change color of multiple elements at once

[littlepeaceofhappiness]

I've been researching this for while and have not found a great solution for this. I am wondering if there is a way to replace a color of shapes, color filled objects, and fonts across multiple layers in a single file in Photoshop.

An example of this is how MS PowerPoint has this feature in their master slides setting. In PowerPoint you have a color pallette and if you use any of those colors from a selected color pallette for shapes, fonts, etc. then they can be easily updated when the master pallette is changed.

I know PS has their swatches and I am looking for a similar feature. I will be creating a file with multiple layers containing shapes and fonts and they will follow a certain color pallette. But the file will be a template for more variations in different colors.

If I have a circle, square and a font using Color A, how do I update all of these elements to Color B when I use a different color pallette?

Another example of this feature is the web based app called Canva. They also offer the ability to change the single color of all objects within a file by asking "change all color A to B?"

Since PS has been around for so long and is so advanced, I hope there is a way to do this.

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from using the community">

[littlepeaceofhappiness]

ok, thank you.

[Lumigraphics]

Use Illustrator. Photoshop is a paint program and the use of objects is limited.

[littlepeaceofhappiness]

Ok, thank you. Can Illustrator slices images like Photoshop can? 

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

As @Lumigraphics wrote, Photoshop is primarily a raster program with some vector/object capabilities, but it doesn't have global swatch colours as found in object-orientated software such as Illustrator or InDesign.

You might be able to use a hue/saturation adjustment layer above all the layers to target and change a particular hue.

In Photoshop, if your design is "simple" with a limited amount of discreet colours with no antialiasing, then flattened copies of the layered work in Indexed Colour mode can have their colour table edited. I doubt that this will be practical for you though.

Depending on layer order and construction, a single solid colour fill layer clipped to all underlying layers transparency could be used to globally recolour. Again, I doubt that this will be practical, but it's hard to say without seeing a sample file or layers panel.

For more complicated templates, you would need to carefully construct the content to be easily updated, then a script could update the content in all layers.

[littlepeaceofhappiness]

Thank you

[Conrad C]

I have one idea, but it’s a little nuts.

In the demo below, at the top of the Layers panel you see two empty layer groups. Each layer group has a Color Overlay effect applied to it, set to a different color. (And also a layer label color, just for clarity.) Below those two layer groups are three other layer groups; each one contains a pixel layer and a type layer just to show that this technique can work with both pixel and vector layer types.

As I drag each layer group of objects into a layer group with Color Overlay applied, the objects change color, because the objects inherit the effects applied at a higher layer group level. In this way, all objects that need to be the same color just need to be dragged into the appropriate layer group, and the color of a layer can be changed at any time simply by dragging that layer into a layer group with the desired color or effect applied to it. And if you want to adjust the color for all objects within a layer group, it’s only a matter of editing that layer group’s Color Overlay effect.

Of course, this is far from a perfect solution and has some serious disadvantages. If you use layers in this way, it can severely restrict being able to use layers for compositing techniques that layers are supposed to be for, because color is going to dictate a lot about how you must organize the layers.

Among the Adobe graphics apps, the most powerful implementation of styles is probably the page layout app Adobe InDesign. InDesign offers paragraph styles, character style, table styles, and most importantly here, object styles. When you edit an object style, all objects that are tagged with that style change. And what InDesign lets you control goes far beyond just color; the scope and granularity of control over text and graphics properties is so rich that it’s almost like using CSS. So if there is any chance that your projects would be practical to build and deliver using InDesign, you’ll get some of the most powerful object styles you’ll find anywhere. Below is the Object Style dialog box from InDesign.

If you’re mostly using Photoshop for basic layer-based compositing of text and objects using opacity, blending modes, vector masks, and feathering, you can also do all of that with InDesign. Where InDesign ends and Photoshop begins is when you want control over individual pixels. But any of your vector graphics can be drawn using the InDesign shape and Pen tools as well you could in Photoshop, and the typography controls in InDesign are superior to Photoshop.

[littlepeaceofhappiness]

Thank you for demonstrating the video and showing a creative way to change the colors. I saw someone else on YouTube use Smart Objects and changed colors of multiple shapes that way. I'll mostly be working with shapes, PNGs, and do clipping masks.

[davescm]

There is a way of simulating the 'global' colours from Illustrator within Photoshop. It uses a property of duplicate smart objects, in that duplicate smart objects are 'instances' of the original. Therefore the duplicates change when the contents of the original change.

Add a group of with Solid Colour Fill layers at the bottom of your workstack, one for each colour, and convert each to a smart object. Turn off visibility of that Master Colour group.
Duplicate each smart object (Ctrl+J) and drag the duplicate above each object that you want to be that same colour, and clip it to the object (alt+Click on the border in the layers panel). Repeat as required so that each object is coloured.

To change any 'master colour' open the appropriate smart object and change the colour of the colour fill layer within it. All instances of duplicate smart objects with that same colour will be changed and hence all objects coloured with that method will change.

Dave