Krita/Brushes Preset Preview

From KDE Community Wiki

This document aim to provide standards propositions to unify the default brush preset icons of Krita , and ease the work of preset maintainers.

Default background

The default background is a neutral grey gradient, of 200px X 200px

Placement of elements

A preview icon is composed of 3 main blocks :

  • Text/Picto area : a zone to write or use little picture
  • Stroke area : a preview of the brush stroke itself
  • Emblem/Icon : a visual to ease memorization of the brush

Stroke area

The brush preview feature a mini representation of the stroke. This stroke is colored with those color codes :


  • Black is "normal"
  • White is "erase" ( note : Checker pattern representing alpha too )
  • Dark blue is color-smudge smearing mode ( note : little gradient in the stroke to a warmer color can helps )
  • Purple is color-smudge dulling mode ( note : little gradient in the stroke to a warmer color can helps )
  • light-blue for smudge-only
  • ... FX presets can use distinct colors according to the fx-related resulting color


Note : The stroke can be exaggerated to boost the particular aspect of a brush.

Emblem / Icon

A little icons/emblems pasted on the "brush preset preview" ease the selection for user with a visual memory. It also make the UI more user friendly

Here are the guidelines for default placement of the emblem icons :