Change all text layers content to X

Question

Hello, it's me again! This time I want to find a script/action that can replace all text layer contents to X, or add XX before each text layer content. For the first question, each letter will become an X, regardless of uppercase or lowercase letters. If it's a latin character, of course I can do this by find & replace 26 times letter by letter. The thing is that I have to do this with traditional Chinese characters, they don't have much in common with find & replace.

For the 2nd question, I've been looking for related scripts and tricks, but there doesn't seem to be a satisfactory answer. I found this post on Stack and followed it, but no answer since then:

https://superuser.com/questions/1590207/advanced-find-and-replace-text-in-photoshop

I don't know if my questions are possible, so thanks a lot and sorry if they bothers you, as I really don't know much about scripts.

Have a nice day!

Stephen Marsh · Accepted Answer

Thank you by all means! Maybe this is enough for me, then I will try to ungroup the text layers first. Your help will change my life so much! I don't know how to thank you enough, so may the best things come to you in the future!

Thank you by all means! Maybe this is enough for me, then I will try to ungroup the text layers first. Your help will change my life so much! I don't know how to thank you enough, so may the best things come to you in the future!

By @Le27921535n6i8

You're welcome!

No need to ungroup! The following script will process all text layers in all top-level layers, top-level layer groups and nested layer groups with a single undo history step:

/*
Add prefix to all top-level text layers and layer groups and nested layer groups.jsx
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/change-all-text-layers-content-to-x/m-p/13604007
v1.0 - 24th February 2023, Stephen Marsh
*/

#target photoshop

function main() {

    if (!documents.length) {
        alert('There are no documents open!');
    } else {
        processAllLayersAndSets(activeDocument);
    }

    function processAllLayersAndSets(obj) {
        for (var al = obj.layers.length - 1; 0 <= al; al--) {
            activeDocument.activeLayer = obj.layers[al];
            addPrefixToTextLayers();
        }
        
        for (var ls = obj.layerSets.length - 1; 0 <= ls; ls--) {
            processAllLayersAndSets(obj.layerSets[ls]);
            addPrefixToTextLayers();
        }
    }

    function addPrefixToTextLayers() {
        try {
            if (activeDocument.activeLayer.kind === LayerKind.TEXT && (/^X/i.test(activeDocument.activeLayer.textItem.contents) === false)) {
                activeDocument.activeLayer.textItem.contents = activeDocument.activeLayer.textItem.contents.replace(/\r*$/, "").replace(/^/gm, 'X ');
            }
        } catch (e) {
            alert("Error!" + "\r" + e + ' ' + e.line);
        }
    }
}

activeDocument.suspendHistory('Add Prefix to Text Layers...', 'main()');

Stephen Marsh · Answer

The following script will add "X " before the start of every new line, in every text layer, in all open docs:

for (var i = 0; i < documents.length; i++) {
    activeDocument = documents[i];

    var doc = activeDocument;
    for (var j = 0; j < doc.layers.length; j++) {
        try {
            doc.activeLayer = doc.layers[j];
            if (doc.activeLayer.kind == LayerKind.TEXT) {
                doc.activeLayer.textItem.contents = doc.activeLayer.textItem.contents.replace(/^/gm, 'X ');
            }
        } catch (e) {}
    }
}

To replace existing roman characters, try replacing:

doc.activeLayer.textItem.contents = doc.activeLayer.textItem.contents.replace(/^/gm, 'X ');

With:

doc.activeLayer.textItem.contents = doc.activeLayer.textItem.contents.replace(/[a-z]/gm, 'X');

Note, not all text attributes may be retained, for example in a text area, a second line of text coloured differently than the first line would inherit the colour of the first line. Perhaps somebody else can suggest how to retain font formatting such as different colours, different fonts, different sizes etc.

I have tested with Chinese font/characters and Roman characters.

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/11/downloading-and-installing-adobe-scripts.html

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