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Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 7, 2018
Question

CC2018 Brush Managment — Some Thoughts and Ideas

  • January 7, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 550 views

A good few people have posted about their displeasure with the new brush management system, and I have answered three threads I can think of expressing my opinion that the new system is rushed and unfinished.  While answering yet another thread on the subject, I had something of a realization, as to why things are as they are, and that it is actually a good thing after all.

It helps to simplify things while you are getting a handle on things, by turning off all the brush panel options possible leaving just Brush Name

What I have been mithering about is that if your Restore Default Brushes you don't get the Append or replace message, and you can end up with multiple occurrences of the same groups.  This is especially easy to do if your brush panel is cluttered with all the display options.

What caused my tiny epiphany was when answering a question on how to get rid of the folders and just have the presets, and I got on top creating a favourites or cust folder. Thankfully we can select and delete multiple folders at the same time.  Don't worry — you can reload them by clicking on the gear icon.

So the trick is, rather than copy each preset one at a time — dragging a preset from one group to another removes it from the original folder — restore the folder/set that has most of your favourites in.  Delete the ones you don't want, and rename the folder

I haven't found a way to copy brushes to different folders, so I'd love to know if that is possible?

Another thing people are getting upset about is selecting the brush tool as a for instance by hitting the B shortcut, and then selecting another preset, they find that Photoshop has switched tools on them.  I think most people realise that this because the new management system can store tool presets, but if you did want to use a preset that switches you to a new tool.

So if you liked the look of this preset but wanted to use it with the brush, select it and click on the New Preset icon, and make sure ​Include Tool Settings ​is not checked.  Drag your new preset to your new brush folder, and you can use it with any tool.

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      2 replies

      Sue.Martin.1
      Sue.Martin.1
      Known Participant
      April 21, 2018

      To copy a brush to another group, drag it into the target group.  Then, in the Preset Manager, save the group by selecting its contents  and clicking Save As...  Then, delete the group where the brush was originally found and reload it; the brush you moved will be restored there.

      It's a work around, but so is doing anything with Brushes since every change must be saved in the Preset Manager for it to permanently "stick."

      Trevor.Dennis
      Community Expert
      Trevor.DennisCommunity ExpertAuthor
      Community Expert
      April 21, 2018

      Sue I don't even bother reloading the original group for the most part.  Just build a custom group with my favourite brushes, and delete the original groups that have a lot of clutter that I don't use.  It's so easy to reload the group when you do need it, and then get rid again.

      Having said that, I still find that I continually fill the right click brush presents, so there so many brushes that are too specialized to do anything other than leave in their own group.  Like yesterday I used smoke and cloud brushes, but might not use again for ages.

      I also use the Recent Brush list a lot, and here's a biggie that I only recently discovered...  If you hate the fact that CC2018 arbitrarily changes tools if the preset you just clicked on has a tool preset, Ctrl click the preset which will force it to use the new preset settings, but not change tool.  I wish I knew that right from the start with CC2018, as I could have been giving a lot of people better advice.

      JJMack
      Community Expert
      JJMackCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 7, 2018

      Thanks for posting your thought.   I alway keep old version of Photoshop the work well for me.  While I do have CC 2018 installed I still use CC 2014.   I'll keep this post in mind if I ever consider CC 2018 is worth using.  It take time to adjust to Adobe's changes and develop work arounds for the new bugs.

      JJMack
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