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To get brushes to work in PSP

You will need to import them. This means you will have to take them out of what you already have and put them back in. Follow these steps.

  1. Close PSP
  2. Open your PSP folder on your hard drive. The one you have all your files stored in. You will want to locate your Brush folder. DO NOT open it.
  3. Right click on the Brushes folder, click Rename. Rename it to Brush. Or make a new folder named Brush.
  4. If you have been saving all your brushes in other folders, you will want to move them all to the folder you just renamed/created. Don't just copy them into the new folder or you'll end up with 2 copies of your brushes. Once all the brushes are put into 1 folder, remove all other folders you have used for brushes.
  5. Open PSP, make sure your Brush tool has nothing in it but maybe the squares and circles.
  6. Click File, Preferences, Reset Preferences.
  7. Uncheck all the check boxes except the one that says Delete all cache files.
  8. Click Ok.
  9. Close PSP.
  10. Turn off your computer. Once it's completely shut down, count to 10 and turn it back on. This will clear out all the cache in your computer.
  11. Ok open your PSP.
  12. Click on File, Import, Custom Brush.
  13. From here you choose the folder with your brushes and add them in.
  14. Follow the on screen instructions.
  15. Restart PSP and your brushes should be there.
  16. From now on save brushes in your My Documents
If you have missing brushes (these would be the brushes that show up in the list as circles) you can easily remove them by adding a step to the above. Before Step 5 above, go into the folder with all your brushes, sort your folder by type. Remove all PSPScript files. Then continue on to Step 5 above.

If you have missing brushes you may be wondering why they show up as circles in the brush list menu. This is because the script file associated with the brush is either missing or corrupt. In most cases your PSP will recreate this file when you import a brush. If it doesn't you can open the PSPBrush file in PSP and export it. Be sure to name it the same as it's named now and don't claim the brush as your own if it's not. This will create the script file you need for your brush to show up.

Brushes are the one thing in PSP that really needs work. Files go corrupt for many reasons (virus, damaged hard drive sectors, etc.) so a little maintanence once or twice a year will ensure that your brushes work great when you want them.