In this Photoshop Lesson, we’ll learn about ‘Presets in Photoshop’. Presets command in Photoshop is found under Edit menu in Photoshop.

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Presets command

Presets command under edit menu in photoshop
Presets command in Photoshop

Presets command under Edit menu in Photoshop has following three options:

  • Preset Manager…
  • Migrate Presets
  • Export/Import Presets…

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Preset Manager

Preset Manager under Presets command in Photoshop
Preset Manager…

The Preset Manager allows us to save or load presets for Contours and Tools. Each set of presets has its own extention and default folder. All the optional preset files are available inside the Presets folder in Photoshop Application folder as shown below.

Presets folder of Photoshop
Presets folder of Photoshop

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Working with Preset Manager

The Preset Manager dialog box appear as shown below.

Preset Manager dialog box
Preset Manager dialog box

We can choose a specific Preset Type from the Preset Type menu in Preset Manager dialog box as shown below.

Preset Type menu in Preset Manager dialog box
Preset Type menu

To have a clear visibility of presets, click on the settings icon and chose Large List option as shown below:

Settings in Preset manager dialog box
Settings in Preset manager dialog box

All display modes available are as follow:

  • Text Only: Displays the name of each preset item.
  • Small Thumbnail or Large Thumbnail: Displays a thumbnail of each preset item.
  • Small List or Large List: Displays the name and thumbnail of each preset item.

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Delete Preset item

Preset items can be delete by anyone of the following ways:

  • To delete a preset in the Preset Manager, select the preset and click Delete.
Delete preset option in Preset manager dialog box
Delete preset option
  • Or simply, press and hold Alt key and click on the preset you want to delete.

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Restore Default Presets

If you have deleted a preset mistakently then use the Reset command to restore the default presets.

Reset Contours option in preset manager
Reset Contours option

After that Photoshop will ask to replace current presets with default preset, Click OK.

Replace current contours with default contours warning box
Warning box for contours replacement

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Rearranging presets

To rearrange your listed presets click and drag any item up or down in the list.

Rearranging Presets in Photoshop

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Load Presets

To load presets with the Preset Manager, do one of the following:

  • Click Load… select the preset file you want to add and click Open.
Load preset option in Preset Manager dialog box
Load preset option

Now depending on Preset Type selected, a Load dialog box will open up as shown below.

Load preset dialog box
Load preset dialog box

Here, we will have to locate our *.SHC file to be loaded.


  • To replace with a different set of presets, choose Replace [Preset Type] from the Settings icon as shown below.
Replace Contours options in preset manager in photoshop
Replace Contours option

Select the preset file you want to use and click Open.


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Rename Preset item

First, select the preset item. Shift click to select multiple items.

Then click on the Rename button on the right as shown below.

Rename option in preset manager dialog box
Rename option

Another way to rename a preset, if the Preset Manager is currently displaying presets as thumbnails, then we can double-click a preset icon and enter a New Name and click OK as shown below.

Rename Contour dialog box
Rename Contour dialog box

If the Preset Manager is currently displaying presets as a list or text only, then in this case, we can double-click a preset and enter the New Name inline and press Enter.

Renaming Contour inline option
Renaming Contour inline

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Save Set

First, we need to select the preset items. We can either select all the presets or a subset of the current list.

Then click Save Set…, Choose a memorable location, enter a file name and click Save.

Preset can be saved anywhere. However, if we save to the appropriate Presets folder in the default preset location, the set will appear at the bottom of the panel menu after you restart Photoshop.


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Migrate Presets

Presets can be migrated from earlier versions of Photoshop into newer versions. Migrate Presets command, automatically migrate brushes, swatches, gradients, patterns and more.

  • Choose Edit > Presets > Migrate Presets
  • Click Yes when prompted to import presets from an earlier version of Photoshop
  • Click OK

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Lalit Adhikari
Lalit Adhikari

Lalit Adhikari is the Main Author and Admin at Learn That Yourself. He has work experience of more than 10 years in the field of Multimedia and teaching experience of more than 5 years.

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