P: Add 9-Slice Scaling [CS6] [2012]

Bump!

a very useful tool

(I copied this from a discussion I am having in another forum..
.)
I do love some of the new tools and workflows especially the art-boards that has been introduced in the December 2015 build of Photoshop but it is still not comparable to features we had in Fireworks.

After Fireworks's demise and becoming archaic I was sorely missing some core features like 9-scale slicing which is an extremely important part of a design workflow - specifically a responsive workflow where re-purposing a symbol or linked asset is one of the main features and decisions.

I would say it is absolutely crucial and a deal-breaker. I cannot believe a modern solution does not have this feature as a standard. We waited years for it to be introduced in Illustrator (coming from a freehand-fireworks-flash-flex world).

Although I really appreciate the work on Photoshop to make it again a potential tool for end-to-end UI design, my next design will either be again done in Illustrator (which requires additional effort in a vector-to-raster workflow) or I will move over to Sketch or another alternative that already supports 9-slice scaling and an integrated raster workflow.

I personally have lost so much in the past in terms of my preferred workflows because of Adobe's aggressive take-over of Macromedia in the early Naughts.

Existing functionality took years to be re-introduced after Adobe killed of extremely productive tools like Freehand, etc..

I moved over to illustrator as it became more viable (it finally supports 9-scale slicing and multiple artboards) but really wanted a raster workflow for ui-design targeted towards raster-based output and deployment as opposed to a vector workflow (which works wonderful for a XAML-based UI which is all vector-based).

This topic is 3 years old, but I'm still looking at my PS comps now wishing it was here! What a powerful combo would 9slice+Smart Object Linking+Layer comps make!!! Please add this!

9-slicing smart objects would be fantastic, especially for teams with multiple UI/UX artists. Currently, updating a button style means updating all screen mockups that use that button. I'm in love with the idea of updating one smart object and having that be reflected on multiple PSDs with various sizes of that button!

I can't believe more people haven't posted--but I think that is merely because they may not know 9-Slice exists!

This is an absolutely crucial feature for me which I struggle to do in PS. (I like PS over Illustrator still for mockups.)

Since PS also doesn't offer Spot Colors like IL does, I use PSBs and Smart Objects to update things (like everyone else). But for example, I need to resize labels or buttons, and doing so is quite hacky. Being able to set some type of grid like the 9-Slice tactic would be amazing. This could be done inside of the smart object or in the document the SO is linked in.

It would be wonderful for UI Design to have 9 patch on smart objects, similar to the implementation found in Illustrator.

This would allow me to create a UI Kit for iOS and Mac OS where buttons, fields, windows, etc all can be resized and retain their shapes.

In these screenshots you can see some examples where some of those elements could be 9 sliced and could be reused.

Compound that with Smart Object states and you could have 1 smart object for all your buttons no matter what size they are.



Same for windows:


How could it be implemented simply?

On a very basic level you could implement this by leveraging Guides to serve as 9 patch. If the user has 2* or 4 guides inside their smart object


then a new option could appear in the Properties menu.


*2 guides would serve as a 3 patch, for objects that can only be scaled vertically or horizontally but not both.

+1. This feature would really be great to have.

Allow photoshop 9slice with export of all the slices in an easy way. I think with addition of generator its amazing how fast workflow is. The one thing that would make it faster is allowing for 9slicing and exporting of 9slice with generator.

Agreed! This is sorely missed. Being able to create a library of 9 sliced smartobjects would be amazing! My number 1 feature request.

Prepping files would be so much easier and with the linked smartobjects this would improve workflow more than anything.