Why doesn't Photoshop have color styles? A style controls multiple objects.

[dublove]

Why doesn't Photoshop have color styles? A style controls multiple objects.
I don't know why the color palette is not modifiable in the software?
I would like to use one color style to control the color of multiple objects and be able to change my color at any time.
Like the swatch feature in InDesing and Illustrator?
The swatches in PS only seem to be able to add, not modify color values?

Also, the existing styles feature is only add-on, you can't modify existing styles.

Very curious to ask, what is the PS development team thinking?

[dublove]

Nobody?

[AlanGilbertson]

Off the top of my head, and not because I have any detailed engineering insight, I'd say the reason is architectural. InDesign and Illustrator have a completely different internal model than Photoshop. An object in Id or Ai can have various characteristics assigned, and multiple independent objects can co-exist on a layer. In Photoshop, layers are the independent objects. You can assign a synchronized style to different shapes only if they are on the same layer, but you can't give them independent styles if they are on the same layer.

Photoshop is fundamentally raster-based, and all its vector features were basically glued on after the fact. So while it might look simple to make swatches and style attributes editable in Photoshop, my educated guess is it's very difficult indeed, not only because of legacy architecture but other features that Photoshop provides that could be affected. Adding object styles would require adding "object" as an entity, and that almost certainly has to wait until major changes to the Photoshop codebase are complete.

[Trevor.Dennis]

If I am understanding you correctly, there several ways you could do this.  A simple Hue/Saturation probably being the most simple.

[dublove]

Why can't the color palette of Ps be modified, like ID and Ai can be changed at any time

I want to control multiple objects (both text and shapes) with a single swatch, changing the swatch value at any time.
Something that should be so simple is almost impossible in PS.
Swatches in PS are unchangeable, only new, not modified.

What was the Adobe development team thinking?

[Jeff Arola]

In Photoshop you can select multiple Shape or Text layers and change the color.

After you select the Text or Shape layers go to Window>Properties to change the color.

Text layer color in Window>Properties>Character

Shape layer color in Window>Properties>Appearance>Fill

Another way is to simiply select either the Text layers or Shape layers, go to Window>Swatches and pick a color by clicking on one of the swatches.

[Bojan Živković]

Another approach is to group shapes into a single group and apply the Color Overlay effect from the Layer Style dialog.

[Bojan Živković]

"Also, the existing styles feature is only add-on, you can't modify existing styles."

Do you mean Layer Style, specifically the layer effects from the Layer Style dialog? You can always reopen any effect and adjust it.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

@dublove 

My take on this is similar to the reply from @AlanGilbertson – Photoshop was/is a pixel/raster-based program, with more vector features added on over time. It isn't object/vector-orientated program at it’s core.

It would depend on your layer structure, however, either using editable solid fill/gradient/pattern layers offer more flexibility with little file size penalties. One can also use smart objects to automatically update the content, however, these do come with file size penalties.

[dublove]

I instead, didn't get your point.
I meant that the color palette can be modified

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

@dublove 

This isn’t “bug” – however, this post should be marked as an “idea” (feature request).

[dublove]

Each time you need to reselect each object.
Recoloring, it's very unscientific.

[dublove]

This method of yours has occurred to me.
But it disrupts the layer structure and is not the ideal method

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

I instead, didn't get your point.
I meant that the color palette can be modified

By @dublove

Trevor pointed out that one can globally adjust the colour of pixels using an adjustment layer.

We can only work within the programming framework offered and Photoshop doesn't provide global swatches as found in illustration and page layout software.

Should it? Yes! I can envision the Adobe marketing team's slogan now: "Introducing Smart Swatches for Photoshop..."  :]

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Agreed, but we can only work with what we have. Could it be better? Of course!

Scripts can be created to select all similar objects and recolour them, but there isn't a global swatch to automatically do so without the need to select each layer/object manually.

[jane-e]

Something that should be so simple is almost impossible in PS.

By @dublove

I've merged your duplicate posts so that we are answering in one thread instead of two.

I recall Community Expert @davescm posting a clever workaround using SOs, but don't remember the details.

Jane

[davescm]

The issue with global swatches, as used in Illustrator and other vector based drawing apps is that, every object in a vector drawing programme is stored as a set of instructions on how to draw it, including the colour which is referred back to the swatch. So any changes to the global swatch result in any objects containing a reference to that swatch changing colour.  

A raster program is very different. Layers are made of pixels, which can be coloured, but there is no reference back to any swatch. Indeed they do not have to have been made with a swatch, they could come from a colour adjustment or a photograph or a generated image. Each pixel is standalone, there is not reference on how to draw it. So with no reference back, changing a swatch does not change any pixels. That difference is not sloppy programming, it is a fundamental difference between a vector drawing application and a raster drawing application. That is why Photoshop has tools such as hue and saturation to recolour pixels. They are not changing a reference colour they are acting on every pixel falling within the range set by the adjustment.

That said there is something you can do if you have some shapes that you want to imitate global swatches and it relies on the fact that smart objects can be duplicated and each duplicate follows the original, in other words they are instances of teh original rather than stand alone smart objects.

So by putting your global colours into a smart object then clipping a duplicate to each shape, when you open and change that smart object, the colour of the clipped duplicates changes.

So in the set up below, the 'global' color fill layers are in the three smart objects at the bottom of the layer stack. Copies are clipped to each shape.

If I now open the smart objects at the bottom and change the colours, which I have done here for colour fill 2 and colour fill 3, the copies clipped to the shapes follow that change

Dave

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Thanks Jane, now that this is an "idea" I can vote for it (global swatches).

[davescm]

It would not be straightforward to implement as it would require a set of swatches to be tagged as global (simple to do) and then any pixel made from those swatches, be they brushed on a layer, added with a blending option..etc, to be tagged back to that swatch. In a multi-layer document that would involve an awful lot of tags (1 per pixel affected) and would increase memory use considerably as well as slowing down the performance of brushes. (In short very hard to implement).
Finally it would require changes to the PSD/PSB format. In illustrator the swatches are saved in the AI document. In Photoshop they are not, hence the need to store them in the file format, and make them available in the swatch panel on opening, so that they could be adusted later. (Again very hard to implement in an existing, widely compatible, doc format).

Nothing is impossible, but the changes in structure and file formats, which would affect PSD/PSB readabilty in other Adobe and non-Adobe applications, make this far from simple, and the associated performance hit when brushing could be high.

Dave

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

IMHO, this only makes sense for text, vectors, gradient fills, solid fills, etc., not for rasters.

[dublove]

It feels a little complicated. Not very understandable.
Is there an example file?
Maybe we can only expect Adobe to be more advanced.

[davescm]

If you meant the example I gave above I've linked it here

Edit - Link removed see later post.

Dave

[jane-e]

@davescm 

This is what I get when I click your link:

Jane

[davescm]

@jane-e  Thanks Jane, I've changed the permissions - can you let me know if that was worked?

Dave

[dublove]

The example is a pdf?
It should be psd or tif.

[davescm]

It should have been a PSD but with changes to cloud storage it hasn't worked that way.

I've sent you a PM with a link on WeTransfer. It should be valid for a couple of days

Dave