Why doesn't Photoshop have color styles? A style controls multiple objects.

Thanks Jane, now that this is an "idea" I can vote for it (global swatches).

The issue with global swatches, as used in Illustrator and other vector based drawing apps is that, every object in a vector drawing programme is stored as a set of instructions on how to draw it, including the colour which is referred back to the swatch. So any changes to the global swatch result in any objects containing a reference to that swatch changing colour.  

A raster program is very different. Layers are made of pixels, which can be coloured, but there is no reference back to any swatch. Indeed they do not have to have been made with a swatch, they could come from a colour adjustment or a photograph or a generated image. Each pixel is standalone, there is not reference on how to draw it. So with no reference back, changing a swatch does not change any pixels. That difference is not sloppy programming, it is a fundamental difference between a vector drawing application and a raster drawing application. That is why Photoshop has tools such as hue and saturation to recolour pixels. They are not changing a reference colour they are acting on every pixel falling within the range set by the adjustment.

That said there is something you can do if you have some shapes that you want to imitate global swatches and it relies on the fact that smart objects can be duplicated and each duplicate follows the original, in other words they are instances of teh original rather than stand alone smart objects.

So by putting your global colours into a smart object then clipping a duplicate to each shape, when you open and change that smart object, the colour of the clipped duplicates changes.

So in the set up below, the 'global' color fill layers are in the three smart objects at the bottom of the layer stack. Copies are clipped to each shape.

If I now open the smart objects at the bottom and change the colours, which I have done here for colour fill 2 and colour fill 3, the copies clipped to the shapes follow that change

Dave

Something that should be so simple is almost impossible in PS.

By @dublove

I've merged your duplicate posts so that we are answering in one thread instead of two.

I recall Community Expert @davescm posting a clever workaround using SOs, but don't remember the details.

Jane

@dublove 

My take on this is similar to the reply from @AlanGilbertson – Photoshop was/is a pixel/raster-based program, with more vector features added on over time. It isn't object/vector-orientated program at it’s core.

It would depend on your layer structure, however, either using editable solid fill/gradient/pattern layers offer more flexibility with little file size penalties. One can also use smart objects to automatically update the content, however, these do come with file size penalties.

"Also, the existing styles feature is only add-on, you can't modify existing styles."

Do you mean Layer Style, specifically the layer effects from the Layer Style dialog? You can always reopen any effect and adjust it.

Why can't the color palette of Ps be modified, like ID and Ai can be changed at any time

I want to control multiple objects (both text and shapes) with a single swatch, changing the swatch value at any time.
Something that should be so simple is almost impossible in PS.
Swatches in PS are unchangeable, only new, not modified.

What was the Adobe development team thinking?

If I am understanding you correctly, there several ways you could do this.  A simple Hue/Saturation probably being the most simple.

Off the top of my head, and not because I have any detailed engineering insight, I'd say the reason is architectural. InDesign and Illustrator have a completely different internal model than Photoshop. An object in Id or Ai can have various characteristics assigned, and multiple independent objects can co-exist on a layer. In Photoshop, layers are the independent objects. You can assign a synchronized style to different shapes only if they are on the same layer, but you can't give them independent styles if they are on the same layer.

Photoshop is fundamentally raster-based, and all its vector features were basically glued on after the fact. So while it might look simple to make swatches and style attributes editable in Photoshop, my educated guess is it's very difficult indeed, not only because of legacy architecture but other features that Photoshop provides that could be affected. Adding object styles would require adding "object" as an entity, and that almost certainly has to wait until major changes to the Photoshop codebase are complete.

Nobody?