Count Tool Raster Option Please

[CoreyArt26165972jfnk]

Count tool is great idea but feels almost useless without the ability to save an image with it.

For example:

If you're presenting a few concepts to an art director (In my case 25 concept art pieces) the count tool is great because you can number things very fast. However I was dissapointed soon after when I found you can't export count tool numbers to a jpeg or rasterize it like the type tool. Not sure why they made it this way but it would be amazing if you could rasterize the count tool numbers like the type tool or impliment the count tool feature inside the type tool itself. I should note that I am aware of all the work arounds like taking screen shots, or whatever other workaround but adding this feature is such a simple thing that would be helpful for professionals. In its current state its not as useful, especially if you're working online with an art director and just want to send a quick high res image with numbers for your concepts without having to type them out one by one.

Feels like the tool wasnt fully completed when made, so being able to save an image with count tool would make it much more useful or again just impliment this feature inside text tool even.

Thank you

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

The tool wasn't designed for your specific use case, it's mostly there for "scientific" users, not designers or art directors.

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/photoshop/using/counting-objects-image.html

Something should be possible with scripting, adding text at the location of each count.

EDIT: Something like this...

/*
Add Text Layer for Count Tool Markers.jsx
v1.0 - 11th August 2024, Stephen Marsh
https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-ideas/count-tool-raster-option-please/idi-p/14792993
*/

#target photoshop

// Create a new layer group to hold the text layers
var textLayerSet = app.activeDocument.layerSets.add();
textLayerSet.name = "Count Tool Text Layers";

// Get all count tool markers
var countItems = app.activeDocument.countItems;

// Loop through each count item
for (var i = 0; i < countItems.length; i++) {
    var countItem = countItems[i];

    // Create a new text layer inside the layer group
    var textLayer = textLayerSet.artLayers.add();
    textLayer.kind = LayerKind.TEXT;

    // Set the text to the countItem number
    textLayer.textItem.contents = (i + 1);

    // Set the position of the text layer to match the count item
    textLayer.textItem.position = countItem.position;

    // Set the text properties: size, PostScript font name, colour
    textLayer.textItem.size = 24;
    textLayer.textItem.font = "CourierNewPSMT";
    textLayer.textItem.color.rgb.red = 0;
    textLayer.textItem.color.rgb.green = 0;
    textLayer.textItem.color.rgb.blue = 0;
}

/*
// Select the parent layer set of the active child layer
activeDocument.activeLayer = activeDocument.activeLayer.parent;
// Convert to smart object
executeAction(stringIDToTypeID("newPlacedLayer"), undefined, DialogModes.NO);
// Rasterize the layer
var idrasterizeLayer = stringIDToTypeID("rasterizeLayer");
var desc47 = new ActionDescriptor();
var idnull = charIDToTypeID("null");
var ref24 = new ActionReference();
var idLyr = charIDToTypeID("Lyr ");
var idOrdn = charIDToTypeID("Ordn");
var idTrgt = charIDToTypeID("Trgt");
ref24.putEnumerated(idLyr, idOrdn, idTrgt);
desc47.putReference(idnull, ref24);
executeAction(idrasterizeLayer, desc47, DialogModes.NO);
*/

// Refresh the document
app.refresh();

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

[CoreyArt26165972jfnk]

Thank you for reply but i dont have a use case really. My use case is just to save a jpeg image using the count tool. I think it would be a good idea to have an image editing software be able to save images with the the numbers the count tool creates . It's really a simple request for everybody not just me.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Thank you for reply but i dont have a use case really. My use case is just to save a jpeg image using the count tool. I think it would be a good idea to have an image editing software be able to save images with the the numbers the count tool creates . It's really a simple request for everybody not just me.

By @CoreyArt26165972jfnk

You do have a use case. It is to create visual representations for the count tool labels, to be available as rendered pixels when saving the image.

The count tool is similar to guides, it is visible in Photoshop and has a functional purpose within Photoshop, however, when saving a file, the guides are not visible in the final file as part of the rendered image pixels. It's the same with the count tool. The count tool entries do not save as pixel data, but their position can be logged and exported via the Analysis > Record Measurements command.

So your use case is "visually-centric" – not "data-centric".

My script will add a text layer at each count label, here's a screenshot from within Photoshop. The left hand side is before, the right hand side after running the script:

These text layers can be exported as pixels with the image pixels, so that they can be seen outside of Photoshop.

This does exactly what you are asking for.

Should this be a native feature? Perhaps! I have voted for it.