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Comment by TrevorJ | Hacker News Reader

I was surprised recently to learn that photoshop has an api (albeit poorly documented). I was able to get quite a ways with it and am using it to control photoshop via a hardware MIDI device. Really handy to have physical knobs and buttons for certain things.

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> albeit poorly documented

That's an understatement. Haha The docs are basically worthless. There is so many different versions, all scattered around the web. Not to mention, most of them are in the form of a .pdf that is hundreds of pages, with a terrible search function. hah

With that said, Palette [1] is an awesome company that builds exactly what you are describing. I've used there products for a bit now for PS work, and love it!

[1] https://palettegear.com/index

Was looking at potentiometers (knobs) the other day, and it's crazy that you basically have to make your own in Arduino if you want one that isn't from Palette. Microsoft infamously made the Dial that has the unfortunate design flaw of sliding off the Surface monitor it's supposed to stick to.

That Microsoft "Dial" was the triumph of gimmickry over functionality.

There are other options. Controllers with knobs are often made for music, but can also be used effectively for stuff like 3D and image/video editing. A popular choice for editing photos is the Behringer X-Touch Mini.

Also, you generally don't want potentiometers for these applications, but rotary encoders. Pots = physical min and max position; encoders = infinite rotation. So for example, when you're switching from one photo to the next, pots would annoyingly keep the old value, while encoders will switch to the correct value. Just a little detail, but it's nice to have to right term to search for.

Now that would be a good research paper: documenting the Photoshop API.

Tell me about it. I remember trying to write scripts for CS....5? Digitally flicking through a PDF was an absolute pain, and their "JavaScript reference" is a stretch when you could barely write any JavaScript for it. Tonnes of basic features missing from the reference meant coming up with your own extravagant way of performing basic tasks.

I don't know what it's like now, but I'm glad I don't use Photoshop anymore to worry about it

I have a Surface tablet for drawing, and I hacked together a setup where I draw with my right hand and hold a PS3 navigation controller in my left[0]. The buttons are mapped, using XPadder [1], to keyboard shortcuts (layer up/down, undo, etc) and the joystick I use to pan around. I don't use Photoshop, but I think most of the common functions can be reached via keyboard. XPadder is sophisticated enough to allow for modes, e.g. holding R1 changes the meaning of all the other buttons.

There are still some features that I want which I think would need an exposed API. For example, setting an anchor point on the canvas, then triggering a quick jump back to it.

[0] https://www.gamestop.com/ps3/accessories/playstation-move-na... [1] https://xpadder.com/?lang=english&country=US

Is this similar to the device used in the movie Barbarella [1968], where the keyboard virtuoso is able to cause a series of odd expressions to appear on Barbarella's face?

Everything about Adobe software is poorly documented except the rental extraction agreements, and even they are pretty unclear. They bought Linda.com to try and improve their 'how to' shambles online. I'm running the last iteration of the DVD creative suite on an old mac and the product registration server has been taken offline by Adobe so there are endless pop up verification screens that just 404'd at adobe. Call center calls are necessary to validate software that was bought and wholly owned... Brings up an important point about how long you actually own functional old software before it becomes obsolete

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