Brushes and PSE

[AK_Tracy]

Hello Everyone.
I bought PSE last April 2023. This was all new to me then. Well okay still is mostly new to me. I have been branching out to brushes and what they can do I watched some videos and I see that in PS you can have your brushes in the program but for PSE I have to load the brush one at a time. This is time consuming and annoying. Is there a better way to store/load brushes I dont know about? What am I missing? Is this how PSE does things? One brush at a time? If that's the case how do you organize your brushes? Right now they are just in the kit they came with and searching a brush is a pain in the butt. I know I have brushes that I haven't used because I cant find them or I don't know what they are, its just a brush icon LOL. Hope this makes sense. I need to know
1. Does PSE allow more then one brush? (Beside the pre set ones)
2. How do you organize the brushes?
3. Can you add an image to brush icon like you do folders?
Thanks so much for the help!

 

[Vicki Robinson]

Hi there! I’m out the office for a couple of days and I’ll try to answer your questions when I return - are you on a Mac or PC?

in the meantime, I have a blog post on how to install brushes - there’s a video there too. Let me know if you have any questions about it.

Loading Brushes into Photoshop Elements | Vicki Robinson Designs

Load Brushes into Photoshop Elements temporarily, or install them for access whenever you need them.

vicki-robinson.com

 

[AK_Tracy]

Hi there! I’m out the office for a couple of days and I’ll try to answer your questions when I return - are you on a Mac or PC?

in the meantime, I have a blog post on how to install brushes - there’s a video there too. Let me know if you have any questions about it.

Loading Brushes into Photoshop Elements | Vicki Robinson Designs

Load Brushes into Photoshop Elements temporarily, or install them for access whenever you need them.

vicki-robinson.com

Thank you! I am a Mac. Will go check out the blog. thank you.

 

[AK_Tracy]

Thank you Vicki!!!!! @Vicki Robinson
This is wonderful!!!! Worked like a charm and I cant wait to add the brushes I use. This was just what I needed. Thank you!!!!!

 

[wombat146]

Thank you Vicki!!!!! @Vicki Robinson
This is wonderful!!!! Worked like a charm and I cant wait to add the brushes I use. This was just what I needed. Thank you!!!!!

yay!!! Vicki is our PSE guru so I thrilled that you worked out how to add your brushes Miss Kitty!! Looking forward to seeing all your layouts with you using those brushes....................... adn there are ton of them for free on the internet too!! not that I am a brush addict, just sayin'

 

[AZK]

When I download brushes as part of a kit I move the abr files into a special folder on my hard drive. That way when I go to load a set of brushes, I can go right to that folder. I do the same thing with actions and styles-they all live in their own folders and I load them as I need them.

A long time ago I downloaded a free program called abrMate that you could use to organize your brushes. The main thing I use it for is to create a preview of all the brushes in a set- I keep those previews in a subfolder of the folder that holds the brushes, so I can browse for a brush that I might want to use. It's not ideal but I didn't always save the brush preview that might have been in the download:

 

[AK_Tracy]

Oh no! @wombat146 dont say those magic words Ona! not free online!!!!!! Here I go, jumping down the rabbit hole of brushes!!!! I just discovered what they will do and you already tempt me with more. (good job and thank you)

@AZK Angie, that program sounds like a good one too and would make it easier to see what the brushes have in each folder.

Thank you for the help.

 

[Vicki Robinson]

Thank you Vicki!!!!! @Vicki Robinson
This is wonderful!!!! Worked like a charm and I cant wait to add the brushes I use. This was just what I needed. Thank you!!!!!

Oh I'm so glad! I'm also a Mac girl and I'm back at my desk, so let me add:

The abrmate application Angie ( @AZK ) mentions is a Windows only application. Unfortunately, the very few similar apps that existed for Mac have either disappeared or are no longer being updated and (as far as I have tested) don't work with any of the last several years of Mac OS updates.

Yes, you can attach an image to the .abr file, just the same way as you do with kit folders. In fact that's what I do and I also do it for my Styles (.asl) files and my Pattern (.pat) files. If you - or anyone on a Mac needs help on how to do this, I've got two methods in this blog post. You can use the brush preview that came with the product if the brushes are displayed so that you can see each individual brush tip. If there are so many brushes in the pack that it was not feasible for the preview to show each one, you can take a screenshot of the Finder window that has all of the matching PNGs that go with the .abr file — if they were included of course — and then use THAT screenshot as your .abr image, and also keep a copy in with the folder with the brushes so you have it.

It's pretty unusual, but if the designer did not provide matching PNGs, you can create them yourself. Open a new 12x12 document with a transparent background. Stamp down the first brush in the set (in black is best), then crop away the excess space, and from the main menu choose File>Save As ... Navigate to where you want to save (the same folder than had the .abr file) and then give it a name (I use the same name as the .abr file and add -01, 02, etc). In the Format box, choose PNG and click Save. Once you've got all the PNGs saved you can then screenshot that Finder screen as I mention above. If anyone would like a tutorial on this, just reply comment below. The process of making the PNGS is the same on a PC, so the tutorial should help anyone wanting to do this.​

As to organizing brushes, you can't really organize them within PSE, but as to your files, I think it's something every scrapper should think about in terms of how they like to scrap — which is the same advice I give about organizing your digital stash.

For example, some people like to keep everything that comes with a kit in one folder, including brushes, because they don't tend to mix bits from other kits/or designers on one page.​

Others, like Angie said she does, move things like brushes to separate folders because they love to mix and match. Within a "main" brush folder, you could just have all the .abr files together or you could have subfolders by designer or even brush style.​

​

As I am a designer, I keep all of my "commercial" use brushes in folders according to the type/style of brush. For example, I have a folder for watercolor, distressing, paint strokes, texturing, etc.​

One of the coolest things about the Mac Finder is that you can easily add "tags" to any file and then add those tags to the Finder side bar. I have tagged my brushes and it's easy for me to go directly to the kinds of brushes I want use — in this case the brushes I sell and use myself. If any Mac person would like a tutorial on this just comment below and I'll add it to my list. I think there's probably a way "tag" then search for files on PC's too.



I hope I've answered most of your questions, @AK_Tracy

 

[AK_Tracy]

I hope I've answered most of your questions, @AK_Tracy

Oh Vicki I love you!!!!!!! This has been exactly what I needed!!!! Thank you so very much. I am so excited now to finish setting up and organizing. I have a folder that is full of all kits (a folder of folders) and they aren't mixed up and I have folders of like items, like flowers are all in a folder. So I probably have 3 copies of every item in every way I can sort them Now I can add photos to the brushes and sort them in one folder and and and
OH THANK YOU!

I have book marked the blog so I can look around some more and see what else I need to know!

 

[Vicki Robinson]

Oh Vicki I love you!!!!!!! This has been exactly what I needed!!!! Thank you so very much. I am so excited now to finish setting up and organizing. I have a folder that is full of all kits (a folder of folders) and they aren't mixed up and I have folders of like items, like flowers are all in a folder. So I probably have 3 copies of every item in every way I can sort them Now I can add photos to the brushes and sort them in one folder and and and
OH THANK YOU!

I have book marked the blog so I can look around some more and see what else I need to know!

You're too cute! So happy I could help! And btw, if you end up using tags, you can assign multiple tags to one file, making it an even more useful feature!