Today I’m going to show you how to create your own brushes in Photoshop for use in your own web design work – and how to package them for others to download.
Step One: Clearing the Way
First things first, we need to clear out any brushes that are currently loaded. Go to your Preset Manager, and make sure that “Brushes” are selected in the Preset Type dropdown.
Then, select all the brushes visible (click on the first one, hold shift and then click the last one), click “Delete” and then “Done” – before you start panicking, you haven’t just deleted all of those brushes blindly, just removed them from the brush panel.
Step Two: Set up your Document
Create a new document 2500px by 2500px at 300 dpi – this is the largest size Photoshop will allow brushes to be created at. You can make larger documents, but not create brushes from them. Also, remember to change the Color Mode to Grayscale – Photoshop’s brushes work in a similar way to Alpha channels – whatever is white is transparent, whatever is black is opaque, and greys cover the scale inbetween.
I’d recommend saving this as a preset so you can access it quicker later on. To do this, enter your dimensions and resolution, click “Save Preset” and give it a useful name, I’ve called mine ‘Brushes Default’ – then click okay. Once you’re done, OK your new document.
Step Three: Creating your Shapes as Presets
The next step is to create whatever shapes, patterns or doodles that you’d like to make into brushes. In this example, I’m going to use clouds. Once you’ve finished creating your brush(es), decide which brush you want to make first, and hide all the other layers. Select your shapes layer(s) and go to Edit > Define Brush Preset. Type in the name for your brush and click okay.
Repeat this process until all of your shapes have been saved as brushes.
Step Four: Save your Brushes
This step is short, but pretty important. Having taken the time and effort to create and define all of your brushes, you now need to save them. Select “Save Brushes” from the flyout menu. Give them a useful name, and hit “Save”.
You’re done!
