How to Use Photoshop Brushes
Learn the brush tip settings., Learn your way around the Preset Picker Contextual Menu.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Learn the brush tip settings.
This is the most basic option for any Photoshop User; the Brush Tip settings allow us to modify the way to add colors on a Photoshop document using the Brush Tool.
Click on the Brush Preset Picker in the default Options Panel and see several built-in presets.
On many of the presets you can easily adjust two very important values:
Master Diameter increases or decreases the size of the brush tip.
The default shortcuts to increase or decrease are the Left Bracket key and the Right Bracket key respectively.
Hardness increases or decreases the brush tip’s border strength, 0% means a really soft border (color fades out) and 100% a precise border.
The shortcuts to increase or decrease hardness percentage are the Left Bracket key and the Right Bracket key respectively.
You can even combine Foreground and Background colors.
Most of the time the color that is applied by using the brush tip is the Foreground Color. -
Step 2: Learn your way around the Preset Picker Contextual Menu.
There are many useful tools at the Brush Preset Picker menu including Create a New Preset, Edit it, and Delete.
Then there are some options to display the list of brushes in the Preset Picker panel.
Besides, you can easily Manage the Brush list by loading, saving and replacing brushes in the list, or Append one of the existing Brush collections.
Detailed Guide
This is the most basic option for any Photoshop User; the Brush Tip settings allow us to modify the way to add colors on a Photoshop document using the Brush Tool.
Click on the Brush Preset Picker in the default Options Panel and see several built-in presets.
On many of the presets you can easily adjust two very important values:
Master Diameter increases or decreases the size of the brush tip.
The default shortcuts to increase or decrease are the Left Bracket key and the Right Bracket key respectively.
Hardness increases or decreases the brush tip’s border strength, 0% means a really soft border (color fades out) and 100% a precise border.
The shortcuts to increase or decrease hardness percentage are the Left Bracket key and the Right Bracket key respectively.
You can even combine Foreground and Background colors.
Most of the time the color that is applied by using the brush tip is the Foreground Color.
There are many useful tools at the Brush Preset Picker menu including Create a New Preset, Edit it, and Delete.
Then there are some options to display the list of brushes in the Preset Picker panel.
Besides, you can easily Manage the Brush list by loading, saving and replacing brushes in the list, or Append one of the existing Brush collections.
About the Author
Joshua Knight
Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow home improvement tutorials.
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