Keep a Handle on Your Brushes with abrViewer

Hi everyone! I'm Molly Newman, associate editor of Digital Scrapbooking Magazine, and I'm here to wish you a happy Digital Scrapbooking Day and show you a few cool tricks for working with brushes. Thanks very much to Natalie for inviting us to help you celebrate.

If you're a dedicated digital scrapbooker, you've probably had this problem: You've downloaded tons of brushes, whether as individual items or as part of digital kits. It doesn't take long for the collection to start getting out of hand, and you can't remember what you've acquired, let alone where the files are located, when it's time to use them. And in order to see what the brushes in a set look like, you've first got to load them into your photo editing software: a time-consuming, often frustrating process.

Fortunately, there's a free solution at hand--the open source program abrViewer. This simple but powerful piece of software helps you keep tabs on your brushes simply and easily. I'll walk you through the basics of using the program. When you're ready to get started, download the ZIP file to install and get ready to have quicker, easier access to your brush collection.

To get a better look at any screenshot below, click it to open a full-sized version in a separate window.

1. Start by corralling your brush files in a single location. Use your operating system's built-in search tool to search for all files containing .abr in their names.

2. Sort the resulting list by type. Click and drag to select all brush (.ABR) files. Copy these files and paste them into Photoshop or Photoshop Elements' default brush folder. (For Windows users of Photoshop CS3, this location is C:Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Brushes. For Photoshop Elements users, this location is C:Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop Elements/Presets/Brushes.)

3. Launch abrViewer. In the Folders tab, click Load Brushes. Select the folder where you've just placed your brush sets and click OK.

4.  To view the brushes contained in a particular set, right-click the set's name (Mac: Option-click) and select Show. A preview of each brush image will appear in the right panel of the window. The default preview size is 80 pixels; I find this size a little too small to be useful. You can change the preview size by increasing or decreasing the Thumbnails size value in the Viewing options panel.

5. After choosing a brush set for your project, right-click its name in the Folders panel and select Install. The next time you launch Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, the brush set will be ready to use.

6. In addition to viewing brushes with abrViewer, you can sort them into themed collections that make it easy to find a brush that suits your needs. Click the Favorites tab to view a list of current collections. Create a new collection by right-clicking (Mac: Option-click) in the Favorites panel and choosing Add New Collection. Right-click the new collection's name and choose Rename Collection to give it a descriptive title. In addition to names of styles (Grunge, Elegant, Cute) or types of elements (Borders, Corners, Frames), consider creating collections for favorite manufacturers or designers as well.

7. To sort brushes into collections, return to the Folders panel. Right-click (Mac: Option-click) on a brush set's name and choose Add to Collection from the pop-up menu. Navigate to the desired collection and click to select it.

Now you're ready to use abrViewer's basic organization and brush viewing functions. You can also use it to create PNG images from existing brushes (perfect for converting Photoshop brushes for use with other photo editing programs such as Paint Shop Pro). You can even create printable previews of your brush collections if you like to have an "offline" reference to flip through.

Want to learn more about keeping your digital kits, elements and photos organized? Check out "The Nitty-Gritty of Organization" in the October/November 2008 issue of Digital Scrapbooking. And have a great Digital Scrapbooking Day!

Comments

[Aly D]

i so need to do this! thanks so much molly for the tip and for joining us today! happy DSD!!

[Betsy]

Great article Molly! And abrViewer is a fantastic program, although I am a bit biased towards Preset Viewer by TumaSoft which allows you to organize not just your brushes, but patterns, shapes & (in the new version coming out soon) styles as well.

[Colleen aka Chi-girl]

Great tut. on brushes - thanks so much. And love the freebie! xo

[Silvia]

Estan preciosos, felicitaciones..