Generate Brush Thumbnail

[EnsilZah_]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone might have a better suggestion to generating a brush thumbnail than I'm using currently.

My current method is as follows:

1. Create document of predefined size (64x64)b.

2. Place pen tool point at middle of document.

3. Set brush size to document size and color to black.

4. Stroke Path of pen tool point.

5. Save file.

Currently this is not optimal because:

1. Various brush properties like random opacity, rotation, scatter, etc may not give me a clear image of the brush profile and would require to Clear Brush Controls by script (if that's even possible)

2. It displays the document window in the process, which I'd rather avoid.

[JJMack]

Why do you need or want thumbnails for brushes?

[EnsilZah_]

Working on a brush manager extension.

[JJMack]

Do they need to be very big or are the thumbhails size generated by the Brush Preset Palette and captured OK. Libraries nat also generate thumbnails for brushes.

[EnsilZah_]

Well, i would preferably be able to define the exact size of the thumbnail.

If I had direct access to the brush preset thumbnails as they are, I'd be happy with that.

But if you mean taking a screenshot of the palette, and somehow determining the position of my desired brush and cropping it, that sounds a bit complex.

I think, ultimately, if I knew the file structure of an ABR or TPL file, I could extract the bitmap data of a brush in the background.

But right now I'd be happy with a way to get access to the 'Clear Brush Controls' functionality from the Brush window flyout menu.

(I tried both scriptlistener and creating an action, and neither seem to record that particular function)

And maybe some way to suspend Photoshop window redraw while creating my thumbnail, if such a thing is possible.

[Jarda Bereza]

This open source app can view bitmap brushes: abrViewer.NET -  Browse Files at SourceForge.net

You should be able to read diameter: http://sklad.bereza.cz/00-jarda/00_screenshot/2016-12-28_013154.jpg

Then you maybe you could create extact document size. Because you can select brush in presets. And if you do it, then diameter is loaded from saved brush and then you can read it in current tool.

You also can create viewless document. https://www.ps-scripts.com/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=24487 You should be able create pixels here and your window will be invisible. I wouldn't create one document per one brush because creating document takes time. Viewless document could be persistent on background.

Here is some file scpecification: http://oldschoolprg.x10.mx/downloads/ps6ffspecsv2.pdf  page 51.

Open source app above probably use it. Good luck.