Photoshop brushes are great—they allow you to create wonderful effects in your designs. Can you imagine the amount of freedom you would get if you learned how to manipulate the brush tool to create the effect you need for your projects?
In this quick tutorial, you will learn how to rotate a brush in Photoshop both from the panel and by using keyboard shortcuts. Follow the step-by-step directions below, and with a few tricks you will be able to rotate or flip any brush in seconds.
You can try out this tutorial with any Photoshop brush or head over to Envato Elements to select any of the hundreds of high-quality brushes available. On the platform, you will also find Photoshop actions, graphics, and add-ons you can use for your design projects. Let's go!
What You'll Learn in This Rotate Photoshop Brush Tutorial
- How to adjust the angle of a Photoshop brush tip
- What is the keyboard shortcut to rotate a brush in Photoshop?
- How to flip a brush in Adobe Photoshop
How to Rotate a Brush in Photoshop
For this quick-tip tutorial, we will be using the brush set 30 Artistic Photoshop Stamp Brushes Vol.2 from Envato Elements to learn how to rotate Photoshop brushes.
Step 1
Select the Brush Tool (B) and Right-Click for the brush menu pop-up. Then select any brush of choice, and adjust the brush size to the desired size.
Step 2
Open the Brush Settings panel found within the Window menu (Window > Brush Settings).
Step 3
From the Brush Settings panel, you can easily alter the angle and properties of the Brush Tool (B).
There are three ways in which you can rotate a Photoshop brush from the Brush Settings panel.
One is from the Angle option, which allows the brush tip to rotate. You can manually set the brush angle to the degree you need, directly from the Angle option.
Step 4
Or for faster adjustments, you have the option of clicking and dragging left or right the scrubby slider, on the word Angle, to set the desired angle.
Step 5
Or as a third method, you can click and drag on the compass-style graphic to the right in order to adjust the angle of the Photoshop brush.
What Is the Keyboard Shortcut to Rotate a Photoshop Brush?
Yes, thankfully there is a time-saving method that beats the back and forth of going in and out of the Brush Settings. So what is the shortcut to make the brush rotate in Photoshop?
When using the Brush Tool (B), you can change the value directly from the keyboard by tapping or holding the Left or Right Arrow keys. Each tap changes the Angle by 1 degree.
- The Left Arrow key rotates the brush tip by 1 degree anti-clockwise.
- The Right Arrow key rotates the brush tip by 1 degree clockwise.
Hold down the Shift key, and the Angle changes by 15 degrees. Easy!
How to Flip a Photoshop Brush
In case you wish to simply flip the Photoshop brush, you can do so from the Brush Settings panel. With an active Brush Tool (B) selected, click the Flip X or Flip Y on the Brush Settings panel, to flip your brush tip.
- Flip X will flip the brush horizontally.
- Flip Y will flip the brush vertically.
Flip X + Flip Y checked ON will flip the brush both horizontally and vertically, and flipping them OFF will flip the brush on neither axis.
Want to Learn More?
Now you know how to make a brush rotate in Photoshop and flip brush tips. If you want to learn more Photoshop tips and tricks, you may be interested in one of our other tutorials.
