Brush Lesson – A Bit about Brushes and File Locations

Brush Lesson – A Bit about Brushes and File Locations
By: didasko

In this lesson we will be learning how to set up your file locations so your brushes will be saved to a specific folder, which will enable you to find your brushes easily once you’ve saved them. And, we will learn a bit about brushes.

First…brushes are stamps. When you stamp a brush to your image, the black parts of the brush will stamp the full color/gradient or pattern you have chosen. The white part of the brush will be transparent…no color. If there are any gray areas on your brush those areas will have some color but will have varying degrees of transparency depending on how light or dark the gray is.

Second…in psp 9, brushes will save as two files you need both files to use your brushes.
· One file will be--.pspbrush—that will be the file that you will see when you browse to your brush folder and look at the brush. That is also the file you will need to import a brush into your psp brush folder. When you wish to share your brushes, this is the file you must share. Your recipient[s] need this brush to import your brush into their psp.
· The second file will be--.pspscript – it is a brush script and will also be stored in your brush folder. It is the file psp creates to ‘see’ your brush, and to add any presets that were applied when the brush was created. When you import a brush into psp, psp will create the .pspscript file for your brush.

First, we are going to create a new folder.
Close PSP--Open Windows Explorer.
Go to -- c:\my documents\my psp files\brushes
Create a new folder in your brush folder…name it something like--new brushes--mine is named brush scripts newly added.


Now, let’s find out where your brushes are being saved.
Open psp
File>preferences>file locations
The file location window opens

On the left side – Highlight brushes
On the right side:
Brush File Folders:
· These are the paths to the folders that psp is recognizing as folders where your brushes are located.
Folder options:
· Make sure both boxes are checked
Save to:
· Whatever pathway is displayed in this window…that is the folder where your brushes are being saved.
· If you hit the arrow on the right…it will open a drop down window and you will see paths to all of your folders [including subfolders] that psp is recognizing as folders where brushes are located and possible locations where brushes can be saved.

Now, we want to make sure all of the brushes you save henceforth are saved in the new brush folder you just created. If you put it where I directed you, it should be a subfolder of your c:\my documents\my psp files\brushes folder. So it should be in the pathway list in the save to drop down menu. Find it…and click on it. That should put the pathway to your new folder in the save to window…click ok. Now, all brushes you make or import should save to that folder.

Now, we are going to create more subfolders in your brush folder. Look up at my screenie again..of my brush scripts newly added. See how my new brush folder is one of the many subfolders i have in my brush folder? Think about the brushes you have and the brushes you would like. Click inside your [size=130]main brush folder[/size] [not the new folder you just created}, add new folders and name your new sub folders accordingly. DO NOT MAKE THEM SUBFOLDERS OF THE NEW FOLDER YOU JUST CREATED. Remember also that these sub folders give you an added bonus in PSP 9 ... each sub folder becomes a "Category" in your Brush Dropdown dialog box, which makes it easier to select a particular brush, without having to scroll through every brush in your Brushes Folder.
Just to give you some ideas, here are some of the names of my brush folders.
Flowers
Ginny brushes
Grunge
Kris brushes
LK brushes
Shapes
Text

What is the purpose of creating all of these folders after you’ve already created the new brushes folder? At some point you will probably start collecting brushes. And, the best way to deal with all of those brushes…import them into your new brush folder and then, when you wish…you can then drag and drop the .pspbrush and it’s corresponding .pspscript files to whichever folder [category] you wish.

Import? That’s another lesson

What I would like you to turn in after completing this lesson:
2 screen shots

1. of your brush folder -- make sure you have your new sub folder in the screen shot
2. of your file location window--make sure your new brush folder is in both the file locations list and is the active folder in the save as drop down menu.

refer to original lesson post on how I want the screen shots posted.


Thank you, Chelle and Jack for helping me with this tutorial. :huggy