Without the
Expanded View, the Brushes palette is similar to the older Brushes
palette, where you simply chose a brush. (This, by the way, is also
the view you'll see when accessing the palette from the left end of
the Options Bar.) 
The Brushes
palette is similar to the Layer Style dialog box - you can check a
box on the far left to apply the current values of an option
without seeing them, or you can click on the name in the left
column to open the particular pane of the brushes palette.
The
top entry in the left column, Brush Presets, shows you the
available brushes. Once you have selected a brush, you can adjust
its size using the Master Diameter slider in the Brush Presets
pane. You can also move to other panes of the Brushes palette to
modify the brush's appearance and behavior. To change the content
of the Brush Presets, use the palette menu commands Reset Brushes
(restore the default set as specified in Preset Manager), Load
Brushes (add to or replace the content of the palette), Save
Brushes (create a set that can be loaded at another time), Replace
Brushes (delete the current content and add a different set of
brushes). The Brush Presets pane is the only one in which these
menu commands are active. You can delete and rename individual
brushes using the palette menu. 
While most of
the menu commands are straight-forward, a few require additional
clarification. EXPANDED VIEW: The default Expanded View mode
for the Brushes palette, seen earlier in this section, enables you
to customize brushes using all of the brush options. If you have
already created all the brushes you'll need and selected their
options, you can simplify the palette by deselecting this option
from the menu. You select a pre-set brush by clicking on it.
Double-clicking enables you to change the brush's name. The content
of the palette can be changed using the palette's menu, but in the
simplified view, the brushes themselves cannot be edited. CLEAR
BRUSH CONTROLS: This command deselects all of the
user-definable settings for the selected brush. The brush reverts
to the basic brush tip shape, using the Angle, Roundness, Hardness,
and Spacing settings with which it was originally defined. Note:
Clearing the controls does not permanently change the brush, but
you can clear the controls and then use the New Brush command to
save the changes. COPY TEXTURE TO OTHER TOOLS: When you
painstakingly prepare a texture for a specific brush, you can use
the New Brush command to save your work. However, if you quickly
whip up a texture for a little touch-up to an image, you may want
to simply use the Copy Texture to Other Tools command to make that
texture available for the editing job at hand. For example, if you
match the grain of an image for the Burn tool, rather than going
through the process again for the Dodge tool, you can use this
command. The tools to which the texture will be matched are Brush,
Pencil, Eraser, Clone Stamp, Pattern Stamp, History Brush, Art
History Brush, Dodge, Burn, and Sponge. Note: Copying a custom
texture doesn't apply it to the other tools, but rather makes it
available to the tools. If you change tools, you might still need
to open the Brushes palette and check the Texture box to activate
your custom texture. PRESET MANAGER: This command opens the
Preset Manager, which enables you to customize the content of the
Brushes palette. You can also open the Preset Manager through the
Edit menu. Customizing the Brushes palette can streamline the
search for the appropriate brush. Remember, too, that you can save
sets of brushes that can be loaded through the Brushes palette menu
or selected as the default in the Preset Manager. In the following
columns, we'll look at the individual panes of the Brushes palette,
what they have to offer, and how to apply their options.
Special thanks to www.planetphotoshop.com for allowing us to reprint their Photoshop tutorials here at Renderosity. You can e-mail Pete Bauer, the author of this article, at peterbauer@columbus.rr.com.
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