Using Photoshop brushes in Paint.NET (free Photoshop substitution)

July 17, 2008 | by bsilvia | Announcements, Photoshop Brushes, Tutorials | floral, floral shape, paint.bet brushes, Paint.NET, paint.net photoshop brushes, paint.net plugin, paint.net plugins, photo, photography, photoshop brushes, scrapbook ideas, scrapbooking

Today, we’re gonna talk about the free Photoshop substitution called Paint.NET. Apparently it is supposed to be the best freeware when it comes to photo editing, so, I thought, why not test it?

And, don’t worry, in Paint.NET you can still use Photoshop brushes with a little help from one plug-in but we’ll talk about it later.

When I went to download Paint.NET, the first thing that stunned me was the size of that software. 1.6Mb! Now, that’s small! It’s probably fast as well!

So, download was quick. Installation, not so much but to work with it is really fast. Of course the interface and the features of Paint.NET can’t come nowhere near the features of Photoshop, but keeping in mind the price difference (Paint.NET is free) and the average need of the designer-beginner, Paint.NET can be just fine.

So, here is the procedure on using Photoshop brushes in this free application:

Get Paint.NET
1. Download Paint.NET here (direct download link) ->
2. Paint.NET homepage ->

Get Paint.NET Custom Brush Plug-in
1. Download Custom Brushes Mini plug-in ->
To install Custom brush plug-in just place it to “Paint.NET/Effects” folder.

Get Paint.NET Custom Brushes
1. Paint.NET Custom brushes are basically .png files, ideally 100px x 100px, 96dpi
2. Such png files need to be copied to “My Documents\Paint.NET User Files\Custom Brushes”
3. In Paint.NET go to Effects -> Draw with custom brush (make sure you installed the plug-in first)

Please note: These brushes are downloadable in .png format. Since those are not in 100px x 100px (96dpi) the best way to use them, is to import them into Paint.NET using “Layers -> Import from File” command.

Get the FULL PREMIUM (18 brushes) Swirled Floral Edges Photoshop brushes set (including commercial license) ->

And Voila! That’s it!

So, if you’re hungry for more brushes, there are 22 Photoshop brushes sets with a total of 700+ HiRes professional brushes with commercial license in my little Shop. Prices start at $9.99 and they’re so cool and huge that they’re worth every single cent. And more. Don’t believe me? See for yourself ->

P.S.
If you want to convert the original Photoshop brushes to .png yourself here is the tutorial. This one is made for Paint Shop PRO, but the procedure for converting PS brushes to .png is the same ->

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Comments

Tags: floral, floral shape, paint.bet brushes, Paint.NET, paint.net photoshop brushes, paint.net plugin, paint.net plugins, photo, photography, photoshop brushes, scrapbook ideas, scrapbooking

31 Comments

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bsilvia
September 27, 2008 at 6:53 am
Thanks Kero!
kero
September 26, 2008 at 2:04 pm
you don’t have to open the plug-in. just straight away paste it into ‘effects’ folder and then open your paint.net program. after that, in paint.net windows, choose effect and click ‘draw with custom brush’. another window will be opened and in that window, click add brush and choose your .png file. *cheers^^*
feyy.
September 14, 2008 at 10:04 pm
hi, i’ve downloaded the plug-in under “Get Paint.NET Custom Brush Plug-in
1. Download Custom brush plug-in (direct link) ->
” and i placed it in the Paint.Net program file “Effects”. i’ve tried opening the plug-in but there is a pop-up stating that it can’t be opened because it is a .dll file extension. i have no idea where to go from here & i can’t seem to find a .dll file extension or any file extension opener program anywhere on the web. please help!!! much appreciated.
Nikki
September 6, 2008 at 6:38 pm
…I’m so confused! The plug-in doesn’t work (I click ‘Run’ and the message that comes up is; ‘This file does not have a program associated with it for preforming this action. Create an association in the Set Associations panel’… huh?), and I can’t find the Effects folder to but my brushes in! Help…?
123zzz
August 9, 2008 at 7:58 pm
when i download the plug in thing it comes up saying there is no file asociated with this or something
Nicola
July 28, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Thanks! They look great!
I didn’t pick that up from the tutorial above.
N
bsilvia
July 28, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Nicola, what you need to do is put .png files there, not .abr. So if you have .abr get the abrViewer software that I’m referring to in the post. Convert the .abr to .png using abrViewer and place .png files there.
Nicola
July 28, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Hi there
I just extracted the files to my desk top and saved them to where you state – (My Documents/Paint.net user files/custom brushes) but it’s just the .abr files that I downloaded, I can’t get the pngs. What I am doing wrong?
I have also installed the plug in and they don’t appear in that.
Please help.
Thanks
bsilvia
July 27, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Hi Tori,
We noticed that and updated the tutorial.
So, the best way to use “Swirled Floral Egdes” in Paint.NET is to import them using “Layers -> Import from File” command and manipulate them from there. (This is due to the brush size limitation in Paint.NET)
I am sorry for the inconvenience, I was supposed to emphasize that in the tutorial, but now I revised it.
Thanks,
Darijan
Tori
July 27, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Help! I did everything you said here but the brushes come out ugly! Meaning it automatically resizes to 100×100 and becomes bad! How do i fix this?