you can assign a keyboard shortcut to it. Go to Edit/Keyboard Shortcuts... Then where it says "Shortcuts For:", pull down the drop-menu and select "Panel Menus" Then expand the "Adjustments" category and in there you'll find all your adjustment layer panels (curves, exposure, vibrance, etc) choose the panel you want to toggle on and off and give it a keyboard shortcut ... View more

awesome- these are really going to come in handy not for myself but I'm sure for other users who want to do something similar. The last script you posted is still throwing a 1302 "no such element" error at line 8 - but it doesn't matter, because the script before it seems to do the trick - it copies the layer name to the clipboard without adding any additional spaces or characters, and does not go through dos. So I think everything has been accomplished - thanks to you ... View more

the first script gives the following error: Error 2: psClip is undefined. Line: 1 ->  psClip.setClipboard(app.activeDocument.activeLayer.name); and the second script gives this error: Error 24: clipData.toString.replace is not a function. Line: 6 ->  app.activeDocument.activeLayer = activeDocument.layers.getByName (clipData.toString.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/,''));   -thanks again for the help by the way. ... View more

SuperMerlin- that's it- exactly what I was looking for - thank you!! What I do first is I copy the layer name to the clipboard with the following code: app.system( "echo "   + activeDocument.activeLayer.name + " | CLIP"); and this way the layer name is now stored. I can now switch to a different layer and do some more work. When I want to re-activate the previous layer, I just run your script. No need to search through hundreds of layers to find the previous layer, just run the script. So I can bounce back and forth between the two layers easily. On a side note, when I run the code above, it successfully copies the layer name to the clipboard, but it also includes empty spaces before/after the layer name for some reason. So for example, if the layer name is: "Layer 15" it copies it to the clipboard as: "  Layer 15 " Note the empty spaces before and after Layer 15. I'm not sure if it's adding the empty space only at the beginning or only at the end or both, but either way, it's adding these empty spaces which is causing a problem when running your script- because if it's trying to re-activate "Layer 15", the problem is that the clipboard actually says " Layer 15 " (with the empty spaces) , so it can't find the layer and the script throws an error. I've managed to solve this by trimming those empty spaces in the clipboard via 3rd party software first, but it's a pain. Long story short - why does the above line of code insert empty spaces before/after the layer name before it copies it to the clipboard? ... View more

I managed to assemble a script which stores the active layer's name as a variable (Layer 1),  it then activates a different layer, and then re-activates Layer 1 again by reading its variable,  not its name: var curDoc  = app.activeDocument; var newDoc = app.documents.add app.activeDocument = curDoc;     var curLayer = app.activeDocument.activeLayer; var layerRef = app.activeDocument.layers.getByName( 'Layer 13' ); app.activeDocument.activeLayer = layerRef; app.activeDocument.activeLayer = curLayer So basically when you run the above script, it will activate "Layer 13", then re-activate the previous layer you were just on (I was using "Layer 1" as an example). Just make sure your document has a "Layer 13" in it. So now, "Layer 1" is identified as a variable, which is called "curLayer". What I'm trying to do is store this variable somewhere, even after the script closes. This is why I was asking about the clipboard. Where else can I store "curLayer" so that when I want to activate this layer a little later on, all I have to do is run a simple script like the following: app.activeDocument.activeLayer = curLayer ... View more

I think I can clarify a little better. Let's say the active layer is "Layer 1". Next, I will switch layers. Let's say I switch to "Layer 13". Now, I want to run the script which will activate "Layer 1" again. Is the clipboard necessary to do this? Or is there another way that "Layer 1" can be stored in Photoshop's memory so that whenever I run the script, it always returns to (activates) "Layer 1" ? Also, can I select "Layer 1" in a different way, perhaps by its Index# or ID# instead of its name- or does that even matter? ... View more

I've managed to put this together, and although I think it might be close, it's still throwing an error. Basically, I'm ensuring that the clipboard contains, say,  "Layer 5". Then when I run this script, Photoshop should activate the layer "Layer 5". What am I doing wrong here #target Photoshop  var SCRIPTS_FOLDER =  decodeURI(app.path + '/' + localize("$$$/ScriptingSupport/InstalledScripts=Presets/Scripts")); var libPath = decodeURI(SCRIPTS_FOLDER) + "/psClipboard64.dll"; var  psClip = new ExternalObject("lib:" + libPath); var clipData = psClip.getClipboard(); app.activeDocument.activeLayer = clipData; ... View more

Awesome!! Thanks JJ! I thought we had to select the move tool for it to work. Now that it's unnecssary, everything is running even better. It's an extra step we didn't need ... View more

thanks guys, yes c.pfaffenbichler, the script returns the x y coordinates of the color sampler point successully. very useful. I also managed to work out another way to do it. It's useful for painters if they want to pull over their little swatch pallet to the exact location they're painting at when zoomed in really close. (not the Swatches Panel, but a manual swatch pallet that they might have sketched out themselves) 1. Ensure the layer you wish to move is the active layer 2. Create any sort of a selection using the lasso tool at the exact area you're working in. Can be any size, anywhere on your document as long as it's close to where you're working. 3. Select the Move Tool. 4. In the options bar, there are now little icons. Click on the "Align Horizontal Centers" icon, and then click on the "Align Vertical Centers" icon. The layer now moves to the selection. A bit of a task to be honest, but it's a little easier than zooming way out, dragging the layer in question to where you were just working, and then zooming way back in again. ... View more

thanks, JJ. If I could mark the cursor's location with the color sampler tool, would I then be able to move the layer in question to its x,y location? ... View more

using Clip.exe in a script works. But it stops working as soon as you go into the Color Panel's drop-down menu and select "Copy Color's Hex Code". Once you do that, any other script that calls on Clip.exe won't work. I think it's a bug. To repair it, you need to go into the "Color Picker (Foreground Color)" window and manually highlight the 6-digit hex code, right-click and copy it. Once you do that, then any script calling on Clip.exe will work again. It's very odd but at least for me, that's what's happening. ... View more

I'm not trying to copy the layer contents to the clipboard, I'm trying to copy the layer *name* to the clipboard. For this you need to use "clip.exe". As stated, there seems to be a bug which breaks that funcionality and I can't figure out why.  ... View more

I'd like to provide a quick update to this and also a possible bug if I may: It seems that Clip.exe comes with Windows7 in the System32 folder by default, so there's no need to obtain the file from elsewhere and paste it in there. That said, there seems to be a bug which breaks the Clip.exe's functionality. Here's what to do to: In the Color Panel, click on the drop-down menu (in the upper-right hand corner of the panel) and select the item named "Copy Color's Hex Code". This should now copy the foreground color's code to the clipboard The problem is, once you've done this, any other script which utilizes "Clip.exe" will not work.  I don't know why, but doing this seems to break that functionality. To repair it, you need to do the following: 1. click on the color swatch icon in the tools panel, and wait for the "Color Picker (Foreground Color)" window to open. When it opens, manually highlight the color's code (the 6-digit field beside the # sign) and right-click/copy it to the clipboard. Then, hit OK to return to Photoshop. At this point - any scripts which need "Clip.exe" will work again. Are there any seasoned scripting veterans here who can figure out exactly what's happening here? ... View more

Nice site!! Looks like you've studied film extensively, your storyboards are cool    I like the cat story... checked out some of the links on your site. Somehow I ended up on IMDB- did you work on 1980s cartoons like Alvin and the Chipmunks? Or is that just another animator with the same name? I agree about Photoshop.. there's a lot of strange nits and picks leftover from times gone by, one of them being the Tool Presets thing- how annoying. I look at other software like Corel Painter and they seem to be on their game when it comes to the interface. But Photoshop does things differently- I guess because it was primarily developed as a graphics editing program, not a painter's program. That's changing though. I can't use Painter, it seems a little clunky. I think Photoshop can pretty well do everything it does, just in a different roundabout way. I find that even the brushes can come pretty close to Painter's brushes with a little tweaking. ... View more

Sufferincats, I don't think any of that is related to this topic. The problem is trying to find out what brush name you're using after you've chosen a brush from the tool presets panel and then changed the brush size. Here is the problem again: 1. choose a brush from your "Tool Presets" panel. When you select it, it becomes highlighted in the panel 2. re-size the brush (up or down). The brush you just selected has now become de-highlighted ..as far as I can tell, there's no way to determine which one you just chose, except for you to have remembered it. But if you're jumping back and forth between several tool presets, it's easy to lose track. Sometimes you want to know which one you're using because you like it a lot, but if you re-sized it during your work, there's zero way of finding out which preset you're currently using (unless there's something I'm missing - hopefully somebody has a solution )  But if you're like me, you have hundreds if not thousands of tool presets so simply trying to remember which one you just selected isn't an option. There should be a fix where the tool preset remains highlighted, even if you re-size the brush or if you close and then re-open the Tool Presets panel. Photoshop is riddled with these little "oddities" all over the place; it's little bugs left over from many years past that they haven't updated. ... View more

managed to get it working - the very first step was to copy the foreground color to the clipboard by pressing ALT+F12 (this works in CC2014, I don't know about other versions). Next, the "jitter" code that you supplied is executed- and the color is shifted up or down by 15 degrees.  Third, I included a "wait until left mouse button has been pressed and released"- this allows the user to paint a single brush stroke using the shifted color and then it waits until the left button is released after painting that stroke. Finally,  the color which is in the clipboard (from step 1) is restored as the new foreground color (I used "Paul's External Library"- 'psClipboard64.dll' to cover that part). And now we're back to square one. Run the script a second time, and all of the above is repeated, except that your jitter code should shift the color to a different random color. So as a result, this becomes a successful reproduction of "hue jitter" in the brush panel.  I've already worked in the saturation and brightness to it as well. I would love to share what I have but the only thing is that I'm using other 3rd party software along with the code to get it to work. So it's not all .jsx code and posting any other type of language here probably won't help anyone. What I'm getting at is, thanks for the help - it works ... View more

thanks, c - that really works well. I'm trying to emulate the "hue jitter" in the brushes panel under color dynamics. Same for brightness, and also saturation. So whenever the script it executed, the hue jitters upwards or downwards just a little bit- this does the trick. The only catch is that when it shifts up or down, then the next time the code is run, it shifts again but not from the original color, but from the new color that was just shifted - I hope that makes sense. So in other words the "hue jitter" in the brushes panel keeps the original color in memory (ff0000, for example), and every time you draw a brush stroke, it jitters up or down from ff0000. This script however, jitters from ff0000 the first time you run the script, and now the color has shifted to, say, ff0202. Now, when you run the script a second time, it shifts the color  from ff0202 instead of the original ff0000. This causes the jitter to eventually stray further away from ff0000 and shift through the entire color spectrum if you run it enough times. Is there a way to have it always shift from ff0000 no matter how many times you run the script? ... View more

if you want to build your own Photoshop panels that can do absolutely anything you want them to, then there are a few 3rd party apps that are your dream come true. One is AutoHotKey: AutoHotkey: macro and automation Windows scripting language and another (probably easier) one is PowerPro: PowerPro both are killer programs that allow you to build any kind of panel you want to, and have them do whatever you want them to. Your own Photoshop toolbars, your own undo buttons, your own tool presets panels, whatever - your imagination is the only limit when using these softwares. ... View more

Perfect!! It's working now - excellent. Both you guys came up with great solutions, and I'll be using both of these snippets to speed up the workflow. That page seems like it has some pretty neat code as well, I'll spend some time looking at it. Thanks again!! ... View more

I downloaded the .dll file at the very bottom of the experimental page (entitled "Example 64bit lib"), and saved it to my scripts folder. But it's just a .dll file, I can't install it or anything when I right click on it. Is there another way to install it? ... View more

Yeah, I was hoping that if there were actually a script for it, that it would check the clipboard and then just auto-paste it into Photoshop so that the foreground color changes to whatever was in the clipboard. If the clipboard was empty or it contained something totally different than a hex value, the script would just fail, or give an error message. Right now cbourn's script is excellent and allows to paste the digits so it may have to be done by manually typing in the code? ... View more

correct. I can already handle getting the color code into the clipboard. So the clipboard is already prepared and ready to go. I just need to get that information from the clipboard and into the foreground color's hex code, without opening up the color picker window or any other window. It would just be automated.. ... View more

would something like this be of assistance? This script copies the active layer name to the clipboard (if you're running Win7): app.system( "echo "   + activeDocument.activeLayer.name + " | CLIP"); I know there are several ways to copy information *to* the clipboard, but not *from* the clipboard, especially what I was trying to do here ... View more

cbourn - first of all - thanks so much!! Awesome!! Does exactly what I needed. I can simply enter the color code into the dialog box now. Second - could there be a way to automate the process, so the script picks up the color code from the clipboard, then automatically pastes it into Photoshop, so it changes the foreground color automatically with no additional pop-up windows or having to manually type anything in? Third - I meant to mark your reply as "correct answer" but mistakenly pressed it on JJ's reply- sorry. Thanks again, I'm keeping your script to do the trick!!!! Appreciated ... View more

JJ, what I mean is something simple like: 1. open notepad 2. type in 003576 (this is a dark blue color in Photoshop) 3. Highlight the above text (003576) and press ctrl+c, so it is now in the clipboard 4. write a Photoshop script which would be something like: app.foregroundcolor = clipboard ..this way, when you run the script, the foreground color in Photoshop will change to #003576 without bringing up the color picker or any other input windows/dialogs hope that makes sense ... View more