Installing Photoshop Brushes Tutorial

This tutorial will explain where to place your downloaded Photoshop brush files so you can access them in Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop stores the brush files within a file having a .ABR file extension. To use the Photoshop brushes you download from the Internet, just place the .ABR file within the correct directory on your computer. The instructions below will describe the steps to take to be able to use the brush files you download. These steps should be fairly consistent whether you are downloading brushes from this site or any of the other great sites offering free Photoshop brushes for download.

Step #1: Downloading Photoshop Brushes
When you download brush files from BrushPortfolio.com, the files are compressed or “zipped” so they are smaller in size and faster to download. The first thing you need to do is uncompress or “unzip” the file. Generally, all you need to do is double click on the zipped file and you will be taken through a set of instructions. Be sure to pay attention where the uncompressed file is placed so you can find it again.

Some of the files you will find on the Internet can use different compression software. A common software that you will find creates files with a .RAR file extension. If you download files with a .RAR file extension, you will need to decompress these files using WinRAR or some other equivalent. There are a lot of options, many free. Just check Google for RAR file formats.

Step #2: Place Extracted .ABR Files into Correct Directory
Once you have extracted the brush file, it is just a matter of placing the .ABR file into the correct directory. One thing to remember is that if you are logged into Photoshop, you will need to close it and restart Photoshop in order to access new files that are added to the brush directory. I have no idea why, but if you look for a new file without closing Photoshop, it doesn’t show up.

Windows Users will need to place the .ABR file into the following directory:
C:/Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop CSx/Presets/Brushes

Mac OS X Users will need to place the .ABR file into the following directory:
{username}/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Brushes

And that’s all there is to it. Once the .ABR file is located into the correct directory, you can access the brushes using the brush palette. You can read more about the brush palette here.