Loading and Using Brushes/Custom Shapes in Photoshop

How to load and use Brushes and Custom Shapes in Photoshop(any Version)

The short and easy way that most people use is, just double clicking on that file that they downloaded, but that method works only for a short amount of time, when you restart photoshop the next time, you won’t see those brushes or shapes anymore.

The right way to install the brush(.abr) or the custom shape(.csh) file is to put them in their proper directories, depending upon your system if its 34-bit or 64-bit

The directories for Brushes are:

For 36-bit systems

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6\Presets\Brushes

For 64-bit systems

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Presets\Brushes

The directories for Custom Shapes are:

For 36-bit systems

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6\Presets\ Custom Shapes

For 64-bit systems

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Presets\Custom Shapes

How to actually Load them:

Once you have downloaded the brushes or custom shapes, and put them in their respective directories, the next step is selecting the tool, in this case the brush tool (B)

Once you have the brush tool selected, the tool bar below File, Edit… gives you the brush properties,

Select the small arrow with the Brush Size, and then on the right side, it shows a small settings icon, once you click on that, it should show you the downloaded Brush name, just click on it to make the brushes come in the properties,

Sometimes the name might not be shown, in that case, click on Settings icon and then click on Replace Brushes, this should take you the place where you originally placed the brushes, and you can select the brushes from there.

And the same for Custom Shapes:

Hope this helped in some way, hit the comments section below for any questions and feedback,

Thanks!