Brushes in 7
page twoNow, we’ll look at the display for each of the tabs in the Brushes palette. While you can turn a tab (with current settings) on or off by clicking its checkbox, in order to see and alter its settings you need to click on its tab (where its name is displayed).
Clicking on the Brush Tip Shape tab shows you a palette that appears to be the same as the one you already saw in Brush Presets (if you’ll scroll down this page, you can see it). This is because the identifying feature of a brush is its tip. However the settings that affect the application of that tip are what is included in a preset. What you can choose and manipulate in the Brush Tip Shape dialog is only the tip size, shape, angle and spacing, not any of the brushes other features. Here is where you alter the “footprint” of a brush.
You can make your own brush tips by painting something (a dot, a speckly blob, or even an entire photograph), selecting it with the rectangular marquee tool and then choosing Edit > Define Brush. It will then appear at the bottom of the current palette. You can then save it to one of your custom sets or use it as a starting tip for a more complicated brush.
The Diameter setting sets the width of the brush tip imprint.
Both Angle and Roundness are easier to set by dragging the proxy, though you can type values into the text boxes if you know exactly what you’re after.
There’s no point in changing the angle of a brush with 100 % Roundness, so edit Roundness first (if you want an elliptical brush) and then edit the Angle.
To edit Roundness using the proxy, click on either of the little black dots at top or bottom.
If you want to alter the brush from side to side rather than top to bottom click once on either the top of bottom of the vertical line. The arrowhead will jump to where you clicked, and the black dots will jump to the horizontal line.
To change the angle, drag the arrowhead.
Hardness sets the blur at the edge of your brush. In the default palette, the top row has hard brushes with Hardness set to 100 % while the soft brushes in the second row have Hardness of 0 %.
Spacing determines how often your brush tip, or your brush “footprint” is applied. A smooth stroke is created when you apply enough “footprints” to appear as a solid line, though all brush strokes are really made of a series of overlapping dots or footprints.
The most common Spacing setting is 25 %. If you use no spacing (by unchecking the Spacing checkbox above the Spacing slider) your brush tip will be applied according to how fast you move your cursor.
If you set Spacing to 100 %, each successive brush tip imprint will be right next to but not overlapping its predecessor.
Setting Spacing to a very high amount, 300 % for example, is a quick way to make a dotted line.
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The Size Jitter slider will cause your brush tip’s size to alter randomly between its current size setting and whatever you have set as the Minimum. The Minimum Diameter sets the smallest size allowed within the jitter.
The Control menu, which you will find throughout the Brushes palette, is where stylus users can make their pen affect the brush strokes. Please note that the Control setting is not just for jitter; if you set the size Control to Pen Pressure, the size of your brush stroke will depend on the pressure of your pen, regardless of whether or not you have any Size Jitter setting.
Control is also where you can find the Fade feature that used to be on the Options bar.
Note that you will also find Fade under Other Dynamics. The one in the Shape Dynamics tab will fade your brush size, only. If you choose Fade from the Control menu, the text box to the right becomes active. Type in the number of steps, or brush tip widths (remember spacing?) over which the width of your brush will fade to the current setting under Minimum Diameter.
Your stroke preview will give you a good idea of how fade works. Here is a setting of 25 steps.
And here is a setting of 100 steps.
Generally, when you are using Fade, you will want to set the Minimum to 0. Unfortunately, it’s a tiny bug in 7 that the least you can set the Minimum to is 1 %. This will leave a little pale gray line trailing after your stroke beyond the set number of fade steps.
To avoid that gray residue, either be careful not to drag beyond where the stroke fades to (almost) nothing, or use the Fade command in Other Dynamics at the same time as the one in Shape Dynamics. Set the Opacity Fade (in Other Dynamics) to the same number of steps.
Tilt Scale is grayed out unless you have chosen Pen Tilt from the Control menu. It sets how much the pen tilt will scale the brush tip size.
The remaining Jitter sliders should be self-explanatory. They work the same as the Size Jitter slider, allowing random alteration of the shape and angle of the brush tip.
Note that the Control setting below each of the Jitter sliders must be set separately for each feature, and remember that those Control settings are not just for jitter; they are where you set pen pressure control for angle and roundness.
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Copyright © 2002 by Jay Arraich.
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All photographs copyright ©2002 by Jay Arraich
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