Every brush is assigned a Brush Type, which defines the brush's properties separately from the brush stroke. Changing the Brush Type will cause it to take on different properties while retaining the stroke.
Brush Type is found near the top of the Brush Properties window.
What Brush Types are there?
There are two groups of brush types. Standard is included in the first group and is set as the default brush type for many brushes. The second group, Blend Modes, work like the layer blend modes but only apply the blend mode where you paint..
- Standard
- Marker
- Smudge
- Glow
- Eraser
- Synthetic Paint
- Colorless
- Natural Blend
Blend Mode Brush Types
- Darken
- Multiply
- Color Burn
- Linear Burn
- Lighten
- Screen
- Color Dodge
- Linear Dodge (Add)
- Overlay
- Soft Light
- Hard Light
- Hue
- Saturation
- Color
- Luminosity
Using Blend Mode brushes
A Blend Mode brush is any brush that has a blend mode assigned to it. Blend modes change the color of the pixels you paint over.
When you want to apply the effects of a blend mode to only a specific area of a layer instead of the entire layer, you can use a blend mode brush.
- To darken where you paint, try Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, or Linear Burn.
- To lighten where you paint, try Lighten, Screen, or Linear Dodge (Add).
- For contrast, try Overlay, Soft Light, or Hard Light.
- To change components of the color, try Hue, Saturation, Color, or Luminosity.
