Where are brushes stored?

[Hans idTV]

Will someone please explain to me where Photoline 24 brushes are stored on a Mac?

Apparently, I have just lost about 50 custom brushes that I have carefully created over the last several weeks, with no way to retrieve them.

When I have raised this question on this Forum before, I have received several different answers:

1. I was told that brushes are stored in my Photoline folder as .xml files.

2. I was told that brushes are stored in my Photoline folder as .bru files.

3. I was told that brushes are stored in the System>Library>Preferences>Photoline folder.

There is no .xml anywhere in my system. There is no Photoline folder in my System>Library>Preferences folder. There is a .bru file in my Photoline folder, but it is an old file set that contains a few old brushes.

I can find absolutely nothing about this important issue anywhere in the Photoline 24 User Guide.

I find this intolerable in a professional-level graphics application like Photoline, particularly that this issue is not even mentioned in the User Guide.

Please advise and explain IN UNAMBIGUOUS DETAIL how to CORRECTLY save brushes in Photoline so that they are securely stored, and precisely WHERE these files are stored.

Thanks for any assistance

[der_fotograf]

Macintosh HD -> Users -> Username -> Library -> Preferences -> PhotoLine:

Screenshot 2025-08-03 at 10.07.15.png

Im Order PhotoLine dann:

Screenshot 2025-08-03 at 10.08.03.png

Alles da.

Frage: Warum hast Du kein Backup?

Abgesehen davon kannst Du die Brush List auch separat speichern, irgendwo hin, Du musst Dir nur merken, wo Du sie hingepackt hast, um sie ggf. wieder in PhotoLine zu importieren/aktivieren.

Beim Motorradfahren setzt Du einen Helm auf, im Auto nutzt Du den Sicherheitsgurt, aber auf dem Mac machst Du kein Backup? Schon sehr merkwürdig.

[shijan]

There where some changes in newer versions with brush organization system and so they use new format .plgd instead of .bru.
I personally keep current collection of brushes in ~/Library/Preferences/PhotoLine/Brushes folder, and untouched backups somewhere in other place. Save brushes backup to external file like this.
When import brushes "Merge..." will add new brushes to existing brushes. "Load..." will delete all existing brushes and import new ones.

Screen Shot 2025-08-03 at 1.01.27 PM.jpg

[Martin Huber]

I can find absolutely nothing about this important issue anywhere in the Photoline 24 User Guide.

Chapter "1.6 The Settings Folder of PhotoLine":
"On macOS, all settings are written to "<user folder>/Library/Preferences/PhotoLine"."

It doesn't list the single files, though.

Up to version 24, brushes are stored in DefaultBrush.bru. From version 25 onwards, they are stored in Brushes.plgd.

[Vivi_Ram]

A related question: But how I do get rid of a category?

Question about brush category.jpg

I am simply not able to get rid of a category that I accidentally created.

[Martin Huber]

A related question: But how I do get rid of a category?

You don't. This is the recent files section.

The "Default" entry is always there and represents Brushes.plgd.
You are currently not using the brushes from Brushes.plgd, but the ones from "Layerform 51 Watercolor brushes". If you didn't change that brush list, this is still the original file that you once loaded. If you did change it, there is a "Layerform 51 Watercolor brushes" file in your "%appdata%\PhotoLine" folder.

[shijan]

It disappears from menu if delete or rename original imported brushes file and also delete it from "%appdata%\PhotoLine" folder

[Vivi_Ram]

Thanks both! I deleted it from the app data folder, but it is still showing up. I mean the Layerform 51 Water Colour brushes. Not the default category.
Let me know what I am missing.

[shijan]

Your file "Layerform 51 Water Colour" is still somewhere in original folder and PhohoLine remembers it from that path. You need to delete that file, or rename it, or put to folder with different name (at least this is how it works on macOS).