References outside canvas

​@Typhonart Curious if you’ve tried this with an Artboard document? With an Artboard document, you can pull objects, layers, type outside of the canvas. 

Here’s an example new artboard using the images you’ve included in your screenshot outside the canvas. 

Does this solve the need you're describing?

If not, what would make it better for you?

Regards,

Pete

Hi @Stephen Marsh 

I agree that a pasteboard will probably never make its way into Photoshop, but the concept works better than the video I saw on the PureRef page.

I remember the early days of Photoshop. If you dragged a layer with an object slightly off the canvas, you could immediately retrieve it. But if you did other things, then the hidden part of the image would be chopped off and gone. That was in the days of one undo sometimes.

We've come a long way!

Jane

My preference would be for a Pasteboard, similar to InDesign and Illustrator.

 

 

By @jane-e 

Agreed Jane, as you know, the issue is that Photoshop is a pixel and canvas based program, not vector or page based. The challenge, just as with artboards, is that there is only a single canvas.

One could create an action or script that would create a group that would contain all existing groups/layers (not artboards) with a group layer mask for the current canvas size, which then creates an enlarged canvas with a new group for the "pasteboard" area.

Seems like a very simple thing to implement

 

By @Typhonart

I doubt that, especially if one is concerned with backward compatibility with formats that can maintain layers.

@Typhonart 

Have you used PureRef? The video at their site looks like it stores images outside of the Photoshop application and does not hide parts of an image that extend inside Photoshop but outside of the canvas.

My preference would be for a Pasteboard, similar to InDesign and Illustrator.

Jane