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Participant
December 23, 2018
Question

Is there a way to add a color wheel to surface dial?

  • December 23, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 1469 views

I can't figure out how to add a color wheel to the surface dial. I keep seeing images of it with a color wheel, or is that not available yet for Photoshop?

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    1 reply

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    December 23, 2018

    Blimey.  I wonder how many people reading this thread actually own a Surface Studio and/or a Dial?  I am not an owner of either, but I did spend twenty minutes with a large Surface Studio and Dial at MAX in 2016.  I think that was before fuller support came along with Windows 10 Creators update.

    Microsoft Surface Dial Gets New App Support In Windows 10 Creators Update : TECH & INNOVATION : Science Times

    Adobe Added some support with Version 19 last year

    https://www.windowscentral.com/adobe-photoshop-rolls-out-surface-dial-support-everyone

    The adverts make it look very cool, but I think actual usability inside Photoshop is not good enough to warrant the cost of purchase

    This is the Photoshop Help page on the Dial, and there is nothing about colour control that I can see.

    Microsoft Dial support in Photoshop

    For what it is worth, and as far as I can tell (sorry about the cliche overload there)  the Surface Dial uses shortcuts in much the same way that the Wacom Express wheel, gaming mice and keyboards and similar hardware do.  So if there is an existing shortcut, you'll be able to make use of it.  I like my Express Wheel to toggle between Brush Size and Rotate Canvas, paradoxically because I use it constantly, and I need to keep it simple.  It would irk me if I had to stop and think about what the next press of the Toggle button would result in.

    The Surface Dial appears to have the same functionality, so if you can create a small Action to produce the colour control you need, and give it a shortcut, it seems to me that you could trigger it with the Surface Dial.  What I am not so sure about (as in I suspect it won't happen) is being able to rotate the dial to give you an analogue control of colour.   Nor can I think of a way to do this with an action.

    JJ, Chuck, c.p. and the scripting experts might have a solution though.

    Participant
    December 23, 2018

    Yeah, I couldn't find anything on it either. I know you can customize Wacom, I was just curious if there was a way to do that on the surface dial. (I hate Apple, and I needed a comparable Windows computer for design...I'm aware that I'm in the minority, lol). Thanks for the reply.