Adobe Photoshop CS6 Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks by Lynette Kent

DESIGN A CUSTOM BRUSH with your settings
Many of the tools in Photoshop have modifiable brush
options, and whether you retouch photographs,
design brochures, or paint from scratch, you often
need to vary the shape, size, and hardness of the
brushes to fit your project.
The Brush picker includes a variety of brushes you can
select from a menu. You can also modify the attributes
of any of these preset brushes and save the modified
brush as your own custom brush preset so that you
can readily use it for your next design. You can name
and save any number of custom brushes as presets.
Many other tools also have modifiable brush options,
including the Pencil tool, the Eraser tool, the Clone
Stamp tool, the Pattern Stamp tool, the History
Brush, the Art History Brush, the Blur tool, the
Sharpen tool, the Smudge tool, the Dodge tool, the
Burn tool, and the Sponge tool.
Customizing tools for your projects and saving your
presets can save time for repetitive tasks and also
open up more creative possibilities for your drawing,
painting, and retouching.
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1 With a new blank document open, click
the Brush tool.
A You can optionally select different
foreground colors for comparing the
different brush strokes.
2 Click the Brush Panel Toggle button in
the Options bar.
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3
The Brush panel opens and the controls
for the brush tip shape are visible.
3 Click a Bristle tip brush preset to modify
into a custom brush.
A
4 Click and drag in the image to see the
brush stroke.
Note: If you are using a Wacom tablet and
stylus, the brush preview shows the brush
angle as you angle the stylus.
5 Click and drag any of the sliders to
change the size and look.
Note: To set any of the Control drop-down
menus to Pen Pressure, such as the
settings options under Shape Dynamics,
you must have a pen tablet connected
(see task #15).
B You can click the Shape drop-down
menu and select a different shape.
C The Brush preview window displays the
changed brushstroke.
6 Click and drag in the open document to
test the brush effect.
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6
5
B
C
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