Brush Tool Presets

The Brush tool in Photoshop ships with several libraries of presets (also referred to as sets) that you can use when retouching print images. In addition, you can customize these presets and even create your own. For example, if there is a particular group of brush settings that you like to use when retouching headshots or any photograph of a person’s face, you can base your brush on an existing preset and save it as a new preset. Doing so means that you have to click only once to restore your custom settings. This can be a huge time-saver, especially considering how many options there are in Photoshop’s detailed brush engine.

There are two locations within the Photoshop interface where you can select brush presets. With the Brush tool selected, you can access presets by doing either of the following:
- Click the Brush Presets button in the Options palette to reveal a drop-down menu known as the Brush Presets Picker.
- Choose Window --> Brushes to display the Brushes palette, or click the Brushes palette toggle button in the Options palette. At the top-left of the dialog box, click Brush Presets to display the currently selected preset menu in the palette.

There’s really no benefit to using one preset location over the other. I prefer working exclusively with the Brushes palette, because all the available brush settings are there along with the presets. This makes editing brushes based on presets much quicker and easier to manage. By default, the preset menu in both locations displays the default set of brushes in a list with a thumbnail sample. With tool tips enabled in Photoshop’s preferences, hovering the mouse over each thumbnail in the menu reveals the brush preset name. In the Brushes palette only, you can click any thumbnail in the list to view a sample stroke at the bottom of the dialog box. To view more thumbnails at a time, you must resize the menu window or palette by clicking and dragging the bottom-right corner.

To change the way the brush presets are displayed, click the menu button to reveal the dropdown menu. Here you can choose to display the brush presets in small or large thumbnails, in small or large list view, as a stroke thumbnail, or as text only. In both locations, the flyout menu (accessible by clicking the arrow in the upper right of the Brush Presets Picker or the palette menu button in the Brushes palette) lets you select which of Photoshop’s available brush presets to display. Photoshop gives you the option to replace the current set with a new one or append the set, adding new presets to the list. Each new set you select is displayed in the menu list until you replace it or append it with another selection.

You can delete a selected brush by Control+clicking (Mac) or right-clicking with a two-button mouse and choosing Delete Brush from the pop-up menu. After clicking OK in the warning dialog box that appears, Photoshop removes the brush from the library list immediately. To save changes made to a library, choose Save Brushes from the flyout menu (or from the warning dialog described previously when resetting). Photoshop then displays the Save dialog box, where you can name the new library. If you choose  not to save and proceed to apply the Reset Brushes command, all changes you’ve made to the brush presets will be lost. To restore deleted brushes to the library, choose Reset Brushes from the Brushes palette flyout menu. When resetting, a warning dialog box appears, asking whether you’d like to display the default brush library set, or add it to the currently displayed list of brushes by clicking Append. To commit to the change, click OK. Photoshop will then ask whether you’d like to save the changes you’ve made to the current library before resetting.

The Preset Manager
Photoshop contains presets for gradients, brushes, patterns, swatches, styles, contours, custom shapes, and tools. You can access these presets through related palettes, such as the Brushes or Swatches palettes, or the Tool preset menu in the Options palette.  You can add to or customize any of these sets all at once by using the Preset Manager. The Preset Manager dialog box is accessible under the Edit menu, or from the flyout menu of any related palette. At the top of the dialog, choose a category from the Preset Type menu. By default, the Preset Manager displays the chosen set for all preset types in Small Thumbnail view. With tool tips enabled, hovering over each thumbnail in the menu reveals the preset name. To change the way the presets are displayed, click the  palette menu button to reveal the flyout window and choose a different view option (these vary depending on which preset type is selected). You can resize the dialog by clicking and dragging the bottom-right corner of the window. You can select a preset by clicking a thumbnail in the list. Shift+click to select multiple, contiguous presets; or F/Ctrl+click to select multiple, noncontiguous presets. You can rename selected presets by clicking the Rename button, or delete them by clicking the Delete button. The Preset Manager also allows you to save, load, and reset libraries. You can access any of these options from the flyout menu, just as you would from any palette that displays presets.