A simple Photoshop scratchpad \ mixer
sublime tool
So I was looking for a convenient way to have a "scratchpad" in Photoshop -- it's a tiny canvas that you can mix and sample colours from. Some art programs have it.
EDIT: The below only works on Windows versions of Photoshop.
Steps:
PROS:
- Easy to set up.
- You can save and restore your mixes as PSD documents.
- Alt+Click makes it easy to sample colours from the scratchpad while painting.
- You can make use of all standard Photoshop tools to make your mixes (mixer brush, layers, adjustments).
- The tiny mixer has a separate History stack, you can Undo and Redo without affecting the main document.
CONS:
- It doesn't work in fullscreen mode (you need to see the separate windows).
- When you're going to mix colours you have to click on that tiny canvas window for it to become active. This adds a little friction to the workflow: you click on the scratchpad window, paint\blend colours, then click back to the main window to continue painting.
But after this you can just sample the scratchpad with Alt+Click without having to focus on it.
- - - - - - - - - -
If you have Photoshop CC you might be interest in Kritskiy's Palettator extension, it's purposed for this:
http://polycount.com/discussion/178292/palettator-a-floating-panel-for-palettes-for-photoshop-cc#latest
There appears to be another commercial extension panel that can be used for this, MixColors, but I'm not sure if it has all the advantages of using a tiny document window.
You can also write your own PS extension panel using the available documentation (it's harder than it sounds).
- http://www.dev.bowdenweb.com/js/adobe/jsx/ps/cs5-win-panel-developers-guide/documentation/pages/index.html
- http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/1671608/#Comment_1671608
EDIT: The below only works on Windows versions of Photoshop.
Steps:
- Open the PSD that you're working on.
- Go to File -> New or press Ctrl+N to create a new image. Set the name to "Mixer", the pixel size to something like 200x200 and hit OK.
- Drag the tab of the "Mixer" document away from the top bar, it will detach into a separate window.
- Place this window at the corner of the drawing area.
- Now you can make your mixes within this tiny canvas and use Alt+Click to sample colours from it while painting.
PROS:
- Easy to set up.
- You can save and restore your mixes as PSD documents.
- Alt+Click makes it easy to sample colours from the scratchpad while painting.
- You can make use of all standard Photoshop tools to make your mixes (mixer brush, layers, adjustments).
- The tiny mixer has a separate History stack, you can Undo and Redo without affecting the main document.
CONS:
- It doesn't work in fullscreen mode (you need to see the separate windows).
- When you're going to mix colours you have to click on that tiny canvas window for it to become active. This adds a little friction to the workflow: you click on the scratchpad window, paint\blend colours, then click back to the main window to continue painting.
But after this you can just sample the scratchpad with Alt+Click without having to focus on it.
- - - - - - - - - -
If you have Photoshop CC you might be interest in Kritskiy's Palettator extension, it's purposed for this:
http://polycount.com/discussion/178292/palettator-a-floating-panel-for-palettes-for-photoshop-cc#latest
There appears to be another commercial extension panel that can be used for this, MixColors, but I'm not sure if it has all the advantages of using a tiny document window.
You can also write your own PS extension panel using the available documentation (it's harder than it sounds).
- http://www.dev.bowdenweb.com/js/adobe/jsx/ps/cs5-win-panel-developers-guide/documentation/pages/index.html
- http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/1671608/#Comment_1671608