Extract text from Corel Painter brush categories (BRUSHCATEGORY)
To convert BRUSHCATEGORY Brush categories to another format, you need Corel Painter or other Settings software.
To convert other file formats to the "Software Preset Archive" file type, you need software like Corel Painter or a similar tool.
A .brushcategory file is a proprietary brush preset archive used exclusively by Corel Painter to store collections of custom digital brushes. Artists use these files to bundle specific brush variants - such as pencils, markers, or oils - along with their custom mathematical parameters (opacity, jitter, blending modes) for easy sharing and backup.
The fundamental disadvantage of the .brushcategory format is its strict vendor lock-in. These files cannot be natively opened by competing software like Adobe Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, or Procreate, which utilize entirely different proprietary brush engines and formats (such as ABR or BRUSH). Furthermore, if you receive a .brushcategory file without owning a Corel Painter license, standard graphics viewers cannot parse the brush stroke data.
Despite its proprietary label, a .brushcategory file is structurally just a standard ZIP archive containing plain text XML parameter files and occasional JPG preview images. Standard online converters fail to process it because they lack the definitions for this niche extension. While direct conversion into a Photoshop ABR file is algorithmically impossible due to engine disparities, accessing the unencrypted XML data empowers you to manually replicate the brush dynamics in your preferred drawing software.
Convert.Guru analyzes your BRUSHCATEGORY file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted BRUSH and BRUSHSET files.
If you want to convert BRUSHCATEGORY file to JPG, PDF, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, TIF, WEBP, ICO, CUR, PSD or PSB, you can use Corel Painter or similar software from the "Brush Preset Archive" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert RAW, PNG, AI, NEF, PSB, DNG, SVG, GIF, EPS, JPG, ARW or PDF files to BRUSHCATEGORY, try Corel Painter or another comparable tool in the "Brush Preset Archive" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our BRUSHCATEGORY converter.