brushes files here and use the load

command to select a different folder.

Only have you favorite brush sets here

(otherwise the list will be very long)

The brushes can be loaded into Elements

via the file > open command but you

wont be able to see them via the

brushes palette, only via the presets

manager

Once you have loaded the brushes via

the brushes palette dropdown or the

preset manager, select the required

brush via the displayed palette

Apply the brush using the current color etc

Pressure can modify the tools

The options to modify the brush are limited

compared with Photoshop

Other brush tools such as blur are also

available

fig. Perhaps the easiest way to access the

brushes is via the file > open command in

PSE

fig. If the brushes are located in the presets

folder they will appear in this list

fig. Or use the load brushes command to

search for the ABR files


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Brushes in PNG format

(Brushes packs 11 onwards

only)

The brush sets also contain (only for

some of the later sets) most, if not all,

of the brush files in PNG format. If you

havent got Photoshop or you would liketo use the brushes in another applica-

tion, the PNG files are included so you

can import them into your favorite

application. They are the same size etc

as the ABR brush equivalents. See later

in the documentation for install details

into some applications such as Paint Shop

Pro

Some of the sets even contain PSPBrushformat files so you can place the brushes

in the folder for PSP brushes (to find the

location, check out the file > prefer-

ences > file locations section)

fig. Embellish brush from the embellish 3

pack

fig. Celtic design brush from the embellish

3 brushes pack


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Brushes thumbnail gallery

The sets on graphicxtras.com come with

a variety of extras, one of them being a

thumbnail gallery printout of all the

brushes in the set. The thumbnail gallery

is fairly small in comparison to the

actual size of the brushes (600 x 600 for

the brushes, the thumbnails are gener-ally only 1500 x 1500 for the entire set).

Not aware of any tool that can create a

gallery from the brushes, though this

might be a feature of one of the brushes

presets viewers available on the web.

fig. Brush from the butterflies brushes pack

fig. Another brush example from the

butterflies brushes pack, this time using a

different foreground color for the brush


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Backup of brushes

It is recommended that you make a

backup of the brushes and store this on a

CD or DVD or another machine. We can

supply replacement disks but there will

be a charge for this, post and packaging

Issues / suggestions

I would suggest placing all the brushes

on the hard disk in a folder for brushes.

Drag the brushes to the presets brushes

folder as required as too many brushes

files in the menu may cause issues with

the menu dropdown for the presets

brushes or a slowdown on startup of the

application. It might be best depending

on the machine to just use the load /

replace command in the preset manager

and use that to access the brushes from

a designated brushes folder setup, so put

all the brushes in c:\photoshop

brushes\... and then access the brushes

from there.

For some odd reason, and perhaps it is a

reasonable feature of the Photoshopautomate command and create web

gallery, the web gallery feature will

create thumbnails and JPG etc but it

also reads and loads the brush files in

the same path and will load them up to

the max number of brushes allowed. It is

not recommended to overload the

brushes palette as this will slow down

access in future startups of Photoshop

Number of brushes in pal-

ette

You can only generally load a certain

number of brushes into a palette at one

time, this might be 500 or so depending

on the version of Photoshop. Photoshop

will display a message when it reaches

it's limit (and that has nothing to do with

my brushes or anything, that is a limit

set by Photoshop). Too many brushes

might also cause a slowdown on startup

fig. Selection of embellish brushes from

embellish 4 pack displayed in the brushes

palette of Photoshop

fig. Embellishment pack 3 brushes palette


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Problems

Any problems, please contact me on

[email protected] or check out

the website

http://www.graphicxtras.com

Serial numberPlease make a note of the serial number

(this is not to be confused with the order

number). Any updates will use the serial

number as a key to access the zip file.

Brushes documentation

Best source would be the manual and

online documentation but there are 100sof great books available, with hints and

tips on brush use. One such series being

the Scott Kelby books, Photoshop world

and Down n Dirty series, also the Com-

puter Arts magazine UK run various

articles on brushes and their uses in their

main magazine and their art project

series

The manuals for all the graphicxtras.comproducts can be found on

http://www.graphicxtras.com/manuals.

htm

Use of brushes

The brushes are royalty-free. You can

use them in 99% of ways (within reason-

able limits), use them in creating CD

designs, book covers, paintings and morefor commercial or personal use. The

brushes should not be collected together

and a new brushes CD set created

(though any licensing etc. etc use,

please contact us)

Please check the examples list for many

valid uses of the brushes

The license is always on

http://www.graphicxtras.com/license.ht

m

fig. A good place to check for information is

the Photoshop brushes help as well as online

There are many 100s (if not 1000s) of sites

devoted to Photoshop, brushes et al.

fig. A selection of heart brushes in the brushes

palette (from the hearts brushes pack)


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Brush tools

The brushes can be used in nearly all the

brush tools in Photoshop (though not in

the healing brush etc) but the brushes

work well in art history, brush tool, clone

tool, pattern stamp and others.

Some of the palette options are notavailable for all brushes. If a brush

option is not available, the palette entry

will be disabled. Below is an example of

a brush palette setting for angle jitter.

Some of the brushes are not initially

available in the toolbox, they are

beneath an existing tool / share an icon.

An example of this is the pattern stamp

and clone tool.

fig. Clone stamp tool and pattern stamp tool

share the same icon. The application always

defaults to the clone stamp tool.

fig. The blur tool shares with the blur and

sharpen and smudge

fig. The toolbox offers little

in the way of modification, you can

change it from a one or two

column mode but that is it (you

cannot remove tools from the toolbox- even if you never use them - or

move the most used tools to the top

of the toolbox or change the size of the

icons etc)


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Art history brush

There are a number of brush tools with

Photoshop: paint smudge art history blur

etc, they can all use the brushes from

the brushes collection in a variety of

ways.

The art history brush uses the brushesand the history palette along with a

variety of dab application styles.

History brush

A useful way to undo changes but with-

out any great artistic or creative effects

(as in the case of the art history brush).

Use to return an image to an earlier

state or use the brush to apply future

effects to an earlier point of the image

(the history brush then becomes a stored

effects / plugin brush which can be

applied to different regions of the image

with varying strength)

Brush tool

Useful painting tool, though it has limita-tions compared with Painters brushes.

The brush tool accepts all the ABR

brushes, and comes with a number of

options via the brushes palette such as

shape dynamics, scattering, texture, etc

fig. Use the history palette and the art history

tool to apply impressionist or painting brush

strokes to an image. Select the starting source

for the brush strokes, set the brush, set the style

such as dab or tight curl and apply brush

fig. Select the start source point

for the history brush and apply OR you could

apply the effects, select start point at the end of

all the effects, return to an earlier point and

apply the generated effects to only part of the image


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Smudge tool

The smudge tool is useful for a variety of

tasks, such as subtle tweaking of an

image or create distorted brush stroke

effects. The smudge tool can also blend

in the current foreground color via the

finger painting option

Blur toolUseful for localized blurring of an image

or text.

Impressionist tool (PSE)

Basically the same as the art history

options but with less options to change

things, still, a useful tool for a quickimpressionistic painting using different

styles such as tight curl, dab etc

fig. Brush options in PSE for the impressionist

brush - such as dab, tight curl etc

fig. Blur tool as well as the

smudge tool

fig. Blur tool applied to an image to blur a particular

area of the image


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Pattern stamp tool

The pattern stamp tool uses the patterns

as input. You can also paint using an

impressionist effect (via the impression-

ist checkbox) and pattern. As with all the

brush tools, the brush palette can be

modified to scatter / modify brush color

/ angle the brush stroke

Clone tool

Clone another area of the image. Alt-

Click to define the source area. The tool

comes with a number of clone source

options (via the clone source palette)

such as scaling or rotation; as well as

offering multiple sources for the cloning

Eraser Tool

Useful for removing past mistakes. Does

offer a selection of interesting creative

features as well.

fig. Clone source panel offers

a selection of interesting variant

apply options

fig. Pattern stamp allows the user

to apply a pattern as well as an

impressionistic pattern effect

fig. Eraser tool and others


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Define brush presets /

brushes

You can use the brushes to create new

brushes. Create a new document, paint

with the brush dabs as require and then

edit->define brush (or brush preset). The

brush preset, if saved, will be saved inthe format of the current version of

Photoshop fig. Define brush preset means that you

can save more than just the brush dab,

scattering etc can be saved. Saving the

brush, saves the brush in the current

Photoshop version which may or may not

work with earlier versions

fig. Rosette brush from rosette brushes pack


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Brush sizing

With version 7 / CS / CS2 / CS3 / CS4 of

Photoshop , please check out the new

brush palette.

In version 6, to re-size the brushes

please use an art-pad and pen or paint a

dab and re-size and re-define the brush(not all brush sets work in version 6)

Many of the brushes in the earlier sets

are low in size but the later sets

approach the maximum brush size of

1020 x 1020 (with version CS4 the maxi-

mum diameter is 2500 x 2500 - which is

pretty decent but then again, some use

documents in the 1000s with many GB of

memory installed)

fig. Set size via the basic brushes palette

fig. Or set the diameter via the more

advanced brushes palette (why is one calleddiameter and the other a more imposing

master diameter though??)


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Re-arranging brushes

You can always delete brushes and then

save a brush set for yourself with your

own particular favorites, just use the

brush palette and save the current

brushes to a new brushes file.

You can, if you want, create a totallynew brush set by opening the brushes

you want, set to the brush tool, create a

brush dab in a 1000 x 1000 file and then

use the define brush command for each

of those dabs and then saving the new

brush dabs file.

In CS, you can also re-arrange the posi-

tions of the brushes so if you want a

particular set of brushes to be next toeach other, go to the preset manager

and then select the brush and drag (this

doesn't work in the brushes palette, just

the preset manager (?)) and then save

the file.

All the files were created in Photoshop 6

format for maximum compatibility with

future versions, if you save the brushes

in CS then the backward compatibilitywill be gone, but at least you will be

able to save all the various brush palette

settings as well, creating even more

unique brush effects.

fig. Brushes from the pipes brushes pack before

moving items in the preset manager

fig. The first few brushes have beenmoved via the preset manager, select

and drag


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Brush palette

The brushes can be tweaked in a variety

of ways and the brushes saved as brush

presets for that particular tool. Not all

the features of the palette are open to

all brush tools. The brush palette allows

access to modify the color / size / appli-

cation / angle / scatter / texture andeven combinations of brushes.

fig. Shape dynamics screen

fig. Scattering brush panel


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Brushes and effects

Brushes can be used in combination with

effects. Some effects work well with the

brushes and others, not so well. Some

effects are ignored on layers (it seems)

so a brush stroke on a layer might have

an effect applied and the effect will

change nothing

fig. Embellish brush beforeeffects (plugins) applied

fig. The embellish brush stroke

with a blur and water color

effect applied in Photoshop


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Brushes and opacity

Painting with opacity set to 50% or 15%

or 100% will result in a totally different

brush effect. Use a low opacity setting

to create a more blurred / blended in

image.

fig. Original brush stroke with opacity

set to the default 100%

fig. Opacity set on top bar to 47%

All brush strokes are now applied

using 47% instead of 100%

fig. Brush strokes applied with the same

brush but now at 47% opacity


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Blending mode and brushes

You can also alter the blending mode for

a brush stroke. This option can be vari-

able in use, especially using blending

modes such as difference which can

create a jumble of brush strokes and

colors in seconds. Subtle brush strokes

can be created using multiply or otherblending modes. Some of the brushes

give full access to all the blending

modes, others less.

fig. Blending modes for the brush tool

fig. Brush tool applied using the

difference mode (X brush from the Xbrush pack)


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Channels and brushes

Brushes can be used on different chan-

nels (paint on the red channel but ignore

the green and blue etc) Or select the red

channel and the green channel and paint

only on those.

Also, use the brushes to paint on thealpha channel (s)

fig. Brushes applied on different channels.

fig. Spiral brush applied to red and green

channels only


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Layers and brushes

Brushes can be used on a new layer. The

brush stroke can be applied as a brush

stamp, pre-apply or apply the style after

the brush stroke.

The new layer can be pre-assigned a

style before any brush strokes. The brushstroke can be applied and used to spread

out the style. If the style contains

elements that can grow or shrink

depending on the application, many

interesting brush designs can be created.

You may wish to vary the size (using an

art pad and pen) as well as using the

layer scaling to modify the size of the

applied style. Depending on the style

and the brush stroke, brush strokesapplied can take on a viscous quality

with the style blending and changing as

you apply the brush stroke. More akin to

a brush stroke applied in more paint

orientated applications.

Brushes can be used as a dab or nozzle.

Create a layer, apply a single or multiple

dabs (keeping within the bounds of the

document layer) and then just duplicatethe layer. The layer can be converted

into a smart object though it will lose

some functionality. If it is not a smart

object, re-sizing it can be an issue. The

layer can have effects applied and warps

(within limits) and can be repeatedly

duplicated to create unusual designs

The brush dab via layers is not as flexible

as a 'true' nozzle / image hose effect but

it can still be used to create great back-grounds, frame designs, overlays and

more.

fig. Brush applied to a layer butwithout a layer effect applied

fig. Layer effect (metal) applied to

the brush layer


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LAB mode and brushes

Brushes can be used in different image

modes such as CMYK or LAB. The brushes

can be applied as if on a RGB document.

Use on different channels such as light-

ness. For example, use the blur brush to

great effect in LAB mode.

fig. Brushes can be applied in LAB color

mode

fig. Brushes can be applied in CMYK documents

color mode as well


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Brushes and patterns

The brushes can be used as a source for

patterns. Apply a brush stroke (avoiding

the edges). Use the offset command to

further manipulate the design, adding

more brushes (again avoiding the edges)

and then use the edit menu [ define

pattern ] command

The pattern then can be applied using

the fill or fill layer content or via the

pattern stamp or as brushes texture

The brush generated pattern file can

also be used as a displacement map,

save as a PSD. Use the displacement file

in displace filter and glass filter in Pho-

toshop fig. Brush to be used for the pattern

fig. Use the define pattern command to

create a pattern based on the brushstrokes

fig. Use the brush as a source for patterns,

use the offset filter to create a more complex

pattern design


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Distress effects

The brushes can be applied using various

opacities and also oversized (to create a

rougher brush design) to distress or

grunge any image

Apply the brush strokes with various

colors or a single color as well as usingvarious different random settings found

in the brushes palette

Use the brushes in a variety of other

tools such as the smudge tool and blur.

fig. Ink brush from the ink brush pack

fig. Ink brush with various scattering and huesettings applied


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Brushes and masks

Click the edit in quick mask mode (via

toolbox) and paint the mask using the

brushes. Use the load selection and mask

to turn into a selection and then modify

the selected area or inverse in many

ways (such as apply fills or effects) Great

for creating a quick frame design fromany brush

fig. Original image

fig. edit in quick mask mode etc

fig. Create different masks / selections using the

brushes in quick mask mode.


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New brushes from old

The brushes are a great source for creat-

ing a new brush. Simply open a new

document and apply a brush stroke,

perhaps apply effects or smudge or

distort the brush strokes or lighten or

darken the brush strokes. Apply multiple

brush strokes, either the same or differ-ent brushes. Use the define brush com-

mand to save the brush to the palette.

You will need to save the entire library if

you wish to permanently store the brush

(save to a new ABR file or overwrite an

existing one)

The new brush can then be used in all

the brush tools as before, such as the

paint brush tool

fig. Source brush

fig. A new possible brush created from the

brush dabs and effects

fig. Define new brush and then use

from the brushes palette as required


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PNG brush files for Paint

Shop Pro

*** Please note, not all the sets include

the PNG files

1) Open the PNG file

2) Selection menu > select all3) Go to a brush tool (such as burn or

paint)

4) Display the tool options, this will show

all the current brush

5) Click the brush palette to display all

the current brushes

6) Click the create brush tip from selec-

tion button

7) Enter all the details for the brush tip

such as the name, author, steps, vari-

ance etc.

8) Click OK. The brush has been saved to

the current brushes folder (depends on

the setup) Go to the brushes palette and

you will see a grayscale representation

of the brush. To use, click the brushfig. Open PNG file and then select

and then use the brush palette to

save the brush to the palette. The

brush files can be found via the

file > preferences > file locations.

Screenshot is with kind permission of

Corel Corporation, Paint Shop Pro isregistered trademark of Corel

Corporation


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PNG brushes (converted)

for Painter (TM)

1) Convert PNG files first to BMP or TIF

2) Open the BMP file

3) Select file

4) Go to brushes palette

5) Capture brush command6) Apply brush strokes with the new

brush dab

fig. Sphere brushes palette

fig. Painter default brushes such as erasers,

nozzles etc (screenshot with kind permission

of Corel Corporation, Painter is trademark of

Corel Corporation


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PNG brushes for Photo-

Paint TM

1) Open PNG file

2) Select a brush tool

3) Display brush settings palette

4) Select brush file

5) Go to the nib properties and selectthe first button / dropdown menu and

select the create from contents of mask

command

6) Enter the size (depends on the brush)

7) Modify properties as required

8) Apply as required.

fig. Line brush from the lines brushes

fig. Wavy line brush from the lines brushespack applied with different colors and scattering

fig. Toolbox of

Photo-Paint, access

brushes via the

paint tools.

Screenshot with

kind permission

of Corel Corporation

Photo-Paint is

trademark of

Corel Corporation


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Comments

If you have any suggestions to how we

can improve our products or manual, or

if there is something that is hard to

understand or badly stated, please

contact us and we will try to correct any

errors or misunderstandings in the next

release of the manual. It is always greatto hear your feedback. You can always

enter comments as well in the forum

comments section of the

graphicxtras.com site

fig. Greek ornament brush from the Greek

ornament brush pack, applied initially using

black foreground for shadow and then a

lighter color with the brush shifted slightly

fig. Use three colors to create a slightly

different shadow brush stroke - using

the Greek ornament brushes pack


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System requirements

Adobe Photoshop CS4 CS3 CS2 CS1 7

6 and Photoshop Elements 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

1 - Windows 98, and NT Vista, ME, XP

Vista Windows 7, & Mac OS X 10.2 10.3

10.4 10.5 10.6 (collection set)

Adobe Photoshop CS4 CS3 CS2 CS1 7and Photoshop Elements 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 -

Windows 98, and NT Vista, ME, XP Vista

Windows 7, & Mac OS X 10.2 10.3 10.4

10.5 10.6 (brushes packs)

Not sure about 64bit at the moment, I

have no system with 64bit active so all

the references above are to 32bit,

though I would imagine the brushes are

equally at home on 64bit systems as32bit ones

Mac OS earlier is not supported, but the

files should work fine on the system

(though I would suggest more OS 9 and

9.1 etc) should be ok. Please check your

system before any purchase with the

demo samplers!

Later sets (from brushes pack 11onwards - not the collection) include

PNG files relating to the ABR brush files.

Not all the brushes are included in the

PNG set (most sets, the brushes in the

ABR match the brushes in the PNG brush

files folder) Use these in Paint Shop Pro

and many others

fig. Some brushes consist of a single dab or

mark, some of the brushes are more complex

with multiple elements included in the design

Useful for creating a quick distressed or

jumbled design. Brush from the circles brush pack

fig. Some of the brushes are fairly complex tostart with, case in point being one of the strange

brushes (strange brushes pack). The 3D designs were

created using an excellent application called GroBoto


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Trademarks

The brushes were created by Andrew

Buckle and copyright 1998-2009 Andrew

Buckle and Abneil Software ltd

(depending on the set) All products

mentioned in this manual are trade-

marked or probably trademarked by

their respective owners. Illustrator and Photoshop and Adobe and After

Effects are registered trademarks of

Adobe Systems Incorporated. We have

no connection whatsoever with Adobe

Systems Incorporated.

Adobe product screen shot(s) reprinted

with permission from Adobe Systems

Incorporated.

Company contact details

Telephone: UK (44) 01622 688 375

Abneil Software ltd is a limited company

registered in Great Britain

http://www.graphicxtras.com

[email protected]

fig. Odd shapes from graphicxtras.com

strange brushes pack. Created using the

excellent 3D application, GroBoto

fig. A complex brush design created using

the GroBoto (TM) application.


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Fade brush strokes

The brush can be applied and then

faded. This can be useful if the applied

brush stroke is too intense - or if you

just wish to lessen the effect say in the

case of a blur or smudge etc. The fade is

also useful in that it offers a blending

mode fade which can be useful for spe-cial effects etc

fig. Ink brush from the ink brush pack

fig. After applying a brush stroke, you can always

fade it (do it after the brush stroke, any other

action such as new document etc will lose the

fade command)

fig. Fade command offers opacity and mode.

Useful at times.


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Actions

The brushes cannot be used with actions,

other than saving the setting as well as

define brush etc. If you wish to use the

brush dabs in actions you are out of luck.

Scripting might be more helpful and you

will need to check the scripting folders

for more information on that, and inparticular the ScriptListener plug-in. To

find out more, I would suggest checking

online.

fig. The brushes collection comes with a lot more

realistic brush strokes, the image above showing a

crayon brush stroke

fig. Pencil brush stroke from the brushes

collection from graphicxtras.com


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Displacement maps

The brushes are a good source for

displacement maps, either as a basic

PNG to PSD displacement map or use the

brushes to create a file to be saved as a

displacement map. The example below is

for a displacement map of 300 x 300 but

it could easily be 500 x 500

1) Open document 300 x 300

2) Apply brush dabs using the selected

brush and paint tool

3) Use the offset filter (part of Photo-

shop in the other menu - set to -150 and

150 (half of the size of the map)

4) More dabs (avoiding the edges)

5) Save as PSD file

6) Go to the distort menu and select theglass or displace or texturizer etc filters

The brushes can be used to create stun-

ning glass and displacement and tex-

tured designs.

fig. Create a displacement file by applying

brush dabs to a document, use offset to shift

and create more complex maps

fig. Use the map in the distort > glass filter,

go to the folder that contains the saved

displacement map (PSD files)


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Border / frame brushes

The brushes are useful as a frame

stamp. Not all brushes work well as a

frame but many can be used for this

purpose. Open an image, apply brush to

image to highlight or frame the area as

required

Another approach is to create a new

document, apply frame brush (using

black foreground) and then select the

outer area of the frame and fill with

black as well. You then have a frame

design that can be applied to any image.

Another approach is to start with a black

image and then fill with a white brush

stroke. The frame design can then be

used easily in various frame plug-ins suchas Photographic Edges from AutoF/X

fig. Create a standard frame (one for use in

a frame plugin such as Photographic Edges etc)

by using the brushes. Either select the outerarea and fill with black or start with a black

image and apply a white brush to the center

region

fig. Apply color framing element to the image


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Brush spacing

The brush dabs can be spaced, Setting

the spacing to 2% etc and the generated

brush is a nearly a continuous line;

spacing at 25% and you can see more of

the structure of the brush; at 100%,

depending on the brush, the brush will

join from one dab to the next (great forline themed patterns as shown to the

right)

Setting the rotation etc will change the

result.

There appears to be no pressure sensi-

tivity to the brush spacing which would

be useful. Spacing can be disabled which

creates an interesting effect in itself.

fig. Spacing for the brush 25%

fig. Spacing set to 100%

fig. Spacing set to 8%

fig. Spacing has been disabled,

creating brush dabs with minimal

spacing one after another but not

as a continuous line (great for distressed

effects)


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Brushes / path

The current brush stroke can be applied

to a path.

1) Select brush

2) Set brush settings

3) Draw path

4) Go to the path palette5) Right menu

6) Stroke path

7) Set the required brush tool

8) OK

The brush is applied to the current path

fig. Once you have created a path, you can stroke

the path with the current brush / brush tool

fig. Embellish brush applied to a circle


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Brushes and basic anima-

tion

You can also animate the brushes by

applying a brush stroke to a new layer,

another to a new layer and so (shifting

the brush with each layer) and then

using the animations palette makeframes from layers command.

1) Select brush, settings etc (perhaps

scattering settings to create a random-

ized brush stroke, along with color

settings)

2) Create brush stroke on layer

3) Layer > new layer

4) Create new brush stroke

5) New layer

6) Go to the animation palette

7) Make frames from layers

fig. Embellish brush used in animation

fig. Use the layer palette to add brush strokes,

shifting or scattering (or changing color etc) and

then go to the animation palette and make

frames from layers command. Will not win anaward for the greatest animation ever but

can be used to create interesting backgrounds,

brush characters etc


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Brush and palette fade

The brush size can be made to fade away

rapidly or slowly via the controls entry for

fade. Other options for angle can modify the

angle of the brush stroke.

fig. Original line brush from

lines brushes pack

fig. Set the fade via the shape dynamics

panel, 50 for a reasonably quick fade

fig. Fade of 10, fairly rapid fade away


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Frames from brushes

The brush can be used as a frame but

the brushes can be used to create a

frame or border layer.

1) Create a layer

2) Apply brush stroke around the edges

of the layer3) Apply styles / layer effects if required

to add a shadow or bevel

fig. Brush applied to a layer

to create a frame, a drop

shadow is applied via the

layer effects

fig. Another line brush used

to create a basic frame for a

design

fig. Brush from the lines brushes pack is used,

this one combines black brush strokes and gray

brush strokes to create a slightly more interesting frame


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Brushes / 3D (Extended)

1) Create new layer

2) Select brush tool

3) Apply brush dab

4) 3D > New 3D postcard from layer

5) Go to the 3D tools on the toolbox and

select 3D rotate

6) Rotate the brush dab in 3D

fig. Source brush dab

before rotation (brush from the

tangled brush pack)

fig. Brush dab has been rotated in 3D

after conversion into 3D postcardand the rotation tool has been applied


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New 3D shape from brush

dab (Extended)

1) Create new layer

2) Select brush tool

3) Apply brush dab or multiple dabs

4) 3D > New shape from layer > sphere

(could easily have been a cylinder etc)

The brush is now the surface of the 3D

sphere and can be rotated in 3D using

the 3D rotate etc tools

fig. Original brush dab (from a rosettes brushes

pack) before 3D conversion

fig. The brush dab is now the surface of a

sphere and the sphere can be rotated etc

using the 3D tools (in Photoshop Extended) Thebrush dab can also have other tools applied

such as smudge etc to blur / smudge the

design as required


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Create 3D mesh using brush

(Extended)

1) Create new layer

2) Apply brush stroke

3) 3D > New mesh from grayscale > Plane

(or sphere etc)

Creates a 3D mesh for possible export to

another application. The mesh can be

rotated etc using the 3D tools.

fig. original brush dab from the

rosettes pack

fig. 3D menu (Extended only)

fig, 3D mesh after a slight rotation in 3D using the

3D rotate tools


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Create a new brush

Most of the brushes created for the

graphicxtras.com either start out on

Illustrator or as custom shapes designs in

Photoshop followed by a define brush (on

Photoshop 6 for maximum support).

Perhaps a mistake, perhaps the lowest

should now be a brush preset for CS2 say.I dont know, one day I will just change

and drop 6 and 7 and CS versions. Means

I will be able to go for 2500 x 2500 etc

files. Anyway, a quick note how to create

a basic brush.

1) Create a new document

2) Select the custom shape tool

3) For something simple, select the

ellipse tool and just create dots.4) Set the color to black (or gray) -

colors are not important when it comes

to brushes, just the grays.

5) Create a design, avoid touching the

edges of the document

6) Set settings such as scatter etc if

required

7) Edit > define brush

fig. A basic brush

dab created using

custom shapes

fig. Brush applied with 9% spacing

fig. Brush applied with 58% spacing

fig. Roundness 20% Angle 135%

fig. Background jitter 40%

fig. Size fade 10

fig. Opacity fade 25


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Examples of brushes

The following section shows an example

of the brushes included in the brushes

packs from graphicxtras.com. Many

different types of brushes are available

such as stars, embellishment, grids,

hearts and more. The samples are small

compared with the full size of thebrushes (600x600 etc), also the sets

often contain many different items

including bonus material such as EPS

designs and more.

The brushes can be colored (the

examples here are generally just using

the black foreground but you can use any

color, or apply on a layer and use a layer

effect as the brush material such as agradient or pattern). Literally millions of

possible designs are possible,

fig. Wavy brush pack example

fig. Additional wavy brush design example


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fig. Examples of brushes from radial

brushes pack


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fig. Selection of brushes from the

ink brushes pack


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fig. Distress brushes from the

distress brushes pack


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fig. Flames brushes from the

flames pack


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fig. Sphere brushes from

3D spheres brushes pack


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brushes collection. The brushes

collection includes 10,000 unique

brushes. Not the same as the brushes

packs which came later. The brushes

collection also includes more realistic

(pencil, marker etc designs)


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Documents

PSBrushesManual