Note:
This article is relevant to Adobe Photoshop CC versions 2015.5 and earlier. Beginning with the CC 2017 release, Photoshop provides a new document creation experience. While creating a new document, you can now choose from a choose from a wide variety of templates from Adobe Stock and blank presets. For details, see Create documents.
You can migrate presets from earlier versions of Photoshop into newer versions. The Migrate Presets command lets you automatically migrate brushes, swatches, gradients, patterns, and more.
From an expert: Migrating presets into Photoshop
The Preset Manager lets you manage the libraries of preset brushes, swatches, gradients, styles, patterns, contours, custom shapes, and preset tools that come with Photoshop. For example, you can use the Preset Manager to change the current set of preset items or create new libraries. After you load a library in the Preset Manager, you can access the library’s items in locations such as the options bar, panels, dialog boxes, and so on.
In general, when you change a preset, Photoshop prompts you to save the changes as a new preset so that both the original and changed preset remain available.
Each type of library has its own file extension and default folder. Preset files are installed on your computer inside the Presets folder in the Adobe Photoshop application folder.
To open the Preset Manager, choose Edit > Presets > Preset Manager. Choose an option from the Preset Type menu to switch to a specific preset type.
You can adjust the configuration of presets by clicking the panel menu button and choosing a display mode from the top section of the menu:
Stroke Thumbnail
Displays a sample brush stroke and brush thumbnail of each brush preset. (This option is available for brush presets only.)
To rearrange the list of items, drag an item up or down in the list.
Note:
To delete a preset in the Preset Manager, select the preset and click Delete. You can always use the Reset command to restore the default items in a library.
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- Click the triangle to the right of the Preset Type pop‑up menu and then choose a library file from the bottom of the panel menu. Click OK to replace the current list, or click Append to add the current list.
- To add a library to the current list, click Load, select the library file you want to add, and click Load.
- To replace the current list with a different library, choose Replace [Preset Type] from the panel menu. Select the library file you want to use, and click Load.
Note:
Each type of library has its own file extension and default folder.
The default locations for saving/loading/replacing presets are hidden by default in Windows.
See Show hidden files and folders to learn how to view hidden items.
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