What does an .abr file hold?
An .abr file is a set of Photoshop brush presets. Each preset is a tip (an image, or a round shape built from settings) plus the Brush Settings that control how Photoshop paints with it.
| Part of the .abr | What the viewer does with it |
|---|---|
| Image tips (sampled brushes) | Shows them and saves them as PNG at full size, 8-bit or 16-bit |
| Round tips (computed brushes) | Draws them from size, hardness, roundness and angle |
| Brush names | Shows them and names each PNG after its brush |
| Spacing | Shows it as a percentage of the tip size |
| Shape Dynamics, Scattering, Texture, Dual Brush, Color Dynamics, Transfer | Lists which are turned on; doesn’t read their values |
| Bristle and erodible tips | Lists them by name; there is no image to show |
| Texture patterns | Notes they exist; doesn’t extract them |
In newer files (version 6 and up) the tip images and the presets are stored apart: one section holds the images and another, a Photoshop Action Descriptor, holds each preset’s name and settings and points to its image. The viewer matches them up, so a brush keeps its own name. Tip images no preset uses are shown at the end as “Unused tip”. The layout is described in the MIT-licensed abrkit notes, which this viewer’s reader follows.
Can other apps open .abr files?
Yes, several can import them as brushes, but each one takes only part of the file. This viewer is for looking inside and getting the images out.
| App | Imports .abr? | What comes across | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photoshop | Yes | Everything | |
| Procreate | Yes, by tapping the file or dragging it in from Files | Rebuilt with Procreate’s own brush engine | Procreate Handbook |
| Krita | Yes, from the brush editor’s Predefined tab | The tip image only; size and spacing are set by hand | Krita docs |
| Clip Studio Paint | Yes, from version 1.10.5 | Several brushes per file | Clip Studio FAQ |
| GIMP | Yes, since GIMP 2.4 | The tip image, as a brush | GIMP 2.4 release notes |
If an app refuses a file or loads it with missing brushes, save the tips as PNG here and add them as image brushes. The ABR to PNG page shows how in each app.
Other ABR viewers
Checked on 15 October 2026.
| Viewer | Where it runs | Versions | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| This viewer | In your browser, no upload | 1, 2, 6 to 10 | Tips with names, sizes and spacing; round brushes drawn; PNG in three styles; ZIP |
| brush-viewer | In your browser; open source (MIT) | 6 to 10, says its readme | Tip images and a ZIP of them; its readme says settings such as jitter aren’t read |
| ABRViewer | Windows program; open source (MIT) | Not stated | A fast desktop viewer; last updated in 2017 |
| Photoshop | Desktop, paid | All | The brushes themselves, in the Brushes panel |
Going the other way
Have Procreate brushes and want them in Photoshop? The Procreate brush viewer opens .brushset and .brush files the same way and saves each shape as a Photoshop-ready tip.
How this page was tested
On 15 October 2026 we opened, in Chrome on Linux: the free Myer Settlement Brushes set (CC0, 148 image tips, ABR 6.2), two one-brush files exported from Photoshop 2026 that the abrkit project publishes as test files (MIT, ABR 6.2, with Shape Dynamics, Scattering, Transfer and Dual Brush turned on), and files we wrote ourselves for versions 1, 2, 6.1, 6.2 and 10, including round brushes, 16-bit tips and both raw and compressed tips. For every image tip, the pixels the viewer decoded matched those decoded by ag-psd, an independent open-source reader, and the brush names matched its list. We checked the downloaded PNGs with ImageMagick. We have not tested brushes with bristle tips or texture patterns from a real Photoshop export.