Although Photopaint comes with a full set of brushes for use with the various paint tools, you may sometimes find it useful to be able to create your own brushes. The Brush Editor enables you to add, delete and edit brushes.
Open up the "Edit Brush" dialog by selecting the Brush Editor command in the Tools menu.
In the Brushes box there is a list of all the existing brushes. The currently selected brush is displayed in the Preview box below. Note that unless you have already created a brush all the listed brushes will be the standard ones displayed by default in the "Brushes" dialog (see Brushes). You cannot edit or delete a standard brush.
Create a new brush to your own design in the following way:
Click on New to open up the "Brush Options" dialog.
There are three basic brush types:
Elliptical: rounded and elliptical brushes.
Rectangular: rectangular brushes, which can be solid or hollow.
Bitmap: bitmap brushes, which can be created from the images in a separate bitmap file (use the Load Bitmap button to locate and load your bitmap images).
Select one of these types before proceeding to create the brush.
Once you have selected a brush type, various tools for determining the brush’s shape and size become available. The set of tools that can be used to create or edit a brush depends on the particular brush type.
Use the Radius slider to set the radius of the brush (only Elliptical and Rectangular) between 1 and 30 pixels. The radius is defined as half the maximum length of the brush. A long thin elliptical brush will therefore take as its diameter the distance between the extremities rather than the shorter distance.
The Hardness slider determines how soft (0%) or hard (100%) the brush (Elliptical, Rectangular or Bitmap) will be: the lower the value the fuzzier the brush, the higher the value the more defined the brush’s edges.
The Spacing slider determines the amount of space between the brush marks (Elliptical, Rectangular or Bitmap) when you use the paint tools. Note that the paint tools apply a series of identical brush marks in rapid succession, thereby creating the illusion of a solid line. If the spacing is set high enough the individual brush marks become visible. The spacing can be set at anything from 1 to 999%. This value is a relative measure of the spacing when compared to the radius of a brush shape. Anything below 100% will produce a continuous stroke; anything above will produce a stroke with space in between the brush marks. Note that the effects of spacing are more apparent when the brush stroke is applied quickly. If the application is slow the stroke will be solid even though the spacing is high, although the edges of the stroke will be "bumpy".
The Width slider works only with the Rectangular selection and determines the thickness of the borders of the rectangle. The higher the width the thicker the border and the less space visible in the center of the rectangle. The width can be set at any value from 1 to 30 pixels.
You can keep a check on your adjustments by looking at the changing display in the bottom right-hand Preview box.
In addition to the above you can determine the roundedeness and angle of the brush (Elliptical or Rectangular only):
The Roundedness box determines the shape of the brush. Use the arrows to reduce the value from 100% (or type in a value directly). A value of 100% indicates that the shape is a circle (using Elliptical) or square (using Rectangular). As the value is reduced towards 0% the shape becomes flatter in one direction and therefore appears elongated. (Note that the Radius setting is not affected. This can only be changed by using the Radius slider and is always based on a shape’s maximum length.)
The Angle box determines the direction of the shape. Use the arrows to increase the angle from 0 to anything up to 360 degrees (or type in an angle directly). Increasing the angle rotates the shape anti-clockwise.
You can also set values for roundedness and angle in the Roundedeness and Angle box at the bottom left-hand corner. An outline of the shape is displayed, along with a direction-arrow and handles for adjusting the shape. Click anywhere on the boundary of the shape to set a new direction. Hold down the mouse and drag till the arrow is pointing in the direction you want (you can check this by glancing at the Angle box, in which the angle changes to match). Alter the roundedness by dragging one of the handles in or out. Likewise, the value in the Roundedness box will reflect your changes.
Again, your changes can be viewed in the Preview box.
Once you’ve designed your brush you can give it a name in the Brush Name box at the bottom of the dialog.
Click on OK to return to the "Edit Brush" dialog. The new brush is displayed at the bottom of the Brushes box. Select it to see it displayed in the Preview box.
If you now click on Close and select any of the paint tools on the Tools bar, the new brush will appear in the "Brushes" dialog, ready to use.
The following are the remaining options available in the "Edit Brush" dialog:
You can edit a brush shape by selecting the Edit button. This opens up the same "Brush Options" dialog that is used to create a new brush. The process of editing is similar to creating a new brush. All the techniques explained above can be used to edit an existing brush.
Delete a brush by selecting the brush in the Brushes box and then clicking on Remove. The brush is deleted from the list.
Copy a brush by selecting the brush in the Brushes box and then clicking on Duplicate. It is a good idea to use this command when you want to use a standard brush as the basis for a creating a new brush.
Use Save to save all your current brushes, including new and edited brushes, to a separate file. Use Load to access brushes stored in a separate file.
Once you have made all the changes you want click on Close to exit the dialog.
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