What Is an ABR File?

This article explains what ABR files are, including how to open one on your computer and how to convert one PNG or JPG to preview the brush as a regular image.

What Is an ABR File?

A file with the ABR file extension is a Photoshop brush file that stores information about the shape and texture of one or more brushes. They're used through Photoshop's Brush tool, and are stored, by default, in the program's installation folder under ...\Presets\Brushes\.

How to Open an ABR File

You can open a brush in Photoshop with the Brush tool. See our How to Install Brushes in Adobe Photoshop guide if you need help.

If that method doesn't work, some versions of Photoshop let you import brushes through Edit > Presets > Preset Manager. Choose Brushes as the preset type and then select Load to find the ABR file.

Photopea is an online image editor that works much like Photoshop and also supports this format. To import the file, activate the brush tool (press B), open the brush options, and then use the down arrow next to its menu to select Load .ABR.

GIMP is another free image editor that can use ABR files. Just copy the file to the right folder so that GIMP can see it. On our installation of GIMP (yours may be slightly different), the folder is here:

C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\share\gimp\2.0\brushes\Basic\

You can also open one with Tumasoft's Argus or for free with abrViewer, but these programs only let you see a preview of what the brush looks like—they don't actually let you use it.

How to Convert an ABR File

While there probably isn't much of a need to do it, abrMate is a free application that can convert ABR to PNG, so long as the brush file was made in Photoshop CS5 or older. Once it's in that image format, you can use a free image converter to convert it to JPG or some other common format.

You can also convert a GIMP brush file (GBR) to a Photoshop brush file to use it in Adobe's image editor, but it's not as streamlined as most conversions.

Here's how it works:

1. Open GIMP's GBR file in XnView.

2. Save the image as a PNG file.

3. Open the PNG in Photoshop.

4. Select the area you want to use as the brush.

5. Create the brush via Edit > Define Brush Preset.

Still Can't Open It?

It's easy to confuse the ABR file extension with ABW, ABF (Adobe Binary Screen Font), or ABS (Absolute Database). If you can't open your file with the programs mentioned above, you might be confusing a different file format with a Photoshop brush file.