Brush tools are available in image editing programs such as Photoshop, Affinity Photo and GIMP. Just like a real brush, you can use them to paint and draw digitally. Programs such as Procreate or Adobe Fresco have even specialized in digital painting. You can also use brushes in vector-based programs. Here is a brief summary of the purposes for which you can use brushes.

Applications of the brush tool

First of all, you have the option of applying various brush tips to the digital brushes, with shapes ranging from simple geometries such as circles to very specific motifs such as Easter bunnies. While you actually draw and paint with a circular brush tip by clicking and dragging the mouse or by using a pen on a tablet in the sense of digital painting, you can add new motifs to your pictures click by click with other brush tips.

With additional parameters such as color, opacity, size and hardness as well as the combination with other functions of the respective image editing program, brushes are powerful tools to give free rein to your creativity. You can use them to draw and paint your own graphics and images in the classic way. Brushes can also be used to create image effects and insert new motifs. They are also used for retouching and cropping.

In programs such as Photoshop and Affinity Photo, there are also extensive brush settings available that you can use to define the behavior of the brush tool while drawing and painting. For example, you can set values for randomness so that the image elements placed using the brush do not always look the same and are not always positioned exactly where you draw with the pen or mouse.

In addition to the pixel-based brush tools, you can also use brushes in vector programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Designer. As is usual with vectors, the drawings created with them can be scaled to any size without any loss of quality.

Predefined brush tips and brush settings

The following applies to almost all programs: The shapes of the brush tips can be saved in special files. This allows you to share your own brushes with others or load brushes from others into your program. There are thousands of brush tips available for download on TutKit.com.

The ABR format is commonly used for pixel-based brushes and is compatible with Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Adobe Fresco and GIMP, among others. For Photoshop, the named brush settings (or brush presets) can also be stored in this format. Other programs such as Procreate rely on separate file formats. Vector-based brush tips are also saved in special formats. Get an overview of the compatibility of the brush file formats available on TutKit.com here.