Tutorial: Custom brushes in Photoshop

[Zeb]

If you're wanting to watermark your pictures using company logos or even your own signature then the easiest way is to make a custom brush. Think of a brush like a stamp cut out of potato and dipped in paint! Brushes can only be one color (black)

Scanning your signature, handwriting or logo
First write clearly on a white piece of paper using a black pen. Next you need to scan it so you have it in Photoshop. You might want to scan at 200% or even 300% to increase the size of the scan - bigger the better! Once you have your signature in Photoshop we need to remove as much noise as possible which will result in a crisp & clear image. Do this by adjusting the levels.

Layers>New Adjustment Layer>Levels (CTRL+L)
http://www.pictureinthesky.net/external/wpf/levels.gif
Note how I've moved the black setting in from the left and I've also moved the white setting in from the right. Once you're happy with the new levels click "OK" to apply. If you can see any obvious blotches that shouldn't be there now is the time to remove them using the Eraser tool (E).

If you've scanned a company logo you can play with the levels to make it as black as possible without losing too much detail. If it's in color convert it to B&W by "Layers>New Adjustment Layer>Channel Mixer" and ticking the box called "Monochrome".

Once finished it's safe to flatten everything (Layers>Flatten Image).
http://www.pictureinthesky.net/external/wpf/example.gif

Now to convert it into a brush. From the "Edit" menu select "Define Brush Preset..." and you'll get something like this:
http://www.pictureinthesky.net/exter...efinebrush.gif
Give it a name so you can easily recognise it and click "OK". Any white space around the image will be removed automatically.

Using your brush
Before you apply your brush to your picture it's best to make a new layer. This way you can drag your brush around the picture for best placement as well as applying any blending options to make it stand out like adding an outline. You can change the size of the brush by using the size slider (green, below pic) and this is why we need a very big scan - if it's too small and you increase the size of it then it will start to pixelate.

Saving your brush
http://www.pictureinthesky.net/exter.../brushmenu.gif
With the brush tool selected open the menu (blue) and clicking the small arrow (red) and selecting "Save Brushes".

This will save all the brushes currently selected so you might want to remove all those preset brushes first. Instead of selecting "Save Brushes" select "Preset Manager" instead.

[Zeb]

I forgot to add that when using the brush you can at this point choose what color to use it with. Remember that whatever color you decide to use the brush will appear in shades of that color.

[Don Hoey]

Keep going like this Zeb and I may end up using CS for more than clone, sharpen and resize.

Don

[Christine]

Thanks,Zeb.Project for a rainy day.Did not realise that one could scan ones signature .Will give it a go.

[Zeb]

Originally Posted by Christine

Thanks,Zeb.Project for a rainy day.Did not realise that one could scan ones signature .Will give it a go.

Don't forget you can mix & match signatures with logos and normal text. Once everything is set up on one document you can lock the layers together and drag them over to other documents open in Photoshop. Then it's just a case of resizing everything and editing any blending/opacity options to suit the new photo.

When I created my brother's latest album cover I got him to write everything out on paper and scanned it all in. Converted the lot to brushes and added the text that way.

[Lello]

Just to add to Zeb's very good tutorial, If you don't want to scan text,
You can open new document (control+N) use the text tool to write your text (I normally use 48pt size) then use the rectangular marquee tool to outline the text. Once the text is out lined go to Edit, define brush preset, As in Zeb's tutorial give the brush a name and use the brush tool (B) to stamp your picture.

[Zeb]

Thanks for pointing that out Lello, I forgot that bit!

[Lello]

No prob Zeb

[Christine]

Thanks,Lello,I have had a try using your suggestion ,but you have explained very simply.I think the text size I used was too small,as I wanted it for a copywrite for my photos,it was hardly visible when added and I was unsure of the style of text to use,but will now have another try.

[Zeb]

Originally Posted by Christine

Thanks,Lello,I have had a try using your suggestion ,but you have explained very simply.I think the text size I used was too small,as I wanted it for a copywrite for my photos,it was hardly visible when added and I was unsure of the style of text to use,but will now have another try.

As I said in the first post, the bigger the better. When you make and apply a brush it's best to reduce the size rather than enlarge it past its original size as it'll go more and more blocky the larger you go.

Photoshop's image scale routine is very intelligent so shrinking a very large brush to quite small won't be that bad.

If you want to figure out the best size to use as a brush, try these steps:

1. Open one of your photographs
2. Layers>New Fill Layer>Solid Color (use white, #ffffff) then OK
3. Change the opacity of the fill layer to about 90% to barely see your picture
4. Add text to your picture and adjust size/font to suit
5. Once happy with the text put the opacity back too 100%, select the fill layer and press CTRL E to merge with your photo
6. You can now make a brush out of your text as normal