Brushes Palette (Part 1 of 5)
The key to using Photoshop's new painting engine is the new,
high-powered Brushes palette. Let's take a look at the basic
workings of the palette.
When the Expanded view is selected in the
palette menu, you see the Brushes palette in all its glory.
(If the palette is grayed out, press B on the keyboard to
activate the Brush tool. The palette is available when any
brush-using tool is active.)
Without the Expanded View, the Brushes
palette is similar to the older Brushes palette, where you
simply chose a brush. (This, by the way, is also the view
you'll see when accessing the palette from the left end of
the Options Bar.)
The Brushes palette is similar to the Layer
Style dialog box - you can check a box on the far left to
apply the current values of an option without seeing them,
or you can click on the name in the left column to open the
particular pane of the brushes palette.
The top entry in the left column, Brush
Presets, shows you the available brushes. Once you have
selected a brush, you can adjust its size using the Master
Diameter slider in the Brush Presets pane. You can also move
to other panes of the Brushes palette to modify the brush's
appearance and behavior.
To change the content of the Brush Presets,
use the palette menu commands Reset Brushes (restore the
default set as specified in Preset Manager), Load Brushes
(add to or replace the content of the palette), Save Brushes
(create a set that can be loaded at another time), Replace
Brushes (delete the current content and add a different set
of brushes). The Brush Presets pane is the only one in which
these menu commands are active. You can delete and rename
individual brushes using the palette menu.
While most of the menu commands are
straight-forward, a few require additional clarification.
EXPANDED VIEW: The default Expanded View
mode for the Brushes palette, seen earlier in this section,
enables you to customize brushes using all of the brush
options. If you have already created all the brushes you'll
need and selected their options, you can simplify the
palette by deselecting this option from the menu. You select
a pre-set brush by clicking on it. Double-clicking enables
you to change the brush's name. The content of the palette
can be changed using the palette's menu, but in the
simplified view, the brushes themselves cannot be edited.
CLEAR BRUSH CONTROLS: This command deselects
all of the user-definable settings for the selected brush.
The brush reverts to the basic brush tip shape, using the
Angle, Roundness, Hardness, and Spacing settings with which
it was originally defined.
Note: Clearing the controls does not
permanently change the brush, but you can clear the controls
and then use the New Brush command to save the changes.
COPY TEXTURE TO OTHER TOOLS: When you
painstakingly prepare a texture for a specific brush, you
can use the New Brush command to save your work. However, if
you quickly whip up a texture for a little touch-up to an
image, you may want to simply use the Copy Texture to Other
Tools command to make that texture available for the editing
job at hand. For example, if you match the grain of an image
for the Burn tool, rather than going through the process
again for the Dodge tool, you can use this command. The
tools to which the texture will be matched are Brush,
Pencil, Eraser, Clone Stamp, Pattern Stamp, History Brush,
Art History Brush, Dodge, Burn, and Sponge.
Note: Copying a custom texture doesn't apply
it to the other tools, but rather makes it available to the
tools. If you change tools, you might still need to open the
Brushes palette and check the Texture box to activate your
custom texture.
PRESET MANAGER: This command opens the
Preset Manager, which enables you to customize the content
of the Brushes palette. You can also open the Preset Manager
through the Edit menu. Customizing the Brushes palette can
streamline the search for the appropriate brush. Remember,
too, that you can save sets of brushes that can be loaded
through the Brushes palette menu or selected as the default
in the Preset Manager.
In the following columns, we'll look
at the individual panes of the Brushes palette, what they
have to offer, and how to apply their options.
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