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matias.kiviniemi
matias.kiviniemi
Legend
June 11, 2015
Question

Photoshop 2015 artboards in scripting

  • June 11, 2015
  • 5 replies
  • 9100 views

Anyone seen info / had a chance to test how artboards will workout in scripting? I guess data model could be pretty similar, i.e. an artboard is just new kind of group. The primary effect is in rendering / display, but probably most scripts will at least need an adjustment in logic (i.e. do you run through all art boards as one/separate or just the "active one".

Sneak Peek: Artboards in Photoshop CC - YouTube

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    5 replies

    robertpaige
    robertpaige
    Participating Frequently
    June 18, 2015

    I have been trying to create a script all night that will turn my existing PSDs into Artboards for one document. Has anyone had any luck on this?

    matias.kiviniemi
    matias.kiviniemiAuthor
    Legend
    June 16, 2015

    That happened quicker than I thought

    One potentially big thing thing if you handle whole documents is that with Artboards the canvas size becomes virtual/fluid. I.e. it's still just one doc with one canvas and the size of the canvas being about the bounding box of all artboards. Each Artboard has it's bounds (just like it was a group in a big empty canvas) that also acts as mask. Creating/moving Artboards will automatically extend the canvas size. So if you have two 1024x768 Artboards horizontally with 200px in between, you will have about 3500x1000px canvas (there is some extra).

    Chuck Uebele
    Community Expert
    Chuck UebeleCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 16, 2015

    Yes, that could be an issue. I think a whole new way of dealing with artboards is going to be required, plus a check to see if a document has artboards so you don't assume that the doc dimensions are static.

    matias.kiviniemi
    matias.kiviniemiAuthor
    Legend
    June 16, 2015

    My scripts usually start by duplicating the doc so to not change the original. I should be able to put the logic of if-artboard-or-doc there. It could also be a workaround for hidden "it's a document"-assumptions, i.e. start by duplicating the artboard to a doc.

    Another note is that current ESTK will work with artboards but you can't tell them apart from layerSets. Also you have no access to artboard size since layerSet.bounds is the normal content dimensions. So there needs to be an SDK update from Adobe to do Javascript. Interestingly even old Generator development environment works out of the box and gives the artboard bounds.

    matias.kiviniemi
    matias.kiviniemiAuthor
    Legend
    June 12, 2015

    @Chuck: Trying to figure out if I should be excited of the possibilities or worried about how it'll break every script I have

    Artboards seems pretty much an app designer thing, probably not so useful in web scale as it's hard to have multiple boards visible at reasonable zoom..

    Chuck Uebele
    Community Expert
    Chuck UebeleCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 12, 2015

    Matias, I would imagine they script like groups, as they seem to be just another type of container for layers, but that's just a guess. So I would imagine they will not break old scripts, other than I'm not sure how scripts that go through all the layers now will work. I guess it could be a problem if either you can't tell the difference between a group and an art board, or the old scripts need to be updated, because it doesn't know what to do with them. Looks like we will find out soon. Yes, they do seem to be just for designers, but maybe others can find uses for them. With the explosion of mobile devices, designers do need a way to be able to layout multiple designs easily. Having to work with multiple documents and attempting to tile all the windows could be a real pain.

    JJMack
    Community Expert
    JJMackCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 12, 2015

    I think on the 16th Adobe is going to officially announce CC 2015.

    The Artboards demo was not very impressive to me.  I would not need such a feature. I do not develop web pages or touch type apps.  The Artboard demo just look like a new type of Layer group that are call Artboards instead of Layer Group.  These seem to be spread out over a canvas that seem to automatically expand as you create new Artboards.  Artboards can be resized using preset sizes.

    JJMack
    Chuck Uebele
    Community Expert
    Chuck UebeleCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 12, 2015

    Very broad questions for a feature that isn't even released yet.

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