A number of examples of brushstrokes painted using different brushes
from the set supplied with GIMP. All were painted using the
Paintbrush tool.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br class="figure-break" />
<p>
A <span class="emphasis"><em>brush</em></span>
is a pixmap or set of pixmaps used for painting. GIMP includes a set of 10
"paint tools", which not only perform operations that you would think of
as painting, but also operations such as erasing, copying, smudging,
lightening or darkening, etc. All of the paint tools, except the ink tool,
use the same set of brushes. The brush pixmaps represent the marks that
are made by single "touches" of the brush to the image. A brush stroke,
usually made by moving the pointer across the image with the mouse button
held down, produces a series of marks spaced along the trajectory, in a
way specified by the characteristics of the brush and the paint tool being
used.
</p>
<p>
Brushes can be selected by clicking on an icon in the <a class="link" href="gimp-brush-dialog.html" title="3.2.  Brushes Dialog">Brushes dialog</a>. GIMP's
<span class="emphasis"><em>current brush</em></span> is shown in the
Brush/Pattern/Gradient area of the Toolbox. Clicking on the brush
symbol there is one way of activating the Brushes dialog.
</p>
<p>
When you install GIMP, it comes presupplied with a number of basic
brushes, plus a few bizarre ones that serve mainly to give you examples of
what is possible (i. e., the "green pepper" brush in the illustration).
You can also create new brushes, or download them and install them so that
GIMP will recognize them.
</p>
<p>
GIMP can use several different types of brushes. All of them, however, are
used in the same way, and for most purposes you don't need to be aware of
the differences when you paint with them. Here are the available types of
brushes:
</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term">Ordinary brushes</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<a id="id2594360" class="indexterm"></a>
<p>
Most of the brushes supplied with GIMP fall into this category. They
are represented in the Brushes dialog by grayscale pixmaps. When you
paint using them, the current foreground color (as shown in the
Color Area of the Toolbox) is substituted for black, and the pixmap
shown in the brushes dialog represents the mark that the brush makes
on the image.
</p>
<p>
To create such a brush: Create a small image in gray levels using
zoom. Save it with the .gbr extension. Click on Refresh button in
the Brush Dialog to get it in preview without it being necessary to
restart GIMP.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="term">Color brushes</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<a id="id2594406" class="indexterm"></a>
<p>
Brushes in this category are represented by colored images in
the Brushes dialog. They can be a text. When you paint with them,
the colors are used as shown; the current foreground color does
not come into play. Otherwise they work the same way as ordinary
brushes.
</p>
<p>
To create such a brush: Create a small RGBA image. For this, open
New Image, select RGB for image type and Transparent for fill type.
Draw your image and save it first to .xcf file to keep its
properties. Then save it to <span class="emphasis"><em>.gbr</em></span> format. Click
on <span class="emphasis"><em>Refresh</em></span> button in Brush Dialog to get your
Brushes in this category can make more than one kind of mark on an
image. They are indicated by small red triangles at th lower right
corner of the brush symbol in the Brushes dialog. They are sometimes
called "animated brushes" because the marks change as you trace out
a brushstroke. In principle, image hose brushes can be very
sophisticated, especially if you use a tablet, changing shape as a
function of pressure, angle, etc. These possibilities have never
really been exploited, however; and the ones supplied with GIMP are
relatively simple (but still quite useful).
</p>
<p>
You will find an example on how to create such brushes in
<a class="link" href="gimp-using-brushes.html" title="7.  Adding New Brushes">Animated brushes</a>
</p>
</dd>
<dt>
<span class="term">Parametric brushes</span>
</dt>
<dd>
<a id="id2594577" class="indexterm"></a>
<p>
These are brushes created using the <a class="link" href="gimp-brush-dialog.html#gimp-brush-editor-dialog" title="3.2.3.  Brush Editor">Brush Editor</a>, which
allows you to generate a wide variety of brush shapes by using a
simple graphical interface. A nice feature of parametric brushes
is that they are <span class="emphasis"><em>resizable</em></span>. It is possible,
using the <span class="guimenu">Preferences</span> dialog, to make key
presses or mouse wheel rotations cause the current brush to
become larger or smaller, if it is a parametric brush.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<p>
Now, all brushes have a variable height. In fact, in the option box of all
painting tools there is a slider to enlarge or reduce the height of the
active brush. You can do this directly in the image window if you have
