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Known Participant
May 23, 2011
Open for Voting

P: Image Hose - Extend Clone Stamp tool

  • May 23, 2011
  • 70 replies
  • 3226 views

Nearly all other serious digital paint programs have some kind of randomized image "stamp" feature (Painter calls it Image Hose). This is seriously lacking in Photoshop. I can see a very sooth implementation by extending the Clone Stamp tool. You already have multiple clone sources - in its simplest implementation, it should be fairly straightforward to allow the user to define multiple clone sources and then randomize which one is being used each time the brush is "stamped" onto the layer. Add angle and size jitter and other randomization features like we find in the brushes palette and we're off to the races.

A better user experience would be to define "stamp sets". This would require a new palette which would open into a kind of "tree view". For each Stamp Set you could add multiple pixel-based images, similar to the way you define brush presets. Their thumbnails would then be visible, indented under the Stamp Set in the "tree view".

When a particular Stamp Set is selected, you have your jitter controls and other behavioural controls which get saved with that stamp set. Stamp sets can be saved like Brushes and other Preset Manager items. You could even offer a nice automation tool for importing a sequence of PSDs into a single stamp set.

You could extend this even further by exposing the same Layer Effects to your Stamp Sets. Unlike a layer effect, which applies, for example, a Drop Shadow to all the pixels of the layer at once; the Stamp Set effects would apply the effect(s) to each instance of a stamp. As an example, the difference would be that if you apply a drop shadow to your Stamp Set, if you stamped one item over top of another, its drop shadow would overlap the previous item, whereas if you just applied the Drop Shadow to the entire layer, there would be no "depth" between two "stamp" instances on the same layer.

Note that I'm not suggesting that each instance of a stamp would be an editable object or a smart object instance. Just like when you use the Brush tool, the results are "merged" into the active layer's pixels more-or-less instantly (or at least, once the mouse button is released to terminate the brush stroke).

70 replies

Thomas Luth
Participating Frequently
April 7, 2014
Known Participant
April 7, 2014
Josh - your use case is a perfect example of where such a feature could be really effective. Thanks for posting your comment!
Known Participant
April 7, 2014
Hi Christoph - there are no scripting capabilities that address the Image Hose use case. Sure, maybe you could create a bunch of layers, each with its own transparent image on it, then do a sort of disperse / random transform / duplicate. But that's hardly the workflow we're looking for.
c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 6, 2014
There are Scripting possibilities which might be beneficial for such a case.
What exactly are you trying to do?
Inspiring
April 5, 2014
I just started a project where I need to do a photo real view of a jungle and was surprised that PS doesn't have an Image Hose equivalent given that feature is what, 15 years old?
Thomas Luth
Participating Frequently
October 15, 2013


Here is a simple feature request: I notice that Manga Studio 5's scatter brush allows for multiple tips, rather than one. I'd love to see this in Photoshop. For example, If I create a custom brush shape in Photoshop, I get a single image, scattered, scaled and rotated, such as a single number, or an image of a cluster of numbers. With multiple tips, one could have a brush that randomly paints from a set of numbers 0-9. More importantly, this would be great for organic shapes, like spatters, etc., adding yet another dimension of randomness. Thanks.
Known Participant
July 18, 2013
See my comment below on why it's probably a better match to the Clone tool, but you're right - it FEELS like it should just be a Brush option. In fact, it probably merits its own tool in the toolbox altogether. Seriously, does anyone use the History Paintbrush?? And yet it gets its own tool...

Please Tweet and otherwise share this whole thread to your social network so it can get some votes. That's the only way it will get on Adobe's radar...
Inspiring
July 17, 2013
I was hoping someone would point out that it should be a type of brush, not part of the clone tool. 🙂 I actually thought this existed in photoshop - until I tried to make one.
Known Participant
November 6, 2012
I just discovered that ArtRage Pro (not the iPad version, but the desktop version) has a pretty decent Image Hose implementation (I think they call it decals or stickers or something). For $60, basically the cost of a PS plugin, you get Image Hose, and a darned fine natural media drawing app that exports to PS format. Do yourself a favour! Pick it up. http://www.artrage.com/
c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 13, 2012
»it really needs to be RGBa«
»Full-color-brushes« would indeed be a great addition to Photoshop’s features in my opinion.