Double-tap the Pixel Brushes icon to view the list of brushes in different categories and choose the brush you like.
Last updated on
3 October 2024
- Adobe Fresco User Guide
- Introduction
- What's New in Adobe Fresco
- What is Adobe Fresco
- System Requirements for Adobe Fresco
- Release Notes for Adobe Fresco
- Adobe Fresco on the iPhone
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Accessibility in Fresco
- Adobe Fresco | Common questions
- Get started with the user interface
- Upgrade to a premium plan to access premium fonts
- Storage for Adobe Fresco
- Supported features on iPad and Windows devices
- Content authenticity (not available in mainland China)
- Draw, paint, animate, and share
- Layers
- Shapes in Adobe Fresco
- Pixel brushes
- Live brushes
- Vector brushes
- Mixer brushes
- Ribbon brushes
- Adjust pressure curve on stylus
- Colors
- Paint inside boundaries
- Apply motion to artwork
- Free Transform tool
- Magic Wand tool
- Smudge tool
- Liquify tool
- Add and modify text
- Elements
- Publish, export, and share
- Layer masks
- Access Creative Cloud libraries in Fresco
- Ruler
- Erasers
- Add your own font
- Grids alignment
- Symmetry
- Adobe Fresco and Creative Cloud apps
- Cloud documents
- Troubleshooting
- Examples, ideas, and inspiration
Learn how to draw, paint, and manage pixel brushes in Adobe Fresco.
Use Pixel Brushes and Live Brushes in the toolbar to access the collection of brushes for raster drawing, painting, and sketching.
You can also import your favorite Photoshop brushes from Kyle T. Webster's ever-growing brush collection.
Discover the joy of painting with thousands of pixel brushes
How to choose and fine-tune a pixel brush
Follow these steps to choose a pixel brush and customize its settings:
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Tap on Color to open the color panel and adjust the color and opacity.
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From the Tool Options at the bottom of the toolbar, you can change the brush size, flow, and smoothing as required.
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Tap the Brush Settings icon to adjust brush settings like spacing, angle, blend mode, stylus pressure, and more.
When you start drawing with the pixel brush, you'll notice this icon on the layer thumbnail, indicating that it's a pixel layer.
Note
You can add a range of mixer brushes to blend and mix multiple colors naturally while using pixel brushes.
Explore and choose from a vast collection of categorized Pixel brushes and mark your favorite ones for quick access.
Explore the various settings to change the default brush form and view the changes live in the preview box. Press the reset button at the bottom to return to the default form.
Tips to customize your pixel brushes
Types of pixel brushes
|
Brush Type |
When to use |
|---|---|
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Basic |
Make standard round brushes to create basic drawings. |
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Comics |
Adobe Illustrator Draw comics using Cross Hatch and Halftone brushes. |
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Charcoal |
Make gesture studies, loose sketches, or figure construction. |
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Dry Media |
Blend sketches with paintings using Pencil, Pastel, Graphite, Crayon, and Chalk brushes (Barrel roll enabled with soft and hard pastel brushes). |
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FX |
Create artwork with special effects using Clouds, Dusty, Foliage, and Ink brushes (Barrel roll enabled with the smoke wispy brush). |
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Ink |
Create calligraphic artwork using Comics, Brush, Blake, Fountain pens, and Belgian and Classic comic brushes. |
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Lettering |
Design sign paintings, calligraphic, blueprints, and posters using Chisel, Chunk, Comics Letterer, Gritty, and Letter Rake brushes (Barrel roll enabled with the small chisel brush). |
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Marker |
Render your ideas with realistic digital markers using Marker Brush and Chisel brushes. |
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Mixer |
Mix colors on the canvas and combine colors on a brush. |
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Painting |
Design various paintings using Canvas, Cezanne, Bristle, and Blair brushes. |
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Rakes |
Create multi-line strokes on canvas using Grit, Short, Textured, Tilt, and Pressure brushes (Barrel roll enabled with the big rake brush). |
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Sketching |
Make sketches before painting using Pencil and Pen sketching brushes. |
Pixel brush settings
As you change a setting, you can preview the effect live while drawing in the Brush Settings panel. Tap on the reset icon, at the bottom of the panel, to go back to the default settings. You can also adjust the pressure curve for better stylus pressure.
Hardness
Use the slider to adjust the size of the hard center of your brush. The brush stroke is blurred at the minimum value, while the clarity of the brush stroke is sharp and clear at the maximum value.
Spacing
Use the slider to adjust the spaces in your brush strokes. The brush stroke is continuous at the minimum value, while the brush stroke is separated like a dotted line at the maximum value.
Angle
Use the slider to tweak the angle of your brush so you can draw chiseled strokes. The roundness of your brush tip should be a smaller value for getting brush strokes with sharper angles.
Blend mode
Choose an option to set how two colors blend.
Scattering
Choose how you want the brush tip to scatter along the axes to create a spraylike stroke.
Enhance any paint's color, hue, saturation, brightness, jitter settings, and color dynamics while drawing any stroke.
To modify your color dynamics, tap on Brush settings and then on Color dynamics to pick one of the brush options from below:
|
Brush settings |
Used to |
|---|---|
|
Off |
Specify no control over the color variance of brush marks. |
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Fade |
Vary the color of paint between the foreground color and the background color. |
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Pen Pressure / Pen Tilt / Stylus Wheel / Rotation |
Modify the paint color between the foreground and background colors based on the pen pressure, tilt, position, or rotation. |
|
Hue Jitter |
Define a percentage by which the paint hue can vary in a stroke. Type a number, or use the slider to enter a value. |
|
Saturation Jitter |
Choose a percentage by which the paint saturation can vary in a stroke. Type a number, or use the slider to enter a value. |
|
Brightness Jitter |
Mention a percentage by which the paint brightness can vary in a stroke. Type a number, or use the slider to enter a value. |
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Purity |
Increase or decrease the saturation of the color. Type a number, or use the slider to enter a percentage between –100 and 100. |
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Apply per tip |
Specify changing color for each distinct tip stamp in a stroke. If unchecked, dynamic changes occur once at the beginning of each stroke. |
Note
To set a percentage by which the paint color can vary, type a number, or use the slider to enter a value.
Set the size and roundness of the brush.
Note
Use the new Apple Pencil Pro's barrel roll with the new built-in brushes labeled roll. Navigate to Shape dynamics > Angle Control > Roll to enable it for most pixel brushes. Squeeze the barrel for quick access to recently used brushes, colors, brush size, and undo/redo options.
Photoshop pixel brushes are industry-standard brushes. In addition to the default pixel brushes, import Photoshop brushes saved to your library, or choose from the vast collection of celebrated brushmaker Kyle T. Webster.
Follow these steps to import more pixel brushes:
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Select the + icon at the bottom of the Pixel Brushes panel.
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Do the following:
- For Kyle T. Webster's brushes, select Discover new brushes and sign in to adobe.com.
- For your favorite pixel brushes, select Import from files, navigate to the downloaded file, and select the file.
Manage brushes
You can hide all the brushes you never use by hiding entire Pixel brush categories or any individual brushes within categories.
Note
At least one brush collection must be visible. You cannot hide all of your brush collections.
Follow these steps to manage your brushes:
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Tap Pixel brushes
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Tap the More options icon in the upper-right corner, and then tap Manage pixel brushes.
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Select the category of brushes that you want to hide and toggle the setting to off. You can also hide specific brushes within a category.
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Tap the Show all or Hide all options at the bottom, to show, or hide all the pixel brushes.
Hide and show brushes
Go to App settings > Account > Local storage > Clear brush cache to clear the cache for unused brushes and reclaim storage space. Tap on a brush to download it for immediate use.
Brush stamp preview
Brush stamp preview enables you to use pixel brushes and erasers more precisely by creating patterns the moment your finger or pencil touches the screen surface. Your brush stamp preview is set to Off by default.
Note
Live brushes or Vector erasers can also use the brush stamp preview feature.
Follow these steps to enable the brush stamp preview:
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Select Settings > App settings.
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Choose Input > Brushes. You can increase or decrease the stamp size by altering the brush size.
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Set the Brush Preview indicator, which is set to Off by default, to Brush stamp.
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Click Pixel brushes icon, select any brush from the menu, and pick a color from the Color wheel.
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Touch down the canvas and see that the stamp preview has a clear outline for identification.
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Move around and with every stroke see the stamp preview.
Here are some sample previews of brush stamps:
Sample preview of brush stamp with pixel brushes
Sample preview of brush stamp as oil paint
More like this
Now that you've started drawing, painting, and working with pixel brushes, take a step forward and learn about live brushes, mixer brushes, and vector brushes.
Join our community to connect, learn, and engage
For inspiration, expert tips, and solutions to common issues, visit the Adobe Fresco Community forum. Connect with our team and fellow users to exchange ideas, share your creations, stay updated with the latest features and announcements, and provide feedback.
