Hi Bathgate66,Originally posted by Bathgate66
Can someone please show me how to use the brushes that you download into Painter 7. I need someone to really really dumb down the explanation because I've been trying the longest time to use the brushes I downloaded but I can't seem to open them in painter 7. Anyone, please??
Please don't feel dumb, this must be one of the most asked questions about Painter.
The answer depends on the file structure that the person donating has provided. This can range from a single xml file (which is effectively your brush) to a complete library.
In order to know where to place the brushes, it is first best to unzip the downloaded file onto your desktop (assuming the file was originally zipped) and take a look at what there is.
A single brush (xml) file may be on it's own, or inside a folder. Inside the folder may also be a readme document (with some text details about using the brush, or even where to put the brush). This will therefore be the first thing to open and read. If the single brush (xml) file is a captured dab type, inside the folder will also be the captured dab jpg image. This will have the same name as the brush, but instead of .xml, it will end in .jpg. There is also a remote possibility that there will be another .xml file, with the same brush name, but this time having a 'c_' in front of it. This latter file is a temporary copy file of the original (sometimes containg unsaved setting changes) and you can safely delete it. As a side note, when you select a brush in Painter 7 and choose 'restore default variant', it is this 'c_' file which will be deleted.
All Painter 7 brushes have to reside in the 'Brushes' folder, which in turn resides inside the Painter 7 application folder. In earlier versions of Painter, brush files could be placed anywhere. As this single xml file is not a brush library, the easiest thing to do is to open the Painter 7 brushes folder, look for a existing, brush library folder and place it inside one of the brush category folders (which you will see has other .xml files inside). Remember though, that if the brush is a captured dab type, you will also need to move the captured dab jpg image to the same folder as the brush. Now, when you load the brush library, you should see the name of the new brush you have added when you select the brush category (e.g Airbrushes) which you added the new brush too. Ideally, try not to add new brushes to the default Painter brushes library, as this is already quite large, and as all the current library brushes are loaded into RAM, this may slow the brushes down.
Instead of adding the single brush to a brush category within an existing brush library, you could make a new library for your single brush (and other custonm brushes you wish to add). To do this, first create a new folder directly inside the main Painter 7 'Brushes' folder. Name this folder 'Custom set 1' or something more descriptive. Now, create another folder inside this one. This inner folder will be a brush category within your Custom set 1 library. It is this folder where you will place any .xml files (and any associated captured dab jpg's). Name this inner folder something descriptive to give you an idea of the type of brushes which will be inside the category ('My Chalks') for example. You now need one more item; a 30 x 30 pixel jpg image (dimensions critical) which we call a category jpg icon. It is this icon image which will be displayed in the Painter brushes palette when the library is loaded. You can easily make this yourself in Painter or Photoshop. Save the image in jpg format and give it the came name as the brush category folder, except with an added file type extension (e.g 'My Chalks.jpg'). Finally, place this jpg image direcctly inside the folder titled in this example 'Custom set 1'. You are now the proud owner of a new brush library. You can add further brushes to the category folder, or create more brush categories.
To create more brush categories for the above library, it is easier to do this inside Painter. Load the library in Painter and a blank canvas (not layer) paint an image to be used as your new category icon (this can be significantly larger than 30x30 pixels). Now, in the tools palete, select the rectangular selection tool and drag a roughly square bounding box around the area of image you wish to capture. Next, in the brushes palette, choose Brush>New Brush and name the new brush category in the resulting dialogue box. Click OK, and Painter will do the rest. You can move brushes from existing categories in the current library using the brushes>Variant>Copy Variant feature, or you can manually move them as described earlier.
The second type of downloaded brush resource you are likely to find is the complete brush library. On my downloads section, all the brushes fall into this category. Simply unzip the file (if required) and open the folder. With my brushes, there will invariably be two items inside this folder; a readme document and another folder which is a complete brush library. You can tell that it is a brush library, because when you look inside the folder, you will see at least one other folder (the brush category containing all the xml files) and another .jpg file of the same name (the brush category jpg icon). If there is more than one brush category, then each will have a folder and jpg image. In this case, simply remove the library from the outer folder (the first one you saw when you unzipped the file) and place it directly inside your Brushes folder. You should now be able to load the library using the 'load library' feature in the left Brushes palette dropdown menu.
The import button (in the load library dialogue window) is specifically for importing brush libraries formatted for earlier versions of Painter. In this case, Painter converts the old library to Painter 7 readable xml format.
I know it may seem like rocket science, but I can promise you that it all takes much longer to write about it than to do it.
Whoo!!
:beer: Time for a beer.
Please don't hesitate to ask if there is anything you are not clear about. There are no dumb questions, a person is only dumb not to ask.
David
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