Brushes: How to Use

For this example, you will see how to download and install the Butterfly Stencil Brushes Set 3. Download the brushes and unzip them to a place where you can find them later. Unzip the *.zip file using a program like WinRar, Winzip or Windows Zip.

 

 

 

First Method (Temporary)

To quickly use your newly downloaded brushes, you can use this first method.

After downloading and extracting the *.abr (Photoshop Brush) file, open up Photoshop and select your brush tool.

 

 

 

 

Click on the arrow, next to the thumbnail of your current brush on the top bar. You will see a drop down menu with thumnail’s or a list of the brushes that you currently have loaded in Photoshop.

 

 

 

 

In that drop down menu, at the top right hand corner you will see another small arrow, click that and then find where it says “Load brushes”. (You can also use Replace Brushes which will replace the currently installed brushes with the new ones. To get the default ones back, click Reset Brushes)

 

 

 

 

Click and then locate the newly downloaded sets of brushes or the brushes you want to use on your computer with the window provided and then click “Load”. Your brushes should be loaded into your current palette of brushes.

 

 

 

 

In the previous drop down menu (with the thumbnails of your brushes) scroll down to the very bottom and you should see the new brushes. When you close Photoshop, you will lose these changes. To make them more permanent, use the second method.

 

 

 

 

Second Method (More Permanent)

This second method is a more permanent approach to installing and using your brushes.

• Locate the brushes that you have downloaded.
• Find “My Computer” and locate to your “Program files” folder (where you installed Adobe Photoshop).
• Click the “Presets” folder and find the “Brushes” folder.
• Then move (click-drag) your new brushes into that folder.
• Then, (following the above method of loading brushes), locate your brushes from within the “brushes” folder and then click “Load”.
• You may have to restart Photoshop to get them to appear in the brushes list.