Creating Your Own Brush Preset in Photoshop

Although you can apply any of the options listed in the preceding section to existing brushes, you’ll find these parameters most useful when creating your own brush. To create a brush, follow these steps:

1. Click the Create New Brush icon at the bottom of the Brushes palette, or choose New Brush Preset from the palette pop-up menu.

2. Enter a name for the brush in the dialog box that opens.

3. With Brush Tip Shape selected, set the shape and angle of your brush in the Brushes palette.
- Use the slider to set a diameter for the brush, or enter a diameter in the text box.
- Specify an angle for the brush. Enter an angle in the text box, or drag the handles in the preview window to customize the brush angle.
- Adjust the roundness of the brush. You can use the Roundness text box to specify an exact ratio, or drag the handles in the preview box to custom-shape the brush.

4. Use the Hardness slider to adjust the fuzziness of the brush, from 0 percent (pretty fuzzy) to 100 percent (hardedged).

5. Use the Spacing slider to insert a gap between strokes as you draw (producing a dotted-line effect).
At 1 percent, Photoshop draws a solid line; as you move the slider to the right, you insert more space between short strokes, up to 1,000 percent (10X) of the diameter of the brush tip. You can activate/deactivate this feature by selecting the Spacing option box.

6. Choose other brush characteristics by selecting one or more of the following:
- Shape Dynamics
- Scattering
- Texture
- Dual Brush
- Color Dynamics
- Other Dynamics

7. Finish up with some brush tip options. There are no controls for these parameters; you can toggle them on or off:
- Noise
- Wet Edges
- Airbrush
- Smoothing
- Protect Texture