Creating Brushes for GIMP

[RobA]

To expand on what Joe said-

There are 4 basic brush types in Gimp.

1) Parametric - these you create simply by clicking the New Brush button in the brush pallet. This pops up a dialog to let you define how the brush looks:

brushes1.png

These are quite useful and often neglected. For example I have defined a number of calligraphic brushes in various "nib sizes" and angles that are handy in my brush dialog.

2) Image Based, Shape Only - Simply create a new greyscale image (NOT RGBA). Make sure it is flattened (one layer) and save it as a ".gbr" file in your brushes folder. The white corresponds to the transparent color and the levels of gray are used as value for the foreground color. when using this brush:
brush2.png

3) Image Based, Colour - Simply create a new RGBA file and also make sure it is flattened to one layer and save it as a ".gbr". It will paint just like it looks, not respecting the foregound colour choice:
brush3.png

Here is an example of those three in use:
brush_use.png

4) Image Hose - These are knows as animated brushes or angular brushes, or random brushes. They can be RGBA (like the vine brush) or B&W/alpha mapped. These will require a whole different post

-Rob A>