Apr

Having problems finding my downloaded brushes for photoshop?

Riddles

brushes, downloaded, finding, having, photoshop, problems

Question by Camra: Having problems finding my downloaded brushes for photoshop?
I cant find my brushes once i download them. I may not be doing it right tho. lol. where can i find them once i download them? I have photoshop element 7.0 and i also dont know how to get them on to photoshop. sorry im new at all this. x] i would really love your help. thanks

Best answer:

Answer by Mujer Alta
The easiest thing to do is to download another set of brushes but this time when the little window about opening or saving pops up, click on Save and then in the Save Window that opens, click on the little arrow on the right side of the top box (Save In) and put the file somewhere you can find it, like the Desktop. But before you change it to Desktop, make a note of what it says when it first opens. This is where the brush sets were originally saved.

Getting brushes into Elements is not hard but how it’s done depends on what version of Windows you have (XP, Vista or W7). First, unzip the downloaded folder by right clicking on it and clicking on Extract All. In the window that opens just click the Extract button at the bottom and the unzipped folder will appear in the same location as the zipped folder. So if the zipped folder is on the Desktop, the unzipped folder will be somewhere on the desktop, too. In general, you want to use Windows Explorer (Start>Accessories>Windows Explorer). In Vista, usually Documents opens. Windows Explorer is the listing of folders, etc. over on the left side. Scroll up to Desktop and click on it. The content of the Desktop now appears in the big area of the window. Find and open the unzipped brush folder, right-click on the blue and white abr file and click copy. Back over in Windows Explorer, scroll down to Computer and click the + to show its folders. Click the + next to C:. Scroll down to Program Files and click its +. Scroll down to Adobe and click its +. Click the + next to Photoshop Elements 7.0. Scroll down and click the + next to Presets then click on the Brushes folder to open it. The contents of the Brush Folder will display in the large area of the window. Right click in an empty white space (be sure that none of the other folders/files highlights), click on Paste and your brush’s abr file should appear. You can close the window. Your brush set will appear in the dropdown list of the Brush Selector the next time you launch Elements and click the Paintbrush Tool.

All this clicking +’s and scrolling down is only a confusing pain the first couple of times you do it. By the third or fourth time it makes sense and seems easy.

Sometimes you select a specialty brush but you’d like to turn it a little. With Elements open, click the Paintbrush Tool. Up in the Options Bar above the workspace, over on the right side there’s an airbrush icon, a little arrow and a nice picture of a brush. Click on the picture of the brush and the Brush controls will appear. At the bottom is a circle with a couple of lines across it. One line will have a tiny dot on it where it meets the circle. You can click and hold on this dot and drag it into the circle and out again. This makes the brush narrower or wider. Click and hold on the arrowhead and drag it around the circle to change the orientation of the brush. Above the circle is the softness/hardness slider which can also be useful. Open a blank, white file, select the Paintbrush and play with some of these controls. Before you leave the Paintbrush tool remember to reset the brush back to its normal settings…. over on the left side of the Options Bar is another little arrow. Click on it and click Reset This Brush.

I have to warn you though, brushes (and plugins and shapes and textures, etc.) are very, VERY addicting;-)