Although Photoshop comes with an excellent array of built-in brushes, many users often find that they need other styles that aren't available in the software itself, such as flowers, trees, swirls or grunge. Rather than spending hours meticulously coding and designing a new set of brushes, home and professional users alike can purchase a variety of high-quality Photoshop brushes from a number of reputable sources online.
Whether you're a graphic designer, photographer, scrapbooker or someone who just likes to create interesting designs in Photoshop, there is a brush-selling website out there for you. With a variety of price points available, anyone from home users to corporate entities will find agreeable options. Don't waste time on unreliable or low-quality downloads. Invest in a set or multi-set pack that will work properly every time and create designs worth sharing.
Here you'll find a side-by-side comparison of websites that sell the best Photoshop brushes for painting, such as our top-rated sites Arsenal, Designious and WeGraphics. You'll also find articles about purchasing Photoshop brushes and tips on how to best utilize them.
Not all Photoshop brush web services are created equal. Some produce low-quality products, while others may be a front for a group that installs malicious software on your computer. Here are a few key topics to keep in mind as you search for Photoshop brushes to ensure that you get the best-quality product available.
Website Features
Perhaps the first thing you should look at is how many different sets or packs are available from a particular website. Generally, higher-quality sites can provide a larger number of options. Sometimes, sites that sell brushes will also offer brush samples. These are often a great way to give the site a test run, so to speak, before you make a purchase.
Brush previews should provide clear visuals as to what your brushes will look like when you use them. The website should also specify whether the brushes are royalty free and whether they can be used for commercial purposes. Look for sites that sell packs of multiple sets in addition to individual brush sets. Some sites provide sales or discounts, newsletters, blog posts, memberships or the opportunity to connect with them via social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
Supported Versions
Before you make a purchase, make sure the brushes will work properly with your computer and version of Photoshop. Sites should ensure that their brushes will work on both Mac and PC operating systems and all the recent versions of Photoshop. Earlier-version compatibility is a plus.
Ease of Use
It should be a simple process to find the style of brush you're looking for. You should be able to do a simple search or search by name, style or popularity. The website should be easy to navigate, and the checkout process should be smooth and secure.
Variety
There are literally infinite possibilities when it comes to brush styles. For our review, we surveyed whether each site offers any of 25 different styles or categories of brushes, although there are certainly far more than 25 categories available. While you shouldn't expect any one site to offer every single brush style there is, a strong sampling of the most popular or commonly used styles is best.
Help & Support
There should be a variety of options to help you select, purchase, download and install your Photoshop brushes. An email address or phone number to contact technical support is imperative. FAQs are helpful, and a user forum or message board can be an invaluable resource if you run into installation issues. Finally, you should see if the site provides specific installation instructions for both PC and Mac systems.
To be sure, no two sites are the same. Some are simply outstanding while others fall a little behind. Find the site that best suits your needs and offers the greatest value by checking out our side-by-side comparison of websites for Photoshop brushes.
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| Rank | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10 |
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Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor
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Arsenal | Designious | WeGraphics | Brush Lovers | Green Bulb Gang | Commercial Photoshop Brushes | Designfruit | Vandelay Premier | Vector Pack | Azigos |
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Lowest Price per Set |
$9.99 |
$10.00 |
$4.99 |
$3.00 |
$3.50 |
$9.00 |
$9.00 |
$5.00 |
$9.50 |
$4.95 |
| Overall Rating | ||||||||||
| Ratings | ||||||||||
| Website Features | ||||||||||
| Variety | ||||||||||
| Supported Versions | ||||||||||
| Ease of Use | ||||||||||
| Help & Support | ||||||||||
| Pricing | ||||||||||
| Set Cost | $9.99 | $10 | $4.99 | $3 | $3.50 | $9 | $9 | $5 | $9.50 | $4.95 |
| Pack/Collection Cost | $34.99 | $12 | $27 | $19 | ||||||
| Monthly Memberships | $7 | $49 | $27 | |||||||
| Annual Memberships | $69 | $160 | $79 | $19.95 | ||||||
| Web Features | ||||||||||
| Number of Paid Packs Available | 109 | 131 | 95 | 101 | 56 | 51 | 13 | 53 | 22 | 9 |
| Number of Sets/Collections Available | 20 | 4 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| Free Brushes | ||||||||||
| Preview Brushes | ||||||||||
| Brushes Can Be Used Commercially | ||||||||||
| Social Media | ||||||||||
| Sales/Discounts | ||||||||||
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| Newsletter | ||||||||||
| Brushes Can Be Altered by Buyer | ||||||||||
| Variety | ||||||||||
| Apparel | ||||||||||
| Arrows | ||||||||||
| Artistic | ||||||||||
| Asian-Influenced | ||||||||||
| Birds, Insects and Animals | ||||||||||
| Buildings and Urban Elements | ||||||||||
| Fire and Flames | ||||||||||
| Florals and Other Plants | ||||||||||
| Frames, Borders, Tags and Scrolls | ||||||||||
| Geometric Shapes, Fractals and Radials | ||||||||||
| Grunge, Destroy and Noise Effects | ||||||||||
| Halftones | ||||||||||
| Hearts | ||||||||||
| Light and Smoke Effects | ||||||||||
| Lines, Scribbles and Abstract Elements | ||||||||||
| Other | ||||||||||
| Patterns and Textures | ||||||||||
| People and Anatomy | ||||||||||
| Religious | ||||||||||
| Renaissance, Heraldry and Weapons | ||||||||||
| Skulls | ||||||||||
| Stains and Splatters | ||||||||||
| Stars and Starbursts | ||||||||||
| Swirls and Arabesques | ||||||||||
| Tribal | ||||||||||
| Wings and Feathers | ||||||||||
| Supported Versions | ||||||||||
| Photoshop CS 5.5 | ||||||||||
| Photoshop CS 5 | ||||||||||
| Photoshop CS 4 | ||||||||||
| Photoshop CS 3 | ||||||||||
| Photoshop CS 2 | ||||||||||
| Photoshop CS | ||||||||||
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