P: Better Preset Organization (sub-folders, tag, search)

[Guest]

I'd love a better way to organize brushes, shapes, and styles. Perhaps a way to tag them, then search or sort by tag.

[Sergey Kritskiy]

What I did before I experienced the power of using JavaScript for presets was using several letters before the actual name of the tool because PS sorts them by name. So I had like
br Cubic brush
br Round brush
ddg Hard Dodge
ddg Soft Dodge
mx Amazing oils
mx Mixer Brush

But now I just use JS dialogue window to chose different tools


Too bad this only works with tool presets. So native solution would be better.

[kaeroro]

Sergey,

Care to share how to use and where to find this JS dialogue window?
And what do you mean by " before i experienced the power of using Javascript for presets"? Is this only available in the new photoshop versions ( im currently using photoshop cs4 extended)? Could you elaborate...

I'm very interested to know what you're referring too!

THANKS

[Sergey Kritskiy]

Basically this is a JS-script that creates a dialogue window (the same window you often see with JS alerts all over the web) with links to brush presets, binded to a key.

I've got several scripts at my CGhub account http://kritskiy.cghub.com/scripts/, the 'awesome layers' creates exactly the same window. Sources're not protected so feel free to look inside how it works. If you're interested I'd recommend to spend some time and look through forum at ps-scripts.com, there're tons of JS code snippets and people there are very friendly. I could create a lot of PS interface tweaks with scripts for myself without any knowledge in JS.

[kaeroro]

interesting!! Oddly, I've never heard of JS scripts for photoshop even after using it for more than 10 years haha.

What about that brush preset script you have? The screenshot you uploaded. Possible to share that one ( if you created it) of link me to where you found it? I'd like to play around with it and see how it works. I'm very curious.
No worries if you cant! Just thought I'd ask 😃

THANKS.

[Sergey Kritskiy]

Sure, no problems. I only hope that no one who really knows JavaScript would look inside because the code is terrible and the someone'd have a heart attack, but since I only use this for myself I'm alright with the bad code.
Unzip this http://t52.cyberpunk.ru/Archive.zip to Scripts folder of PS, relaunch PS, in Filter menu you'll see 'Brushes of Wisdom'.
If you'll look inside the .jsx file you'll notice buttons calling a function with passing a brush preset name as an argument. Basically that's how it works.

[kaeroro]

awesome thanks! I'll have a look. dont worry I know nothing about java scripting =p.
I'm just interested in trying new things. It looks neat.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I've yet to make this work. Error at line 1. Thanks for sharing all the same.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Chris - I see that now... by copying the swatch into the "Color Swatches" directory and restarting Photoshop, you get the file name as an option from the drop down. I was of the opinion that that folder wasn't for specific, project-related swatch files since it initially contains industry recognized color sets. Thanks for showing me this!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

It would be a huge improvement if the swatches in Photoshop could be grouped like in illustrator.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I would like to see better brush management in PS CS6. Tabs or folders would help me keeping all brushes well organized directly in Brush Presets panel. Something similar to bookmarks in web browser would be good start.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

About the Meta thing--Be good if as you're creating it, you could have an autofill option. Doesn't Photoshop already have that somewhere? I mean the meta data for the document.

You could store the meta data as a profile maybe? So drag down to name equals:

Author:
Website:
Email:
(Address info?)

If you do it by profile, separate those native to the user/favorited at the top v. the ones that are not native to the user. (If you consider adding them all) I have multiple places I distribute resources... so I'd need multiple profiles. Basically the easier you make it for people to fill out, the more likely they'll use that feature and the end user (i.e. the user of the brushes) is more likely to share their good will.

Then separate meta data from the profile would be:
Tags: (Butterfly, wings, for example)

The meta would then be searchable. Narrow the search by author or tag. I think mostly people are interested in the tags rather than the other meta. But then they want to see the other meta when they use the brush so they can remember to give credit. If you use the last used brushes thing, or brushes used in a project, this would make it easier.

Maybe you could see it by hover, or it would appear when you click the brush at the top or below the pane. (though you probably should have a turn off feature by a check box or by the preferences pane--not sure which people would prefer?)

I know that people like giving artists credit for making their resources, but currently it is really difficult to do so. So this spreads good will to all in the Photoshop community as more people give proper credit. That's user experience on a community level?

I know websites do similar things... so I'm not sure if Photoshop could manage it--though I assume it can.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Oh and multiple tagging of brushes at one given time (Similar to how iTunes handles meta data) shift+click Edit meta data. Do 20 brushes at one time. Halleujah!

[msteinruck]

It would be nice to be able to organize swatches by dragging and dropping them similar to how you can reorganize layers.

If we really wanted to get crazy, it would be nice to have individual palettes grouped in folders within the swatches palette.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I currently have CS5 extended. I have down loaded a number of brushes from Fay Sirkis in my brush collection. Is there any way to color code the different brushes in the brush menu.

[styrias]

I would love to be able to organize Brushes with Icons.

I always feel limited in the ways to organize my Presets.
Text only, brush stroke or brush are just not quite the options.

beeing able to set own icons, and arrange them as you like would be IT!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I am very much in favor of the original request. I find myself losing track of brushes and not being able to identify the ones I'm using. It would be nice to have the original brush name stick even if modifications are made. It would also be nice if there was some way to easily locate a brush that might be named similar but not grouped with other like named brushes. Either a Search Window to type in the name of brush, or a way to Alphabetize all brushes.

Please count me in!

Thank you!
Linda King

[AnnShelbourne]

I would like a way to save customized and rearranged panels as Personal Styles and Presets and centralize all of my Saved Presets in a personal "Cabinet" in Bridge so that they are reachable from each of the other applications which comprise the CS "Suite".

[Kat Gilbert]

I am a JDI person so being able to reconstruct a brush that accomplished what I am looking for would be wonderful. As a former traditional painter (many years ago) there were always fav. brushes and with all the choices in setting up for "a" brush when you find the settings that work for you it would be awesome to keep this as your own preset! and a group of these would keep the flow viable. Color palettes are the same and this can now be done but to be able to group with brushes keep it simple and cohesive. So please consider this for the next release!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

You can save the tip settings in the brushes palatte.

Brush Palate (from the side with the layers)-->New Brush preset-->Save preset.

If you really hate the previous brush, you can always delete it.

Edit-->Preset Manager-->Brushes-->select the brush-->delete.

Grouping the presets, however, hasn't been done yet.

Doesn't look like they plan to put it into Photoshop 6 from the Superstition DL, however, they did make some strides to head towards that direction, so our wish may be coming in the future.

[Fuseboy]

I'd like the brush preset manager to keep brush sets (loaded from different files) separate. To explain: I have five groups of brushes that I store in separate files (some of which are third-party brush sets). I may modify a brush, or create a new one, and want to make sure the change gets reflected in (say) my 'urban textures' brush set, but I can't do that without pruning out all the brushes from the other sets first, which is really tedious. I'd love the ability to have a few different .abr files open at once, with some unobtrusive folder metaphor so I can keep them distinct when managing brushes, then easily save changes back to the various .abr files.

[davep61284792]

Yeah it is sad. A lot of useful things come from plugins to provide holes in Adobe's designs. No one knows that Bridge is the command center. Why would it be? It is not intuitive, slow, bloated and a real resource hog. Adobe made that decision–not the users.

[davep61284792]

Agreed. Painter, Sketchbook Pro and Manga studio have some great functionality, and have had for years. Like mirror/tile painting, real time brush rotation, stroke smoothing, ability to draw along specific angles are huge time- savers. Yet, Adobe tries to shove more lame features like 3D and Video into Photoshop...?

I love your comment. "for those who do things professionally..." yes. Listen to the professionals.

[davep61284792]

Great idea!

[davep61284792]

tool presets are the way to go for painting. 😉