Exporting and Importing Brushes

You can also export and import your brushes. This is useful, for example if you want to share brushes with other users.

1.

To export a custom brush, in the Shelf palette, in the Personal shelf, Project shelf, or any other custom shelf you may have created, right-click a brush and select Save Item.

The Save Item dialog box prompts you to save the brush, as an .msi file.

Tip:  The first time you save or open items in Mari, it defaults to your home directory. Thereafter, Mari remembers the last folder you navigated to in that dialog box.

2.

Type a filename, and click Save.

Mari exports the brush.

3.

To import a brush, right-click in the Personal, Project or custom shelf and select Load Item.

The Import Item dialog box prompts you to select an .msi file.

4.

Navigate to and select the .msi file for the brush you want to import, and click Open.

Mari imports the brush.

Tip:  You can also import and export entire shelves (see Storing Resources Using Shelves).

Experiment:  Try creating a custom brush, exporting it, then deleting it from the shelf, and finally (re)importing it.

Importing a Custom Brush

Custom-made Photoshop brushes can be imported into Mari and stored in a custom shelf. These brushes are "stamp" brushes that do not take into consideration any variable size or spacing. The shape (or shapes) of the brush are imported into a custom shelf where you can set the preferences for the brush manually.

To import custom brushes:

1.

Navigate to Menubar | Tools > Import Brushes.

This opens an Import Brushes dialog.

2.

Select the Photoshop brush (.abr format) from the file location it was saved to, and click Open.

A new shelf is created and populated with the brush or brush parts. If there are multiple "stamp" images, you may need to set the preferences for the brush.

Note:  See Shelf Palette for more information about managing your brushes and items in Mari.

Note:  Brushes imported from Photoshop must be custom-made. If you try to import Photoshop’s default brushes, or any invalid brush, an error message displays and the brush fails to be imported.

Video:  Watch this video for more about how to import our Photoshop brushes into Mari.
This video shows the workflow using Mari 3. Even though the Mari 4 workspace is different, the workflow remains the same. To have a look at the main UI differences, see Mari 3.3 vs 4.0.