Photoshop Brushes How-To

Brush properties

Flow is the amount of color that is laid down by a brush with each stroke.

The airbrush option allows the brush to build up opacity as it covers over an area. With airbrush selected, flow controls how much color is laid down, i.e. you probably want a flow less than 100% when using the airbrush option.

Also, when a brush does not have the airbrush option, pressing the number keys, 1, 2, 3...0, changes the opacity of the brush, while pressing Shift and a number key changes the flow value. When a brush has the airbrush option on, the number keys changes the flow value, and Shift + number keys changes the opacity.

Creating a brush with sharp edges

Photoshop by default makes the edges of all brushes pretty soft. These settings will make the brush edges almost fully aliased.

• Brush Palette
  • Texture: checked
    • Texture each tip: checked
    • Depth: 100%

Keyboard shortcuts

Changing brush size

To increase and decrease brush size and hardness while dragging on the brush, hold down the Control + Option ( ⌃ + ⌥ ) keys while dragging the pen or mouse.

Drag left and right to decrease and increase the brush size.

Drag down and up to decrease and increase the brush hardness.

Of course, square brackets [ ] increase and decrease brush size. Also, curly brackets { } increase and decrease the brush hardness.

Selecting brushes

With the Brush Tool selected, right click to access the Brushes Preset Picker.

With the Brushes Preset Picker closed, the comma key , will select the previous brush in the palette, and the period key . will select the next brush in the palette.

Toggle between layer color and layer mask

Command + backslash ( ⌘ + \ ) switches focus to the Layer Mask.

Command + 2 ( ⌘ + 2 ) switches focus to the Layer Color.