Creating Custom Brushes in PSP7

You will need the SYMBOL SELECTOR program or similar program to do this tutorial.  You can find the shareware version for SYMBOL SELECTOR at http://store.yahoo.com/rks/symbolselector.html   It is a program you'll find yourself using every time you need to select a dingbat to use for this or other creations.

What are Custom Brushes and how do I make my own?   Brushes are almost like tubes, and we ALL know what tubes can do.  While tubes come in multicolored pictures, some even with a 3D look to them, brushes do not.  The closest description of a brush that I can think of is a rubber stamp.  You put a colored ink on them and then stamp them onto your paper, cloth or whatever you're using.   PSP Brushes are basically the same type of tool.  They can be a lot of fun to use and to create.

By now you've all got your folder for your brushes created and ready to fill with all kinds of goodies.  Now, on to the fun.

Step 1

From the Ding Bat Fonts I sent you, or from one of your own, choose one to use and save it as a .BMP using the SYMBOL SELECTOR tool. 

When you use the SAVE AS A .BMP option in this program, you will see a dialog box appear where you name your graphic.  Once you click on the SAVE button another little window pops up.  You will see buttons at the bottom of this new window.  Click on and hold down the button marked LARGER until the graphic reaches it's largest size.  When it reaches that size, click on the OK Button.

Now we're ready to move into the PSP program and begin creating our brush.  Go into your PSP program and pull up the graphic that you just saved.  It will be a simple line drawing in black and white.  Using the SELECTION TOOL  click on the white section surrounding the graphic.  This will display the "marching ants" around the outside of the graphic as well as around the entire border area of the graphic as well.  Click on the word SELECTIONS in the menu bar at the top of the page and click on INVERT.

The "marching ants" will now only be surrounding the graphic itself.  Click on the word IMAGE in the menu bar and then click on CROP TO IMAGE.  This will now eliminate the majority of the white surrounding the graphic.

NOTE:  A custom brush image can be NO larger than 255 x 255 pixels.  If your image is larger than that, you must resize it.  When you resize ANY graphic in PSP I've found that if you have the RESIZE TYPE set as BICUBIC RESAMPLE you do not have to use the SHARPEN filter at all.  Make sure that both boxes below the RESIZE TYPE are checked as well.

Using the SELECTION TOOL again, and holding down the SHIFT key at the same time, click all around the white areas of the graphic so that you have the "marching ants" completely surrounding the outside of the graphic and border.   Since we cropped the image and resized it, the black lines of the graphic may stop the ants from surrounding the complete graphic.  Holding down the SHIFT key while you do this will add a little + sign and allow you to choose several areas at the same time.   Once you have the ants all around your graphic, click on SELECTIONS and then on INVERT again.

Next, click on your BRUSH TOOL in the toolbar.    This will bring up your BRUSH TOOL OPTION window.  On the upper right corner of that little window you will see another little brush similar to the one on the long toolbar.   Click on it and a drop down menu appears.

From that drop down menu, click on the word CUSTOM.   This will bring up another little window with several buttons.  Click on the CREATE button on that new window, and then on the OK button.

Your brush has now been created. Close the graphic you were using for the brush and open another new graphic 400 X 400 with a WHITE background. To use your brush, go back and click on the little paint brush on the TOOL OPTION window and click again on the word CUSTOM.  This time, the CREATE button will not be available.   In the screen shot above, notice the little triangle next to the graphic.   Click on that little down pointing triangle and you'll see a window open and your brush will be in there.  To use it, simply click on it and then choose the color for your brush, place the brush cursor over the new blank graphic and click on it to "stamp" the brush image onto the white background.  From there, let your imagination run wild.

  The next step is RENAMING THE FILE FOR YOUR BRUSH.

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