After a two month hiatus, I figured I had to come back with something good. I don’t know about you, but when I need a good Photoshop brush, it can take me a long time to find one. I have to search through several sites or more to find what I need, and sometimes I come up empty handed.
I’ve tried to ease the brush-seeking task a bit by presenting a list of the 101 best brush sets I could find. That’s over 2,700 brushes! I’ve done a lot of searching for these (and have tested all of them, as the screenshots can attest). As a result, I believe this is one of the best collections of Photoshop brushes out there.
When considering a brush for inclusion, I looked at two things: (1) aesthetics and (2) usefulness. If the brush looked good, I thought about whether it was useful. To me, usefulness has a lot to do with flexibility. Can the brush be used anywhere in the design, or only on the edges? Is it large enough? Does it require me to dress it up, or can I just plop it down and have it look good?
Be sure to read the individual licenses for these brushes before using them, and give credit to their respective authors when and where it is due. Out of respect for the individual authors, I have linked directly to their download pages, where possible. Click any thumbnail to visit the download page.
To make it easier to browse this large collection, I’ve separated the brush sets into 5 categories so you can skip to what you’re after:
- Vintage and Retro
- Typography
- Ornaments, Borders, Splatters, and Flourishes
- Grunge and Urban
- Abstract
- The Kitchen Sink
Click here for a quick lesson on how to install Photoshop brushes.
Vintage and Retro
1. 19th Century Advertisements (6 brushes)
2. Book Ornaments (8 brushes)
3. Architectural Ornaments (17 brushes)
4. Dirigibles (12 brushes)
5. Vintage Hands (14 brushes)
6. Vintage Hats (25 brushes)
7. Victorian Ladies (10 brushes)
8. Paper Works (12 brushes)
9. 1920s Electrical Schematics (33 brushes)
10. 1940s Advertisements (48 brushes)
11. Halftone Retro Dots (6 brushes)
12. More Halftone Retro Dots (18 brushes)
13. Grungy Retro Things (9 brushes)
Typography
14. Japanese Writing (14 brushes)
15. Kanji (24 brushes)
16. Handwriting (47 brushes)
17. Grungy Typography (24 brushes)
18. Graffiti Letters (133 brushes)
19. Punch Label (41 brushes)
20. Postage Marks (31 brushes)
21. Stamps and Postmarks (20 brushes)
Ornaments, Borders, Splatters, and Flourishes
22. Unique Borders (39 brushes)
23. Deco Elements (239 brushes)
24. Ornaments (40 brushes)
25. Blood Splatters (27 brushes)
26. Paint Splatters (11 brushes)
27. More Paint Splatters (13 brushes)
28. Flourishes (26 brushes)
29. Twirly Borders (18 brushes)
30. Arabesques (90 brushes)
31. Borders and Corners (8 brushes)
32. Tribals (32 brushes)
33. More Ornaments (40 brushes)
34. Japanese Stencils (10 brushes)
35. Lace (8 brushes)
36. Embroidery (8 brushes)
37. Yet More Ornaments (10 brushes)
38. Celtic Knots (34 brushes)
39. Flowers (19 brushes)
40. Even More Ornaments (10 brushes)
41. Hand Drawn Flourishes (8 brushes)
42. Liquid Stains and Splatters (29 brushes)
43. Coffee Stains (22 brushes)
44. Watercolor Paint Strokes (20 brushes)
45. Grungy Borders (10 brushes)
Grunge and Urban
46. Grungy Graffiti Elements (32 brushes)
47. Urban Graffiti Elements (29 brushes)
48. Gatecrasher Arrows (40 brushes)
49. Grungy Borders (7 brushes)
50. Cracks and Walls (12 brushes)
51. Grunge and Rust (17 brushes)
52. Grungy Cracks (9 brushes)
53. Grunge in Motion (6 brushes)
54. Sketchbook Scribbles (21 brushes)
55. Textures (21 brushes)
56. Graffiti (41 brushes)
57. Paper (25 brushes)
58. Grungy Wings (10 brushes)
59. Grungy Music Brushes (17 brushes)
Abstract
60. Arcane Circles & Symbols (23 brushes)
61. Sunbursts (28 brushes)

A sunburst (or paperburst) is a popular effect. Now you don't have to make your own. These are large enough (1280 px) to cover most areas (at least on the web).
62. More Sunbursts (15 brushes)
63. Fractals (16 brushes)

All of these brushes have hard edges, which means you may have to use layer masks (on areas larger than 660 px) to blend them into your background.
64. More Fractals (25 brushes)
65. Yet More Fractals (7 brushes)
66. Light Beams (26 brushes)
67. Abstract (12 brushes)
68. Light Spots (9 brushes)
69. More Light Spots (23 brushes)
70. Abstract Light (19 brushes)
71. Smoke (6 brushes)
72. Abstract Shapes and Arrows (30 brushes)
73. More Abstract (10 brushes)
74. Frost (26 brushes)
75. Clouds (10 brushes)
76. Beyond the Mist (9 brushes)
77. Galaxies & Nebulae (14 brushes)
78. Stars (20 brushes)
79. Scan Lines (10 brushes)
80. Rings (15 brushes)
81. Blood Cells (25 brushes)
The Kitchen Sink
82. Hair (5 brushes)
83. Fingerprints (81 brushes)
84. Lightning (6 brushes)
85. Water (37 brushes)
86. Snowflakes (22 brushes)
87. Hearts (24 brushes)
88. Grass (6 brushes)
89. Polaroid (17 brushes)
90. Feathers (11 brushes)
91. Postage Stamps (8 brushes)
92. Musical Notes (32 brushes)
93. Sports (49 brushes)
94. Moon Brushes (9 brushes)
95. Landscape Architecture (378 brushes)
96. Office Supplies (16 brushes)
97. Film (11 brushes)
98. Web Effects (22 brushes)

Not very sexy, but useful. Instead of creating faded lines from scratch on your web mocks, use one of these brushes!
99. Tags and Labels (13 brushes)
100. Crushed Paper (3 brushes)
101. Stars (17 brushes)
Is there a brush set you love that isn’t represented here? Let me know in the comments.


































































































23 comments
Sean McGowan
May 15, 2009Holy moly! This is fantastically useful. Very very nice compilation. Thanks for continuing to help us designers out with relevant, useful design resources.
Ryan Burney
May 15, 2009Sean,
Thanks for the comment. Anytime I can elicit a “holy moly” I know I’ve done my job
The real credit goes to the folks who made all these fantastic brushes.
Pinkerton Watts
June 16, 2009Wow – super fantastic. Thanks for putting all of this together. What a fantastic collection. Looking at it makes me happy….even when hungover
.
Gina
July 5, 2009OMG! this is awsooomeeee!
Thanks a LOT! (:
David Radovanovic
July 20, 2009Can you ask for anything better? Thanks a million for your efforts!! You’ve saved me a bunch of time designing with PhotoShop.
Mallika
July 23, 2009I couldn’t be more grateful. These are brilliant pieces of work… especially for people like me, who aren’t as creative ! Thanx a tonne
Marcie
August 6, 2009Awesome collection of brushes! Thanks!!
GrannyJudy
August 6, 2009Ever so grateful to you for gathering such a great collection in one place..tho I have quite of few of these, I found some Newbies and added them to my collection.
Hugs!!
lisa cutler
August 7, 2009wow! Thank you so much.
Kimberly
January 5, 2010You ROCK! Thank you so much for taking the time to put this amazing brush collection together and sharing it.
webdesign bremen
July 30, 2010this is a really really great collection!!!
thanks a lot for sharing.
greetings from bremen
flitz
December 3, 2010wow. nice list. thanks.. this is really helpful.
Ryan Burney
December 3, 2010Thanks flitz! I’m glad to hear it helped you out.
Photoshopper
February 15, 2011Holy Crap!! I cant believe at the size of this list… Some of them are freaking awesome… And i found just what i needed to put together my latest piece… You are a lifesaver… Thanks
Ryan Burney
February 15, 2011Photoshopper,
Glad to hear it. Thanks for the kind words!
Agustin
February 22, 2011YOU SAVED MY LIFE
jafar
March 18, 2011great………..
thanks for the huge list
keep updating this if possible
A High School Artist
May 30, 2011Woah, thank you so much, never before have I found so many good brushes on one site, without the trash! Normally I would have to weed through thousands of crappy brushes just to find one good one. Well, not any more! Keep up the good work.
Ryan
May 31, 2011Thanks for the kind words! I’m glad you found the list useful.
Yorbi
June 23, 2011These brushes are really nice and helped me out a lot with my work!
But i would like to find some Building & construction brushes..
does anyone knows where to find these brushes?
Ahsan
September 28, 2011Hi. I want some Electronic Brushes like Laptops etc. mainly in line art.
Thanx
Siddharth
October 2, 2011Hi Ryan,
I was looking for transport/vehicles brushes….See if you can manage that
it would be very good if u can let me know thru my mail
Thanks a TON
how to photoshop
November 3, 2011I enjoy, cause I found exactly what I used to be looking for. You’ve ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye
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