Using a Path to Make a Dotbrush in Photoshop:

Are you ready to make a super cool square dot brush using a path in Photoshop? You can use this tutorial to also make a square dot brush. The screen shots are made in Photoshop CS2 but this will work just as well in Photoshop 7 and CS.

Hint- (Brushes made in CS and CS2 will work in Photoshop Elements 3 but not Photoshop 7 or Photoshop Elements 2. Brushes made in Photoshop 7 will work in Photoshop CS CS2 and Photoshop Elements 3).

First we need to open up a new transparent background. I will be working with a 12x12inch 200dpi size. The reason I like this size is because brushes cannot be bigger than 2400pixel and an 12inch paper at 200dpi is 2400pixels (cool) so my brush if I want it will cover my entire layout. This tutorial should work perfect if you follow my steps, if you change the paper size or dpi then you will have to play around a little with all the settings. But you can do it!!!

File > New and set your size-

Here comes the fun part. Since we are going to make a square brush, we need to first draw a square on our background. I will use the shape tool on the tool bar to do this. If you do not have the rectangle tool visible, just right click on the little fly out arrow and select the rectangle tool by clicking on it.

Click on the rectangle tool, now I want to make an exact shape, click on the fly out arrow and then tick the fixed size and fill in the width and height with 11inches each. This will make a square of 11in x11in on our background. (almost filling up the paper).

To put the square in the center on your background click on the top left hand side of the background. (the square will then be drawn to the right and below where you click). If the square falls off your background, click Edit > undo and do it over until it fits. It always takes me several tries to get it like I want it.

Your document should look similar to this. Notice where my cross hair cursor is (top left hand side- this is where I click to draw my square).

Now we need to get our brush ready to draw dots. Click on the brush tool. Then open up the tool box and make the changes as you see below.

Select the basic brushes from this menu. This will load up all the circle brushes. Change your master diameter to 80px and hardness to 100% as shown in the picture above.

Next we will change how the brush is drawn on the paper. Click on the brushes palette in Photoshop to open it.

Click on the "Brush Tip Shape" to open up the window that looks like mine below. Slide the slider on the spacing to 145%.

Now that we have our brush ready we will make our Path from our square in Photoshop. Your layers palette should look very similar to mine. Add a new layer by clicking on the new layer icon at the bottom of the palette.

Click back on your square layer to make it the active layer.

Click on the square shape to make this the active layer and then hold down on the Control Key and click on the layer with the square shape again. This will load the shape as a selection to make a path from. You will notice this puts marching ants around our selection. Click on the Path tab.

Click on the icon that looks like a head with a wig on it. This will make our path.

Your path pallette will look similar to this.

Click on the layers tab at the top and click in the blank layer you have previously made to select it.

Go back to your path tab, click on the brush tool (from the tool bar- this just gets your brush ready) and then click on the stroke path with brush icon. (We have already set up our brush to work perfectly with this path). Go back to your layers and stand back and say WOW!! Don't be alarmed that you see the square shape covering up part of your dots. You can always turn off the visibility of the square (by clicking on the little eye) or simply delete the square layer when you are completely satisfied with your brush stoke. You can always undo and change the size and distance of your brush to modify this a little. Feel free to play.

Once you like the look of your circle, simply drag and drop the square shape into the trash can. You should now be left with only the square of dots. You may notice a fine line that is in a square shape. You can delete this by going back to your path tab and dragging and the path layer into the trash can.

You should have a nice looking square made of dots.

Now we want to make a brush to save from all this hard work, so we can use it over and over again.

Open up your brush tool box again. I like to save my brushes and give them a name. So delete all the brushes in this box (make sure to save all the new ones you have previously made- skip down a few steps to learn how to do this), do this by holding down on the ALT ket and clicking on each brush. You will see a little scissors appear as you cut away the brushes. Cut all of them away. Don't worry the all default Photoshop brushes are already saved on your hard drive.

Draw a selection around your square. Using the marquee tool.

Edit > Define Brush Preset - to make your brush. Name your brush and click OK.

Click on the fly out menu arrow, and Save Brushes. This will save the brush you made as a brush set. You can always add more brushes to this brush set.

I have a folder called Brushes in My documents folder that I save all my brushed to. Otherwise this new brush set will be saved to the Photoshop preset brush folder. Which is also fine. Name you brush set and save. Remember to back these up occasionally so you do not lose all your hard work.

Remember there are many different ways to work with paths and brushes, I have given you just one example. Have fun and think out-side of the box to come up with your versions. Please share your creations with everyone by posting your layouts.