In terms of variety, compatibility and a helpful support staff, WeGraphics is an excellent source for buying Photoshop brushes. However, browsers beware: WeGraphics seems to cater more toward shoppers who are looking for a specific type of brush because there is no way to preview the brushes on the main browsing page. However, the site is easy to use and offers a decent array of features, leading us to name it our TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award winner.
Although the actual number of brush sets that WeGraphics offers is slightly lower than the top two sites we reviewed, 95 sets is still a solid number. Unfortunately, these sets are not supplemented by packs or collections of brushes, forcing you to buy sets piecemeal. There are a decent number of free sets, but the premium sets are reasonably priced and are much better in terms of quality and variety.
Although you cannot preview brushes on the main browsing page, clicking on a set to open its detail page gives you access to the brush preview images. They are detailed and usually available both as a black-and-white image and as a colored image that shows how the brush might be used. There's even an option to download a free sample of any set, which is a relatively rare and incredibly convenient option.
You can use these Photoshop brushes for both commercial and personal use without paying royalties, and WeGraphics is one of the few websites that allow you to make changes to the brushes after you buy them, as long as you don't later resell or redistribute them.
You can keep up with the website via its blog or social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook. Instead of a standard newsletter, you can sign up for email updates. If you pay for a membership, you can download the premium, paid-for brush sets for free.
Although WeGraphics doesn't hit a few key categories, such as apparel, fire or flames, holidays, arrows, Asian-influenced, heraldry or hearts, it still offers a wide variety of useful Photoshop brushes. The animal-themed sets are particularly varied and include fish, other sea creatures, cold-blooded animals, seagulls and butterflies. The artistic variations are also well represented, with textures such as brush strokes, pencil lead, ink strokes, dry paint strokes and a number of watercolor options.
We liked the grunge effects, which included shattered glass, noise effects and vintage themes in addition to a few different typical grunge themes. There is also a great variety of light and smoke effects and various textures and patterns.
Perhaps the strongest brush style is the stain and splatter category, which has more than a dozen different splatter effects utilizing various media such as ink and bleach, wrinkled ink, type splatters, ink squirts and more. Other categories such as abstract scribbles, geometric designs, skulls, and plants and floral, are present, with several options. Miscellaneous sets include strips of tape, oil slick, burnt edges, torn edges, dust and dirt, ripped edges and even zombies.
Other categories are represented, although with only one or two brush sets to show. These include the tribal, wings, stars, buildings, religious, people, halftones and swirls styles.
WeGraphics is the highest-rated site we reviewed whose PS brushes are compatible with the versions of Photoshop that were released before the creative suite versions. Of course, the brushes also work with Photoshop CS through Photoshop CS 5.5 as well.
WeGraphics offers the standard, simple search-bar function so you can easily search for brush sets by keyword. There's also the option to sort the brushes by style or category. This is achieved by clicking any of the keywords – such as abstract, decorative, dirty and grunge, miscellaneous elements, nature or paint – that line the top of the browsing screen. We would have liked to see an option that allows you to sort the PS brushes by price or popularity, but this isn't a huge drawback.
Help and support options with WeGraphics are terribly sparse. We were only able to find a FAQs page and a contact form. However, when we used the form to ask a question, the support team answered us within 12 hours, which is a fantastic response time for any tech team.
A truly outstanding array of help and support options would include a contact phone number and brush-installation instructions at the very least. Other tools, like live chat or tutorials (either external links or those housed on the site) would be great additions as well.
Although the site's general ease of use could be improved a bit with browsing previews and better search and sort options, we found WeGraphics to be quite a contender among its peers. To be sure, WeGraphics has enough website features and variety in Photoshop brushes selection, as well as a responsive enough technical support team, to make it a solid choice for both home and professional users.
