Preset directories: Which to use and where are they all located?

[mickyhulse]

What is the difference between:

/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets

… and:

~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets

Also, if you were to add customizations to Photoshop, are there any folders outside of Presets that you have to edit?

I'm just trying to track down all of the directories/files that Photoshop allows end users to customize/add-to.

For example, here are some common directories that I might add files to:

• /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets/Actions
• /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets/Brushes
• /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets/Color Swatches
• /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets/Gradients
• /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets/Patterns
• /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets/Scripts
• /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets/Styles

Though, should I be using the /Applications path or the ~/Library path?

Also, are there other locations that you might need to customize?

I'm just trying to document these locations for a simple CLI I'm building to help me manage my customizations.

Thanks!

[JJMack]

It look like you use a Mac so I do not know where they are on Mac.  For each version of Photoshop you have installed there are two presets folder one where you your Photoshop Application is installed in Photoshop in its install tree.  The second is where Macox keeps users ID Application data Each User the uses a version of Photoshop will have a Adobe Photoshop version ApplicationData tree fot the user.  In the tree you will find the User Photoshop preferences and a Presets folder fot their presets. 

On Windows it the same story.  However you can save and load your stuff  from any location.  So I do not use all of the preset folders Adobe set up for my user ID  one for every version of Photoshop installed.  Instead I choose  my own folders for my add-ons and use them in all installed version of Photoshop installed.  It easier to maintain them that way for I always have several version of Photoshop installed.

[mickyhulse]

Thanks JJMack​, I really appreciate the reply/help!

It look like you use a Mac so I do not know where they are on Mac.  For each version of Photoshop you have installed there are two presets folder one where you your Photoshop Application is installed in Photoshop in its install tree.  The second is where Macox keeps users ID Application data Each User the uses a version of Photoshop will have a Adobe Photoshop version ApplicationData tree fot the user.  In the tree you will find the User Photoshop preferences and a Presets folder fot their presets.

Yup, Mac guy here.

So, it sounds like /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets is the best place to put my customizations?

Is everything that I need to customize found within the presets directory?

For Illustrator, it varies a little bit:

• /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CC YYYY/Presets.localized/...
• /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CC YYYY/Cool Extras.localized/...
• /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CC YYYY/Support Files/...

But appears to be contained within the Application directory?

On Windows it the same story.  However you can save and load your stuff  from any location.  So I do not use all of the preset folders Adobe set up for my user ID  one for every version of Photoshop installed.  Instead I choose  my own folders for my add-ons and use them in all installed version of Photoshop installed.  It easier to maintain them that way for I always have several version of Photoshop installed.

God, I wish I could do that on a Mac!

I need to test and see if Adobe apps on a Mac will follow symlinks. I think the last time I checked they don't. It would be soooooo helpful to have all of these presets, for each version of an Adobe app, located in one centralized and easy to access location … This is the problem I'm trying to solve. I really hate digging around to find all these directories each time I have a new script or swatch file. And then having to mirror that on my other computers. Optimally, I'd love to have all of these preset directories in my Dropbox, and then use that as a centralized/synchronized location for all my computers.

Anyway, thanks for the help JJ!

[anetaw16980026]

Frajer

[mickyhulse]

So, just found this article:

That seems to suggest that I use the more inaccessible ~/Library/... location.

Looking at the two directories in detail:

I see now that the one on the right (my user's directory) has a bunch of empty directories. I think this is what you were saying JJMack, the "user" preset's directory is the one that I should customize as it does not have all of the "default" presets.

Ok, I think that helps to clear up the question of where do I put things.

Looking at Illustrator, I don't think it's as clear cut.

[mickyhulse]

Related question, but where do custom "Document Types" go? I don't see a preset child directory for that.

[mickyhulse]

Noticing that the "Scripts" folder is not located in the user's directory, but instead in the Application's folder:

/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets/Scripts

This is a case in point as to why I asked this question … It has always seemed like Adobe apps make you install custom stuff in not the most logical of locations … Spread out over the OS. I guess if it's just the scripts folder that is a "one off", then that's fine. I'm just really wanting a a list of what's where (I don't really care about the why).

[JJMack]

mickyhulse  wrote

Noticing that the "Scripts" folder is not located in the user's directory, but instead in the Application's folder:

Again I use windows. Adobe does the same on windows scripts are only in  Each Photoshop version Adobe's Application install tree in \Presets\Scripts\... However, you can link your own Scripts tree in the folder.  I link  all  install Adobe Photoshop versions \Presets\Scripts\ to my Photoshop Scripts tree.  All version use a common copy of my Scripts add-ons.   I do the same for Plug-ins. However some third party plug-ins must be installed int Adobe's plugins folder because of the way ther are coded.

[mickyhulse]

JJMack  wrote

mickyhulse   wrote

Noticing that the "Scripts" folder is not located in the user's directory, but instead in the Application's folder:

Again I use windows. Adobe does the same on windows scripts are only in  Each Photoshop version Adobe's Application install tree in \Presets\Scripts\... However, you can link your own Scripts tree in the folder.  I link  all  install Adobe Photoshop versions \Presets\Scripts\ to my Photoshop Scripts tree.  All version use a common copy of my Scripts add-ons.   I do the same for Plug-ins. However some third party plug-ins must be installed int Adobe's plugins folder because of the way ther are coded.

Interesting! I think I understand.

I hate to keep bugging you, but how exactly do you link all Photoshop version to your custom scripts? Would it be hard to give a specific example of this? I am also interested in seeing a specific example of the Plug-ins linking. Maybe you could provide absolute paths and explain your process in a little more detail? I am sure it would not only help me, but others too!

If you are too busy to post more details, I completely understand. No pressure from me.

Either way, thanks for the tips/advice! I am experimenting now.

With that said, as it stands currently, my eyes are on these common directories:

Adobe Photoshop 2017

~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Presets

• Actions
• Brushes
• Color Swatches
• Gradients
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Patterns
• Styles

/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2017/Plug-ins/

• Plug-ins

Seems like those are the most common directories I would want to access.

Thanks all!

[JJMack]

In Windows a Files system link is also known as a windows shortcut the are basically a pointer to a location of an folder or file.  When one pointing to a folder is in a folder it is like the link folder is logically a sub folder of the folder the has a that shorcut.

In Apple's Unix like system in its file system they my be call symbolic link,, an alias, a mount point or some other thing most file system can link folder together. With network sharing you can use a remote file system folder as a local drive for all I know you may even be able to link in the network used drive.  I never had a need to try and I would only try it the remote machine was on my local gigabit network.  There may also bet problems sharing between different file systems like between Apple's and Microsoft's file systems.

[mickyhulse]

Thanks JJMack, I really appreciate the help!

I'm currently working on a macOS-specific CLI (written in NodeJS) to help me do the symlinking:

GitHub - mhulse/slinky-cli: Reverse Symlink CLI

It's not perfect, but it's getting the job done.

Thanks to you, and Stephen, for all of the help! I greatly appreciate it!

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

It can be hard to separate the why from the where… case in point, take a look here with regarding locations for actions and migration:

Prepression: Photoshop – Custom Action File Backup & Migration

Knowing why dictates where!

[mickyhulse]

Stephen_A_Marsh  wrote

Prepression: Photoshop – Custom Action File Backup & Migration

Awesome and interesting. That post helped! Thanks Stephen!

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Regarding actions, I don’t think that one can safely make assumptions, there are pros/cons for using both of these locations:

/Applications/Adobe Photoshop ???/Presets/Actions

vs.

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop ???/Presets/Actions

[mickyhulse]

Interesting! I did see this from the article you linked to (thanks again for the link):

If an .atn file is saved to the default application/program presets folder as above, the action will be listed and available in the action palette menu. This allows an action to be easily restored if it is removed without having to manually find and load the original .atn file. If there are many actions, this menu may become unwieldy due the length of the added action sets.

Note: by storing saved action .atn files in this “expected” default application/program location they will not be available to the built in preset migration export tool (edit menu, presets, export/import presets).

For the built-in export/import presets feature to list saved actions for migration, they should be saved to a non-default location – the user level preset folder for actions:

That's good to know for sure!

One difference I have seen in Illustrator (when comparing a similar two locations), swatches (for example), show up under "User Defined/" in the swatches fly-out menu (when one puts custom swatches in the User's presets directory) vs. being at the top level (when putting custom swatches in the Application's swatches directory).

Anyway, I'll experiment to learn more. Thanks for tip/nudge in right direction(s).