Transform Selection Script

[Innotex Nico Tanne]

Hi,

Im looking for a way to make a script that tranform the actual selection but like the way i can do in Photoshop menubar.

like Transform 100%+2px?

that would help me so much if anyone had an idea.

best Regards

[Kukurykus]

2 pixels in relation to distance of which object?

[Stephen Marsh]

I read this as extending the selection bounds, what else could it be?

[Kukurykus]

I thought of the same, but as it needs a little more calculation than taking it from document dimension I wanted to be sure. Too many time users ask for something else than they write.

[Innotex Nico Tanne]

Hi there,
I mean that if I have an existing selection, Transform it. In Photoshop itself, the transformation is actually given in % values, but if I enter 100%+2px, then the selection is enlarged by exactly 2 pixels. This has nothing to do with enlarge selection because here the pixels are expanded in every direction.

[Kukurykus · Accepted solution]

preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS
b = (slctn = (aD = activeDocument).selection).bounds
p = 2 / ((b[2] - b[0] + (b[3] - b[1])) / 200)
slctn.resizeBoundary(100 + p, 100 + p)

[Innotex Nico Tanne]

Thank you very much! that helps me a lot 🙂

[Stephen Marsh]

Is this to be a fixed value hard coded, or does it come from somewhere else or perhaps a user input interface prompt?

[Stephen Marsh]

@Kukurykus has as always provided a concise, minimilist code offering.

I had a number of false starts and dead ends, however, I finally came up with the following code, which is by no surprise more verbose and clunky... But I had fun anyway! 🙂

P.S. Forgot to add, this only works for a rectangular selection.

/*
Resize rectangular selection from centre by relative px values.jsx
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/transform-selection-script/td-p/12707931
Stephen Marsh, v1.0 - 27th January 2022
NOTE: Recreates the active selection as a rectangular selection, so will not work for elliptical or freeform selections
*/

//    Bounds:
//    + - - - - - - - [1] - - - - - - - +
//    |                                 |
//    |                                 |
//   [0]                               [2]
//    |                                 |
//    |                                 |
//    + - - - - - - - [3] - - - - - - - +

// Save the current ruler units and set to pixels
var origRulers = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;

// Relative resize values in px
var addWidth = 2;
var addHeight = 2;

// Selection bounds
var theBounds = app.activeDocument.selection.bounds;

// Selection array (top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left)
var theArray = [
    [theBounds[0], theBounds[1]],
    [theBounds[2] + addWidth, theBounds[1]],
    [theBounds[2] + addWidth, theBounds[3] + addHeight],
    [theBounds[0], theBounds[3] + addHeight]
];

// Replace the selection with new selection
app.activeDocument.selection.select( theArray, SelectionType.REPLACE, 0, false );

// Centre the selection
app.activeDocument.selection.translateBoundary( -addWidth / 2, -addHeight / 2 );

// Restore the ruler units
app.preferences.rulerUnits = origRulers;

[Stephen Marsh]

This version works with elliptical marquee selections.

/*
Resize elliptical selection from centre by relative px values.jsx
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/transform-selection-script/td-p/12707931
Stephen Marsh, v1.0 - 27th January 2022
NOTE: Recreates the active selection as an elliptical selection, so will not work for rectangular or freeform selections
*/

//    Bounds:
//    + - - - - - - - [1] - - - - - - - +
//    |                                 |
//    |                                 |
//   [0]                               [2]
//    |                                 |
//    |                                 |
//    + - - - - - - - [3] - - - - - - - +

// Save the current ruler units and set to pixels
var origRulers = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;

// Relative resize values in px
var addWidth = 2;
var addHeight = 2;

// Selection bounds
var theBounds = app.activeDocument.selection.bounds;

// Bounds variables
var selTop = theBounds[1].value;
var selLeft = theBounds[0].value;
var selRight = theBounds[2].value;
var selBottom = theBounds[3].value;

// Create the elliptical selection
ellipticalSelection( selTop, selLeft, selBottom, selRight, true );

// Centre the selection
app.activeDocument.selection.translateBoundary( -addWidth / 2, -addHeight / 2 );

// Restore the ruler units
app.preferences.rulerUnits = origRulers;


// Functions

function ellipticalSelection(top, left, bottom, right, antiAlias) {
	var s2t = function (s) {
		return app.stringIDToTypeID(s);
	};
	var descriptor = new ActionDescriptor();
	var descriptor2 = new ActionDescriptor();
	var reference = new ActionReference();
	reference.putProperty( s2t( "channel" ), s2t( "selection" ));
	descriptor.putReference( s2t( "null" ), reference );
	descriptor2.putUnitDouble( s2t( "top" ), s2t( "pixelsUnit" ), top );
	descriptor2.putUnitDouble( s2t( "left" ), s2t( "pixelsUnit" ), left );
	descriptor2.putUnitDouble( s2t( "bottom" ), s2t( "pixelsUnit" ), bottom + addHeight);
	descriptor2.putUnitDouble( s2t( "right" ), s2t( "pixelsUnit" ), right + addWidth);
	descriptor.putObject( s2t( "to" ), s2t( "ellipse" ), descriptor2 );
	descriptor.putBoolean( s2t( "antiAlias" ), antiAlias );
	executeAction( s2t( "set" ), descriptor, DialogModes.NO );
}

[Kukurykus]

Mine too.

[Stephen Marsh]

---

@Kukurykus wrote:

Mine too.

---

Of course your code works with both rectangular and elliptical in one script, it was well planned! 🙂

I was so desperate to avoid resizing by % that I thought that using bounding co-ordinates would be better, which led me to creating a new selection rather than resizing the existing selection.

I would have just gone with a single line .expand() if I was after something easier that is "close enough but not perfect" for an elliptical/circular selection.

[Kukurykus]

To imitate transforming the expanding has sense only when there are no holes in selection.