I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts–now! When I first started using Photoshop, I didn’t. They were too hard to remember.
I found the trick, for me, was to use one shortcut until it became automatic, then start using another shortcut until I knew that one well enough too… and so on. Pretty soon, I was using shortcuts to shorten my workflow without even thinking about it.
But this week I learned a new-to-me shortcut, that I am beyond-excited about and can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it. It has to do with using Brushes. Not JUST the Brush Tool. This also works with ANY tool in Photoshop tool that uses brushes; ie. the Eraser Tool, the Blur, Sharpen, and Smudge Tools, and the Dodge, Burn, and Sponge Tools.
Prior to this week, when I was working with Brushes and wanted to change from one brush to another, I would click on the down-pointing arrow in the top Menu Bar to see what brushes I had loaded, select one, and go back to work on my document. It was time-consuming and annoying to have to go back and click on that arrow every time I wanted to change to a different brush.
This week I learned that if you want to change brushes, you simply need to right-click on your working document, and the brush picker will open! It is super simple and FAST to just click on the next brush you want to use!
I am working in CC 2017 and this works perfectly. This also tested successfully in Photoshop Elements 15 and Photoshop CS6. Test your own version of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, to see if it works for you. I’m betting it will work in a lot of versions!
The only thing you need to pay attention to is where you click on your document. The brush picker will open just to the right of where you click. So if you don’t want to cover up your working document, click to the far right of it so you have plenty of room to see what you are working on.
I am always so excited when I learn something new in Photoshop! I hope you find this helpful too!
If you would like to download a PDF of this tutorial, you may do so here: How to Quickly Locate a Photoshop Brush
That works great! Is there a way to make the sample square of the brush any bigger when the brush picker comes up? I tend to not use my brushes much because it’s so hard to tell from the picker what it is. So I have to select each one to see what it really looks like. It’s a real pain when you have old eyes!
Yes, Karen! Click on the Gear in the upper right of the Brush Picker, and choose Large Thumbnail in the Options.
Thank you. I don’t have a gear on my brush picker. My Photoshop must be to old for that option, but I did find the large thumbnail option when I clicked on the fly out arrow to select the different brushes. So much easier to see!
WOW! you are soooooo good at letting us know these new? things, thank you so much. That really is very handy.
I’m not sure if it has been discussed before, but do you know if there a way to clear the brush options, I have so many brushes it only goes up to the “S” named ones. I hope you know what I mean, I can’t think of another way to put it.
@Faith A – If you add your brushes via the Preset Manager, your brushes are installed, they will be there when you close and re-open. But, they do not go in to the folder for Adobe, so, they don’t ‘fill up’ a lot of space. And, you can add as many as you want.
Go to Edit>Preset>Preset Manager. The drop down at the top can be changed for whichever kind of preset you want.
Su
Thanks Sue, what I meant was, when I click on the brush and it has the “wheel” at the top, I click on that and all my brushes are there, but I want to clear that, so I can see what I have. Have I confused you LOL.
Thanks for the reply.
I am out of town for the weekend, so it’s hard to answer right now. But, Faith, I will write a tutorial on that for next week. (Thanks, Su for your help.) I think screenshots will help to clear it up for Faith and anyone else who is wondering about this. And thanks, Karen! I’m glad you found this as helpful!
That would be wonderful, thank you Karen, of course there is no rush, so anytime would do. Enjoy your “out of town” weekend.
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