If you are anything like me you have hundreds (if not thousands!) of Photoshop shapes, brushes, color swatches, etc. floating around your hard drives with no way to easily organize them. The preset manager within Photoshop is alright for isolating select brushes and shapes out of a large collection but not so much for actually viewing, organizing and sorting an ever growing number of files.
After searching on this topic a few days ago I came across a gem of an app that solves the problem of organizing these collected Photoshop goodies. Enter Preset Viewer 2.1 by Tumasoft.
With a super easy installation, Preset Viewer automatically scans selected drives and finds typical photoshop files such as .abr, .acb, .aco, .act, .ase, .asl, .csh, .pat, .psd, as well as image files including .bmp, .dib, .jp1, .jp2, .jpg, .png formats and sorts them by type all within the viewer to allow easy browsing and tagging of your Photoshop goodies no matter where they are located on your hard drive. Preset Viewer then allows you to view each collection as thumbnails or in a filmstrip so you never have to lose track of a certain brush or shape again!
To me the absolute best feature of this app (well besides the fact it only costs $37 
) is once you are able to browse and tag your entire brush collection all in one place, you can then sort them into your own chosen sets and export them as new brush files either .abr or .png formats eliminating the need for loading several different collections just to use a one or two brushes from each one. You can even create and export new .aco color swatch files for sharing on kuler.com or between your other adobe applications.
As with anything there are of course a few things that I believe could be improved… such as adding the ability to delete files from within the viewer (though you can jump straight to the folder the file is located in so that does help) and I definitely would like to see the ability to export new shape collections as well, but overall this app is an excellent way to finally be able to view and sort through these file types without having to use Photoshop.
You can purchase Preset Viewer 2.1 at tumasoft.com for $37.00 USD
Screenshots of Preset Viewer 2.1
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting
Usually I don’t buy auxiliary apps like this one but I might make an aception this time. I lose a lot of time looking for the right set of brushes.
Brush Pilot http://www.brushpilotapp.com/ is an option for us Mac types. $15.00 USD
This could be useful…
good input
.-= todo sobre el mundo de la actualidad informatica´s last blog ..3D vector de neumáticos en Illustrator =-.
Hi Dani,
I bought Preset Viewer a few weeks ago as Photoshop just wasn’t upto the job of showing me a big enough thumbnail of my brushes (shame really). I find this brilliant for finding brushes you have seen and just can’t pinpoint what set they were in…
Cheers
David
Great photoshop post! thanks
I have been working on a few photoshop tricks for buttons of a dating website and this tool can come in quite handy.
.-= Ryan´s last blog ..Flirting tips for shy guy =-.
I have a tons of brushes, and hundreds of custom shapes in different folders on different hdd’s,
it seems today I’m lucky and have a chance to organize it
Awesome resource, gotta love the possibilities.
well,Preset Viewer offers thumbnails, fimstrip and tiled modes, each with three different size options for a total of nine different viewing options. The tabbed interface allows you to switch between modes effortlessly so you can expand the usefulness of your tools.Thank you
I love your website, especially the color combination
And this preset viewer saves my nerves!
Thank you Nicole!
A tool that can help us all, thank Nicole! As im sure we all know been organised and been able to get to the stuff we need, when we need to is vry improtant for creative flow.
This tool is very handy.
I have enjoyed Tumasoft for well over a year now and I don’t know how I lived without it! When I start up Photoshop, I start up Tumasoft, as well.
Basically, you enter the URL’s of any and/or all of your applications. This is not limited to just brushes, shapes, etc. You can also view .jpg and .png files. They offer you the choices of which files you want to see with a selection of file extensions.
Not only does this little jewel save the day, but, if you should ever need any kind of support for it, the Tuma’s (John and Betsy) are just a shout away. Their Facebook page is pretty active, too. Nice folks!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58029701764
I just looked and the Preset Viewer is on sale for $25.00USD. Go! What are you waiting for?! LOL
You will love it!
Su
.-= Su Hall´s last blog ..Freebie, Good News & a Cool Action =-.
You made my day
This app is just freaking unbelievable!!! Thanks a lot!
very nice article. thank you for sharing.