Defining a Brush Preset

Photoshop allows you not only to create custom brushes by altering settings from the default preset brushes, but also to define a brush preset based on a scanned-in texture, a shape imported from Adobe Illustrator, or a paint daub created in another application, such as Corel Painter. This is a great feature for fine artists and illustrators, but how can print designers and production artists make use of it?

Lock Brush Settings
By clicking any of the lock icons located next to the setting names in the Brushes palette, you are telling Photoshop to apply those settings to any brush preset you choose. This can be especially helpful when creating sets of brushes with similar characteristics. The lock feature can also be useful when applying brushstrokes that use the same Control menu options, such as stylus Pen Pressure Control. To unlock all locked brush settings at once, choose Reset All Locked Settings from the Brushes palette menu.

One of my favorite uses for the Define Brush Preset command is to create textured brushes that can be used to produce custom frame effects. Before you can define a brush preset, you first need to create a paint daub. There are several ways to do this:
- Import a custom shape from Adobe Illustrator.
- Create a custom shape layer by using the Pen tool or the Freeform Pen tool (you can also edit a shape layer created with one of the default shape tools).
- Import a natural media texture by scanning it into Photoshop (some examples are paint daubs made with oil, watercolor, charcoal, or any other natural art media).
- Create a paint daub by using any of the brushes in Corel Painter and save it as a PSD file.
- With one of the marquee selection tools, select an image area that you’d like to sample.

Note that Photoshop automatically saves the sampled image as grayscale. Also, because we’re dealing with pixels, resolution is a factor when resizing the brush, so be careful not to make it too large. After you’ve determined the custom texture, shape, or sampled image that you’d like to define as a brush, use the Rectangular or Elliptical Marquee tool to select it and choose Edit --> Define Brush Preset. In the Brush Name dialog box that appears, enter a descriptive name for the brush. The more descriptive the name, the easier it will be to identify the brush later. After the brush is defined, you can use the Brushes palette to alter the settings as needed. I like to use the Scattering, Noise, Wet Edges, and Pen Pressure control options to create eye-catching frame effects. These types of frame effects can add a creative flair to the images when placed in a print layout. If you like the brush settings you’ve used to create the frame effect, you can always save them as a new brush preset.

Saving a Brush Preset
After you’ve created a custom brush with the Brushes palette, you can save the settings as a preset. Doing so allows you to restore the brush settings whenever you’d like to use them again. To save your custom settings as a preset, choose New Brush Preset from the Brushes palette or Presets Picker flyout menu. In the dialog box that appears, enter a name for the brush and click OK.

The new brush is added to the bottom of the thumbnail list for the library that is currently visible in the Brushes palette and Options palette Brush Presets Picker. To save your brush library, choose Save Brushes from the flyout menu. Photoshop then displays the Save dialog box, where you can name the new library. The default file location on your system for custom brush presets is in these folders:
Mac: Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Brushes
Windows: Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop CS3/Presets/Brushes
If you choose not to save the library and then apply the Reset Brushes command, or load another library without appending, then all changes you’ve made to the library will be lost.

Renaming Brushes
If you don’t like the names that Photoshop has given the preset brushes, or if you’d like to rename one of your own custom brush presets to something more descriptive (for example, custom sponge 1 as opposed to brush 1, or my brush), you can rename a selected brush by Control+clicking (Mac) or right-clicking with a two-button mouse and choosing Rename Brush from the pop-up menu. Enter a new name in the Brush Name dialog box that appears and click OK.