Loading Brushes into Photoshop Elements

One of my favorite digital scrapbooking tools within Photoshop Elements is the Brush tool! Why? Because PSE brushes are the digital equivalent of rubber stamps, which makes them so versatile! You can make them any color you wish and you can change their blend mode and/or add layer styles to change how they appear!

Brushes are a special form of graphics – so they can be almost anything – decorative elements, scribbles, text, doodles, images, paint strokes, or splatters! Using Brushes on your digital pages will add texture, dimension, and interest to your layout! 

Adobe Photoshop Elements is one of the most popular programs used in digital scrapbooking and photo editing. Brushes are simply graphics that are bundled together in an Adobe-specific file type called an “ABR” file. All brush files names will end with “.abr”, just scrapbook kit files end with a .JPG or .PNG. .ABR files typically contain a group of related brushes, referred to as a “brush set”.

Load or Install Brushes?

Photoshop Elements allows you to temporarily load brush sets or to install them so they are always available.  The more brush sets you have, the more memory your computer will use each time you launch PSE, so, depending on how you like to work, and how often you use brushes, you may find you prefer one method over the other. Let’s take a look at both so that you can decide what will work best for you.

Loading Brushes for Temporary Use in Photoshop Elements

Temporarily loading brushes into Photoshop Elements means that the brush sets will be available for use until you change brush sets or exit Photoshop Elements. This helps to keep your computer’s memory available for other tasks within Elements. However, it also means that you will need to reload the brush sets if you change brush sets while working and every time you launch Elements.

There are two ways to temporarily load brushes: Using the Brush Picker or using the Preset Manager.

Using the Brush Picker

Start in Expert Mode.

1. Activate the Brush Tool by clicking on it in the Tool Bar on the left, or press B on the keyboard.
2. In Brush Tool Options, click the down arrow to open the Brush Picker.
   Click on the hamburger menu icon in the upper right corner to open a menu and choose Load Brushes.
3. Navigate to the folder on your hard drive that contains the brush you want to load and double click on it. This will replace the Default set of brushes with the brush file you just opened.

Using the Preset Manager

Start in Expert Mode.

1. From the Main Menu, choose Edit > Preset Manager.
2. Click Append
3. Navigate to the brush set you want to load and double-click on it. Click Done.
4. Activate the Brush Tool by clicking on it in the Tool Bar on the left, or by pressing B on the keyboard.
5. In Brush Tool Options, click the down arrow to open the Brush Picker, and scroll to the bottom below the default brushes to see the new brushes you loaded.

Installing Brushes into Photoshop Elements

Installing brush sets in Photoshop Elements will ensure they are always available, even if you load other brush sets or exit Elements. However, each brush set you install will add to the computer memory needed by Elements — so installing too many sets will cause Elements to take a long time to launch and its overall performance will be sluggish. Of course, each computer’s configuration is different, so it’s recommended you only install a few brush sets to start with — the sets you find you use over and over.

Installing Brushes on a PC

•  Close Photoshop Elements.
• Make a copy of the .abr file for the brush set you want to install. Making a copy ensures that you can always find the file again if you need it – be sure to store the original with your other purchased brush sets.
• Open Windows Explorer.  To do the remainder of these steps, we need to change a setting in Windows Explorer to show files that are usually hidden. To do this:
  • Click on the View tab at the top of the screen.
  • Put a checkmark in the box in front of Hidden Items; and select to show the files in. a “List” as shown below. You can change these settings back to your preferred view once the brush sets have been installed.

• Now navigate to the Brushes Preset Folder:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Elements (your version)\Presets\Brushes

• Move the copy of the .abr file into the Brushes folder.

The brush set is now installed and will appear in the Brush Picker.

Installing Brushes on a Mac

• Close Photoshop Elements.
• Make a copy of the .abr file for the brush set you want to install. Making a copy ensures that you can always find the file again if you need it – be sure to store the original with your other purchased brush sets.
• In Finder, navigate to the Brushes Preset folder:

Macintosh HD\Applications\Adobe Photoshop Elements (your version)\Presets\Brushes

• Drag the copy of the .abr file into the Brushes folder. Enter your Mac’s password if prompted to do so.

The brush set is now installed and will appear in the Brush Picker.

Ready to Play?

Now that you know how to add brushes to Photoshop Elements, why not try some new ones? I’ve got at least 100 sets in my shop – here are some of the most popular!  My brush sets almost always include matching PNG files for each brush in the set – check out my tutorial on how to recolor those.

If you use my brushes on your project, I’d love for you to upload it to my Oscraps Designer Gallery!

Video Tutorial – How to Load Brushes into Photoshop Elements