Photoshop ® : Zigzag Brushes

Zigzag Brushes / Lightning Strokes for Photoshop and Elements and PaintShop Pro and others

Thumbnail gallery of Zigzag brushes (Set 93)

Thumbnail gallery of Zigzag brushes (Set 153)

Thumbnail gallery of Zigzag brushes (Set 2)

Photoshop zigzag brush examples

examples from pack 93 - zigzag brush strokes - 16 different examples of zigzag lightning brushes for Photoshop and Elements and others

examples from pack 153 - a single zigzag brush (the same one) but applied to different backgrounds, different color designs, different shapes, in different colors, multiple brush strokes, shadow brushes and more

examples from pack 2

Can I use brushes on both PC and MAC OSX ?

Yes, the zigzag (and any other) brushes ABR file can be used on both PC MAC OSX. They are cross platform and no format change is required.

If you have any concerns about the brushes working in your version of Photoshop or another software, please contact us or perhaps check out some of the many free samplers found on our the site - just to make certain that the ABR or PNG Photoshop brushes work on your system.

Many of the later file sets i.e pack 93 zigzag brushes include the source PNG files as well and you can easily use them in many different software such as PaintShop Pro as well as a host of other software - if your application does not support EPS or PNG format files, the designs can be quickly converted to JPG brushes or GIF brushes for your particular application.

Pack 2 Zigzag brushes, however, only include the ABR format files and they are for version 7 onwards.

How big are the zigzag brushes for Photoshop?

They are 300 DPI but some of the designs are 100 x 100 in size (much the same as the ones that come native with Photoshop such as the drop shadow brushes. Many are 400 x 400 though some of the realistic strokes are sized approximately 1000 x 1000. In many cases you can re-size the them to at least 1 1/2 times the original sizes without any impact on the design.

You can, of course, always apply the zigzag brush stroke to a larger document and use various techniques such as blurs and then define your own newer larger brush stroke.

Many of the sets also include the designs in EPS format (though this varies from set to set) and the EPS files can be used to define any size of brush stroke allowed by your version of Photoshop

Zigzag brushes EPS source files

The pack 153 includes the zigzag brush designs as EPS vector files. The set includes an action to run through all the brushes and add the brushes at any size you require (so 1000 x 1000 or 500 x 500 or more). You can also use the eps files via the file place command and import any number of the designs as smart layers (again the designs can be resized to any size)

The brushes then can be combined as a single new brush or the zigzag designs can be used as a source for patterns or even custom shapes or distortions - or just used as a design layer (you can apply layer styles etc to the zigzag layer). Use the define brush command in the edit menu to create a new zigzag brush stroke (the zigzag brush will not be colored though, brushes are only grayscale

The eps files can also be edited by Illustrator (if you have Illustrator) by double clicking the zigzag design (the placed objects are smart objects that can be modified numerous times)

Smart filters can also be applied to the smart layer zigzag files.

Photoshop zigzags - duplicate and transform

The eps zigzag designs can be imported into Photoshop (or another application) and the layer can be duplicated over and over and the new layer can be transformed (such as a rotation applied) over and over to the newly duplicated layers. The combination of shift ctrl L and shift ctrl T (or command in the case of the mac). The key thing is to move the centre of the bounding box to the centre of the transformation before you do any transformations / rotations. An example below of a zigzag color design (brush) from pack 153

Create circular designs as well as rows and grids and more.

Layer effects and zigzag brushes tutorial

1) Open new document

2) "Layer menu" and "new layer command"

3) Select foreground color for the color of the zigzag brush

4) Go to the brush tool (B)

5) Select zigzag brush from the brushes palette

6) Apply brush stroke to the new layer

7) "Layer menu" and "Layer style command" and "Inner shadow option" (or any of the other settings)

8) Set the color of the inner shadow for the zigzag brush as well as the angle and blending mode (normal)

You can at this point then save this new design as a new '3D' zigzag brush (well, certainly a zigzag brush with a little more depth than the usual flat zigzag brush)

At this point you could also duplicate the zigzag brushes (they are layers)

9) "Layer menu" and "duplicate command" (zigzag brush layer)

10) Apply transformations such as a rotation and move the zigzag brush layers

Creating a more complex zigzag brush stroke (if you keep the brushes within the confines of the document) or just as a background or zigzag overlay.

Creating a quick lightning strike tutorial in Photoshop

1) Fill the background black - "edit menu" and followed by "fill command" (for a night sky)

2) Gradient tool - set the gradient to black and blue

3) Apply gradient using linear mode

4) Set the foreground color to yellow for the zigzag / lightning brush

5) Select a zigzag brush from the brushes palette

6) Apply zigzag / lightning brush (some are better than others as lightning)

7) Apply gaussian blur filter ("filter menu" and "blur sub menu" and "gaussian blur command" )

8) set Blur to a large amount to create large blur of zigzag brush

9) Re-apply zigzag brush / lightning brush over the top of the golden glow

The example image shows the lightning strike created using the zigzag brush

Adding a glow to a zigzag brush layer in Photoshop etc

The brushes in zigzag pack 153 are in ABR and EPS format, the eps files can be imported via the file place command in Photoshop or Elements. You can then apply a layer effect to the imported lightning / zigzag brush layer such as adding a glow - use the "layer menu" and "layer style command" and "outer glow option" (set the opacity lower and change the spread and size of the zigzag glow)

After creating the glowing zigzag design, you can always just flatten the zigzag design and save it as a new brush by using the edit define brush (or even as a pattern via the define pattern) Added December 27th 2011

PostWorkshop Pro 2 - Import of brushes

You can import the brushes into a wonderful application called PostWorkShop Pro (ABR format) via the "styles menu" and "brush manager option". Selecting the brushes via the brush manager, you can then use them in a variety of styles / bitmap editor tool

With version 2 of the PostWorkShop Pro you can use the application as a separate application and a plug-in within Photoshop.

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Date modified: May 1st, 2012

Creating plugins and presets since 1995. Privacy - no details sent to third parties. After buying the zigzag brushes for Photoshop and PSP etc, you receive the download link to the zip file containing the zigzag ABR and PNG files as well as documentation and a gallery of all the zigzag brushes. Unique items, commercial use, royalty-free.