Brushes...anyone use this preview software?

[maureenreynolds]

Wanting a good quick preview of brushes so I don't have to keep them all loaded, I found this. Brush Pilot - The fast and easy Photoshop brush previewer for Mac OS X

Has anyone used it or one like it? The free version does not seem to show all the previews, which is not what I want. The full version is $15. OR has someone found another free and easy way to preview brushes? some free brushes do not come with a jpg view but they are beautiful otherwise.

tia! Maureen

[dugarner]

I'm not familiar with Mac, but there are two out there that I know of---ABR Viewer, which crashes my system, never loads, and you can only preview one set at a time, and it takes FOREVER, and ABR View, which is very similar, but much less powerful (errr---meaning kind of useless?) and frustrating.

I have not found a sufficient method of previewing, short of previewing each set, doing a screen capture, and printing it out and putting it in a binder. Because I've not found something good, I have sadly underutilized my brushes.

So, I would recommend if you have the $15 and the full version will do what you want, buy it. It would probably be very worth it in the end.

***Edit--I just googled and found "BrushView QuickLook plugin" for Mac, it's free, and it works with QuickLook. Don't know what that is, but it looks easy to install. You might want to check that out.***

[iUma]

BrushView QuickLook is great!. Easy, free and works perfectly. Not the best quality preview but it works. ACDSee for Mac which is currently in Beta development (and truly sings) is using it coupled with Quicklook and it makes a great system. The full non-beta of ACDSee will be out probably in January - maybe before.

Definitely try Brushview Quicklook. If you buy the other one, let us know how it works, please.

[maureenreynolds]

Thanks for the hints. I usually prefer free, myself. ;-)

[Avas Mom]

Oh my!!! is the solution to my iphoto '09 issue?? Where's the iphoto maven, allynd?? teeeheee

[maureenreynolds]

Lynn said she didn't bother with brushes if I recall.

Having looked at ABR which is nice (and free) but as Heather said it is slow, and you have to load all the brushes you want to preview each time you use it. It isn't a program, and while one could leave it open all the time, there ARE times I do shut this computer off.

Quickview I couldn't make work. (I put it by itself in library as suggested, then in plug-ins, but no success.) It might work, but I didn't have any luck figuring it out.

If I don't find anything else I think I will spring for the $15. Brush Pilot looks like this when open and IT found all my brushes which is a big plus in my book.

[Chris]

I have so many brushes from way back before scrapbooking and my solution was to print the previews and keep them in a loose leaf binder. I tried many other ways and for me this is the best.
I also have loose leaf binders of my handwriting fonts (I have hundreds of these fonts!) and even thumbprints of my iphoto albums in a binder.

Remember I'm retired, the grandkids are all grown up and dh loves to watch CNN and his puzzles, so organizing my files and taking online classes is my life!!

I just thought ...a photo of these files could be my photo of the day!

[maureenreynolds]

Well since I am taking the Jessica Sprague brushes class, I checked the forums there last night, and apparently the organizing issue will be discussed Saturday. More will be revealed!
Chris, lots of great free brushes have no preview, tho I guess one could stamp all of them on one sheet and make a preview? I'm all those things you are but still have enough outside activities to take me away from the computer. I too love organizing!

[Chris]

I load them in Photoshop then pull up the largest thumbnail in the Preset Manager and copy them from there. You should find out a better way of organizing in Jessica Sprague's brushes class though!

[Amy L]

Maureen, so far I'm thinking I might try the Brush Pilot. Still trying to decide, but I have to do something!

[maureenreynolds]

Ok, Saturday has come and Jessica has for Windows - ACDC ($49.), PresetViewer($25.) ABR Viewer (free), and ABR view(free). She uses ACDC as an addition to her regular organization but is considering adding ABR view to see exported .png files for a good preview.

For Macs, it's BrushPilot ($15.) which will automatically install any brush to Photoshop. I see no way, right now, to install them into PSE, but I'm thinking there must be some way to easily access them once they are organized elsewhere on one's computer. I really do like the entire set preview. Right now on my trial version it is pulling all my brushes from wherever they are lurking on my computer. (Aha! that's where some of them went..Photoshop!)

The only other one for a Mac is the free ABRView which I may try again..just to be sure. That WILL do a png page to print or keep for a main preview.

Finally, none of the Mac programs can tag/keyword, and only ACDC and PresetView (the for $$programs) will allow you to tag.

Right now I'm happy enough with the trial version of BrushPilot to probably buy it. (Trial only shows 5 previews of each set.) But I'm gonna load the free ABRView one more time to see if it's enough.

Hope this helps. Maureen

[maureenreynolds]

And for those who like spreadsheets some one made one to compare all the 'brush organization software.' 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download BrushProgramComparison.xls