Brush preset or shortcut for flow?

[drode]

In the process of retouching, I switch brush settings often. The size and hardness are are pretty easy to adjust on the fly using keyboard shortcuts. The opacity is similarly easy to adjust. However, adjusting the flow is a pain. I use flow values of 25% or 100% almost exclusively, so just being able to quickly toggle between them would be nice.

In an ideal world, I'd have a keyboard shortcut that would set the size, opacity, flow, hardness and maybe even mode to 1 of 2 defaults. A 20 px, 100% flow, 100% opacity brush or a 4 px 25% flow, 3% opacity (same defaults for mode and hardness: normal, 0%). I can do without the mode change if necessary but I figure why not set everything at once?

I'm just not real sure how to set all the options and associate that with a shortcut. Normal brush presets do not seem to include flow and do not include the mode.

I'd appreciate any advice or tips.

-Dan

[Der_W]

You can not only save brush preset, but also complete tool presets that'll also contain opacity, flow and what have you.
To do this use the little arrow on the right of your brush icon in the toolbar and chose the little icon that looks like the new layer icon.

[drode]

I'll have to take another look. I couldn't find a way to set the flow or opacity when I tried yesterday. I was in the custom brush preset menu.

[Der_W]

This is why you should save a tool preset, not a brush preset: http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Phot...ab64-74e9.html :-).

[drode]

Thanks for the link! I was evidently going about it all wrong.

[John Wheeler]

Hi drode
Great inputs by Jonas (Der_W)

Both Tool Presets and Brush Presets can be recorded by Actions with a Keyboard shortcut set to that action. Just start recording, select Brush tool, then Brush Tool Preset (and/or Brush Present if desired).

Alternately, you can set flow manually by having the brush active and with SHIFT pressed just hit two numbers in a row to set flow. Using one number sets flow in 10% increments.

[drode]

Thanks John. I didn't know that the shift option controlled the flow. That's really useful.

[Der_W]

In addition to what John said, when you have the airbrush mode turned on, the shortcuts for changing flow and opacity will be inverted, so pressing a number will change the flow and holding the [Shift]-key down while pressing a number will change the opacity.