Simple Slush: How to install Photoshop Brushes/Fonts

What I love about Photoshop is all the possibilities. The program gives you a huge variety of options to work from and is fairly easy to learn. Throughout school  I've slowly picked up new tricks that have helped me immensely when creating new idea's. One example includes layering font strokes so that it creates contrast and is easier to read when placed on a colourful or complex background.

For those who are new or unfamiliar with Photoshop, the two best skills that I applied include how to import both custom brushes and fonts. Being able to customize my brushes and font's really opened up my possibilities creatively  and prevented me from using the standard presets. The following blog will provide a light tutorial on how to use these tools to improve your artwork. 

How to Download & Install Photoshop Brushes

Requirements: 

• File Extraction Program: (Winzip or 7-Zip) 
• Photoshop

To download additional Photoshop brushes is fairly simple. 

Step 1: Unless you have a program that unzips files already installed on your PC or mac, I suggest downloading the free software 7-zip. 

Step 2: Go to Brusheezy.com and create a free account. This site provides you with free downloads for brushes, patterns and high definition textures for your projects. 

Step 3: Once you have an account, choose a brush you want to install and download the zipped file to your desktop.

Step 4: Right click on the file and extract the contents onto your desktop or into a separate folder. 

[The file should be an .ABR and/or .TXT file.] 

Step 5: Open Photoshop and select the following: 

1. Brush tool
2. Next to mode at the top, select the brush drop down menu
3. Select the gear
4. Load brushes. 

Step 6: Select/Load the previously saved .ABR brush file. 

Step 7: Your brushes will be uploaded and saved at the bottom of the brush drop down menu. 

[Warning: Your brushes will only be loaded on the computer with the .ABR file.] 

Step 8: Design using your new custom brushes. 

How to Download & Install Fonts for Windows

Requirements: 

• File Extraction Program: (Winzip or 7-Zip)

Downloading custom fonts for PC is a similar process to downloading brushes.

Step 1: Make sure you have a file extraction program downloaded. 

Step 2: Go to Dafont.com and browse/sort through what type of font your project requires based on genre.

 

Step 3: Select the font you want to use. 

Step 4: Download the .ZIP folder to your desktop or a separate folder.  

Step 5: On your desktop select  the following:

1. Start
2. Control panel
3. Fonts folder

Step 6: Drag the zipped folder you downloaded into the font folder. 

Step 7: Right click the zipped folder and select extract all or extract here.

[The file extracted should be a .TTF and/or .TXT file]

Step 8: Once the .TTF file has been installed, in Photoshop or word search for your specific font 

Step 9: Make sure to save your work on the PC that has the .TTF font file since Photoshop will report it missing if you open the .PSD file on a different computer. 

Hope theses short tutorials help anyone out with their creative projects or Photoshop knowledge. 

Thanks for reading and I hope my blog helps! 

-Slushi-