Custom Brush Tool

The Custom Brush Tool allows you to create your own brush, and adjust all the properties used during the drawing of a brush stroke. After selecting the tool, the Edit Brush Style button will open the Custom Brush Editor dialog to allow you to create a new brush, or edit properties of the current brush.

Custom Brush Editor

Test Surface

On the left side of the dialog is a small surface where you can test your settings by drawing some sample strokes. Changing a setting will clear the surface, and the Clear Test Surface button will allow you to manually clear the surface.

Brush Selection

An image selection list allows you to select from any of the saved brushes.

The Load Custom Image button will allow you to select an image to use as a stamp to create your own brush with. In most cases, an image with a transparent background will create the best results.

The Load Brush Pack button loads .arb brush pack files created for Photoshop. These are commonly available online. DrawPad is able to load most of these, however, some versions are not supported.

The Use Stroke Color checkbox will allow you to replace all the colors in the image with the current Stroke Color. Only transparent pixels will be unchanged.

Brush Radius

This is the radius of the brush in pixels.
Valid values range from 1 - 250 pixels.

Roundness

This is the ratio of width to height. A value of 100 leaves the brush as it is (perfectly round), while a value of zero will flatten the brush into a horizontal line.
Valid values range from 0 - 100.

Spacing

This is distance between each step (where a stamp is drawn) of the stroke. The value is a percentage of the brush size. A value of 100 means that each new stamp will start after the previous has ended. A value of 50 would have each new stamp start in the middle of the previous one.
Valid values range from 1 - 100.

Rotation

Stamp rotation in degrees.
Valid values range from 0 - 360.

Flip Vertically and Flip Horizontally

When enabled, these checkboxes will flip the stamp image.

Count

This is how many stamps are drawn at each step along the path. Without a partially transparent stamp, or Jitter Scatter, you will not notice any difference in the stroke.

Count Fade

For values greater than 0, this will decrease the count at each step until it reaches 1. This value is how many steps until the count reaches 1. So if this value is 10 and the count is 10, the first step would have 10 stamps, the second would have 9 stamps, the third would have 8 stamps, and so on.

Jitter Scatter

Randomly adjusts the position of the stamp at each step. This value is a percentage of the brush size, so a value of 100 would allow a stamp to be one entire diameter away from the normal location of the stamp.
Valid values range from 0 - 100.

Jitter Rotation

Randomly rotates the stamp placed at each step. This value is in degrees of rotation, and the rotation could be either clockwise or counter-clockwise.
Valid values range from 0 - 180.

Jitter Count

Randomly adjusts the Count at each step. This value is the maximum percentage of the Count that is placed at each step. So with a Count of 10, and a Jitter Count of 100, the number of stamps at each step will be somewhere between 1 and 10.
Valid values range from 0 - 100. A value of 0 will disable this option.

Jitter Size

Randomly adjusts the size of the stamp at each step. This value is a percentage of the brush size, which is the maximum amount that the size will be increased or decreased. With a Radius of 50 with Jitter Size of 50, the stamp size could be anywhere from 50 - 150. With a Jitter Size of 100, the stamp size could be 0 - 200.
Valid values range from 0 - 100. A value of 0 will disable this option.

Scatter Horizontally/Vertically/All Directions

Lets you decide to scatter only horizontally, only vertically, or in any direction.

Pressure Sensitivity

If you have a pressure sensitive touchpad connected and enabled, this will allow you to select which option can be controlled by your drawing pressure.

Radius: Light pressure will result in a smaller radius, while higher pressure will result in a larger radius, up to the specified Brush Radius.

Spacing: Light pressure will result in smaller spacing, while higher pressure will result in more spacing, up to the specified Spacing.

Count: Light pressure will result in fewer stamps at each step, while higher pressure will result in more stamps at each step, up to the specified Count.

Count Jitter: Light pressure will result in less count jitter (each step will be have closer to Count number of stamps), while higher pressure will result in more jitter, up to the specified Jitter Count.

Scatter Jitter: Light pressure will result in less scattering, while higher pressure will result in more scattering, up to the specified Jitter Scatter.

Size Jitter: Light pressure will result in a smaller adjustment to the size, while higher pressure will result in more adjustment of the size, up to the specified Jitter Size.

Rotation Jitter: Light pressure will result in fewer degrees of random rotation, while higher pressure will result in more rotation, up to the specified Jitter Rotation.