Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Installing New Brushes

You’re not alone when it comes to creating new brushes. Folks love sharing their creations, and once they’ve made a really cool brush, they’re usually happy to share it with the masses. That’s why all manner of free brushes are available on the Web.

One of the best resources is the Adobe Studio Exchange website. Going to www.lesa.in/custompsbrushes leads you straight to the Brushes category, though you can use the list on the right side of that web page to find all manner of actions, custom shapes, gradients, and so on there, too. You can even download a brush set that’ll make your image look like it was printed on torn paper as shown in Figure 13-33. Once you’ve downloaded the brush set to your hard drive, head to the Options bar and choose Load Brushes from the Brush Preset picker’s menu (see Figure 13-21)—or choose it from the Brush Preset panel’s menu instead—and then navigate to where the brush set lives (look for a file whose name ends in “.abr,” such as Paper_Damage.abr) and then click Load (you can also double-click the .abr file on your hard drive and Photoshop will put it in the right spot). The new brushes appear in the Brush Preset picker, ready for you to use.

Tip

In Photohop CC, you can access the Adobe Studio Exchange website by choosing Window→Extensions→Adobe Exchange. This handy new panel lets you browse, purchase, and install all kinds of brushes, actions, plug-ins, and so on from within Photoshop!

The streaks shown in Figure 13-33 (bottom) ...