[fidelmafan]

i really like the tutorial barbara did on brushes and how to get a better idea of what they really look like w/o trying every one! thanks, barbara.

[teecee]

I agree, it's a great tutorial. Barbara is always teaching us cool stuff!

[BetC]

This in on my "to do" list. I've always hated not knowing what the brush would really look like. Thanks so much for sharing your expertise, Barbara.

[MariJ]

Thanks so much Barbara. I loved the tutorial too. I always learn a lot from your clear and easy-to-understand yet very helpful info!

[diannecp]

i thought to myself even as i was reading it, it had to be by Barb! what a great resource!

[BarbaraC1977]

Thanks for all the nice comments! They brightened my day a lot as we are dealing with the aftermath of flooding.

A couple of hints that I want to add, based on PM questions I received, where Define Brush Preset didn't seem to be available to the user. These hints apply to both PS & PSE.

To create a brush, you need what I think of as an "eligible" selection. The "marching ants" must be on, defining the brush to be created; that is step one of "eligibility." To reiterate how to get them: look for the layer of interest in the layers palette. CTRL + CLICK (CMD + Click for Macs) on the THUMBNAIL image in the layers palette.

Part two of eligibility: unless you're using PSCS6, where I've heard they upped the maximum brush size to 5000 pixels, your selection cannot exceed 2500 pixels in either height or width. You can see the exact size by selecting the Window menu, Info. If you selection is no longer eligible because it exceeds the maximum size, Photoshop doesn't give you a clue or an error; it simply won't enable the Edit, Define Brush Preset option.

Hope these hints help you further!

[BarbaraC1977]

Another hint: when you first create a brush preset, it may not be visible in the preset manager. This is because the Preset Manager is buggy, and does not resize itself well when new brushes are added. If it's on a new "row" of presets, it probably won't show.

If you don't see the new preset, go to the lower right corner of the preset manager and manually drag to make it larger OR smaller. It will trigger a resize event for the preset manager, and then you can scroll to view the newly added brushes/presets.

[Cabin Fever]

Thank you for all of the tips and tricks! You are super!