[Figure 1.41] Save brushes.

[Figure 1.42] Save the brushes’ location.

4. To save your brushes for later access, open the Brush palette submenu and click Save Brushes. Next, navigate and create a folder that you know you will be able to find when you need access to your brushes. In this example, the Folder on the desktop is named Brushes and the file name is Custom Brushes (see Figures 1.41 and 1.42).

Experiment with your brush settings and discover the wide range of creative uses of the Brush engine. Also, be organized by saving the brushes under meaningful names that relate to your workflow, for example, hair brushes, smoke brushes, texture brushes, and so on. Now that you have an understanding of the brushes, let’s take a look at the new Adobe Bridge interface.

[Figure 1.43] The Adobe Bridge interface.

The Adobe Bridge Interface
The new Adobe Bridge has gone through some significant changes to allow more effective organization and categorizing of imagery. Selecting, categorizing, applying metadata, editing metadata, and previewing digital images can be done faster within an interface that is visually appealing and fun to work with.

The interface, as shown in Figure 1.43, looks very much like its predecessor.

The interface is divided up into five sections as follows:

Folders (A): Access any location on your hard drive through this folder browser.

Filter (B): Preview the thumbnails that have any or all of the designations that you choose from the Filter menu section. Some of the options used to preview your images are Ratings, Keywords, Date Created, Date Modified, Orientation, and Aspect Ratio.

Content (C): View the results of your filters or any images from a selected location on your hard drive.

Preview (D): Get an enlarged preview of the selected image or images.

Metadata/Keywords (E): Preview and edit your metadata. In addition, in the Keywords tab, you can create and designate keywords to one image or a group of images.

[Figure 1.44] Reducing thumbnail size.

[Figure 1.45] Increasing thumbnail size.

When previewing a large group of images, it is also helpful to be able to adjust the size of the image for easier viewing, as shown in Figures 1.44 and 1.45. Use the slider to resize your thumbnails on the lower-right corner of the interface.

[Figure 1. 46] View of Essentials workflow.

[Figure 1. 47] View of Filmstrip workflow.

[Figure 1. 48] View of Metadata workflow.

Bridge Viewing Options
Next, you’ll see a series of images that will reflect the various workflow styles. On the top right-hand corner of the interface, you can see a series of displayed options. By default, Essentials is selected. Click the Filmstrip, Metadata, and Output to view the interfaces we organized to accommodate your individual work style (see Figures 1.46–1.48).