Loading Photoshop Brushes


If you're new to Photoshop, loading brushes might not seem straightforward. You can't double click on a brush file and expect it to open, so what do you do?
Loading brushes allow you to add them to your presets for easy use.
  1. Download your brush(es) of choice.
    There's a bunch of places you can get brushes from. They're usually in .abr format.

  2. In Photoshop, open the brush panel, and click on "Load Brushes".

    Brush displayed with PS brush panel

  3. Locate the brush on your computer, and once selected, click "Load".

    Load dialog in Windows

    Your menu may differ slightly in appearance depending on your operating system.

And your brushes should load!


You can also use the Preset Manager to load multiple sets of brushes, clear out old brushes, and edit what you've got in your presets.

You can also "install" the brushes by putting them in your Presets folder. This location may vary depending on your operating system and version of Photoshop.
For example, Windows 7/8.1/10 allows you to place it in:
%appdata%\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop (VERSION)\Presets\Brushes
OR
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop (VERSION)\Presets\Brushes (32-bit)
OR
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop (VERSION) (64 Bit)\Presets\Brushes (64-bit)

MacOS would be something like:
/Users/[USERNAME]Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop (VERSION)/Presets/Brushes
Creative Cloud or pre-CS versions may vary in location.


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