Shortcut-key to set color label on one or multiple layers at once

[Omineus]

Hello, does anyone have a way to create a shortcut key for setting a color label on one or multiple layers at once?

[Myra Ferguson]

It isn't a keyboard shortcut, but you can apply a color label to more than one layer at a time. You can Shift + select the layers that you'd like to label with a color, right-click, and in the contextual menu that opens, select Color and then whichever color you want to apply.

[Omineus]

Thanks for your answer. When your trying to stay organized without layer names and still keep the tempo. This method does not work.

[Stephen Marsh]

@Omineus – This can be scripted and a custom keyboard shortcut applied to the script. Even an action could do it if you were happy with an F-key shortcut.

As there are 11-12 possible colours, this could be a bit convoluted with separate scripts for each colour.

Another option would be to take the extra effort to add a GUI to pick the colour and then one would only need a single script (but would this really be any better than Myra's suggestion of using the standard native feature?).

[Omineus]

Thanks for your quick and comprehensive message. Would it be possible for just these 5 colors? Can I change the shortcut keys and colors afterwards?

[Stephen Marsh · Accepted solution]

@Omineus 

You can only have the hard-coded colours, not custom colours.

/*
Prior to version 2024: "none","red","orange","yellowColor","grain","blue","violet","gray" 
New in version 2024: "magenta", "seafoam", "indigo", "fuchsia"
Adding an unsupported name is possible to return "black".
Install this script in the Application folder Presets/Scripts and restart Photoshop.
Assign a custom keyboard shortcut via Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > File > Scripts
*/

// Set the label color
setLayerLabelCol("grain");

function setLayerLabelCol(labelCol) {
    var c2t = function (s) {
        return app.charIDToTypeID(s);
    };
    var s2t = function (s) {
        return app.stringIDToTypeID(s);
    };
    var descriptor = new ActionDescriptor();
    var descriptor2 = new ActionDescriptor();
    var reference = new ActionReference();
    reference.putEnumerated(s2t("layer"), s2t("ordinal"), s2t("targetEnum"));
    descriptor.putReference(c2t("null"), reference);
    descriptor2.putEnumerated(s2t("color"), s2t("color"), s2t(labelCol));
    descriptor.putObject(s2t("to"), s2t("layer"), descriptor2);
    executeAction(s2t("set"), descriptor, DialogModes.NO);
}

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

[Omineus]

Very clear. Understood! 

Thank you very much!