Azigos

To be sure, Azigos is not the place to go if you're looking for a wide variety of Photoshop brushes. That's not to say that the website is a waste of time, however. The sets that it offers are interesting, detailed and in some cases quite unique. Add to that a standard array of help and support options, a great compatibility range and decent website features, and you'll find that Azigos is a unique, though not comprehensive, resource.

There are only nine sets that Azigos offers, and no collections or packs. There is a membership option, which allows for unlimited downloads. With the number of sets available and the cost of the membership, you can get all nine sets for about half the cost if you sign up for a membership just make sure you don't sign on for more than one year, or you'll be wasting your money. When we visited the site, the yearlong membership was on sale.

You can preview brushes in a set, of course, but only from the set's details page. The sets are all royalty free, which means that you can use them for commercial or personal projects. There is no site newsletter, but Azigos does have a Twitter account and a blog. The downside to the blog, however, is that it hasn't been updated since September of 2010, when the company added the Ornaments brushes set.

The brush sets are compatible with Photoshop 7 and all of the creative suite versions, from CS to CS 5.5. We were unsurprised to find that the website doesn't have a simple search bar; after all, why would you need to search for an item when there are only nine of them? We did note, interestingly enough, that there are links that let you filter brush sets by category, such as Abstract, Floral, Grunge, Splatter, Artistic and Vintage. Oddly enough, some categories, such as Vintage, are empty.

Though sparse, Azigos' brush varieties are interesting. There is a set called Sinapse that includes some great light-and-smoke shapes, as well as a Night Light set that has brushes based on streaks of light in motion. There is also a Paint Stroke set, a Japanese Orchard set, an Ornaments set that contains floral and swirl elements, a Hard Grunge set, a great Coffee Stains set, a large Floral set and finally U.S. Kids Know. This one is perhaps the most unique set of Photoshop brushes that we saw during our review process. It contains 18 brushes with faces and half to three-quarter figures of young people. The description says it is based on photos of U.S. boys and girls, and seems to encapsulate many of the so-called hipster trends that are popular among teens today.

In all, we were pleased to note that the brush sets at least offer a good number of PS brushes. Other sites sometimes sell sets that have as few as half a dozen items in them, but Azigos' sets all have at least 16 custom brushes, and one has as many as 34, although the average set contains about 20 options.

The help and support section is decent, but it could still use some work. There is a contact form to get in touch with the support team, although our question went unanswered. There is also a FAQ page, which contains just one FAQ. It addresses the issue of installing your brush sets and is actually quite a helpful walkthrough.

Despite its limited selection of Photoshop brushes, Azigos manages to carve out its own niche among its peers, thanks to its highly detailed, unique and very compatible offerings. While help and support could use some work, it offers the basics at least, making this an interesting resource for home and professional users alike.