Posted on January 4, 2009 in C#, Photoshop by admin

Thank you for your comments. I updated the version and now it works perfectly.
1.0 - First version (buggy, was sometimes hanging system on exit)
1.1 - Bug fixed. You can now open and close Photoshop at anytime


Recently I decided to do a little drawing, and I took a look at all nice keyboard shortcuts of Photoshop that make life easier (like shown in this blog for example).

Unfortunately, one of the most important features of Photoshop has no shortcut: changing the current color with color picker ! Everytime I want to change color, I have to travel through my whole 24” screen, just to click on this stupid square !

Impossible to draw anymore, I decided to create a program to click on the square instead of me, when it detects a keyboard shortcut. Well it took me some time, but the result is quite useful. All you have to do is launch the program after Photoshop is launched, configure shortcuts you like (clicking in the yellow box and then typing combination), and keep “tools” toolbar or “color” tab visible (otherwise there will be nowhere to click !). The toolbar can be anywhere, on another screen or so.

The application can be minimized on system tray, and remembers shortcut keys between launches. It has been tested on Photoshop CS3 on Windows XP. Feel free to post comment if you have any suggestion.

♦ Download Version 1.1

Here is an example of fullscreen mode, with either tools toolbar or color tab (F6) visible, so the shortcuts work.

  • Thanks sooo much! This is extremely convenient :) Now I can access the color picker with one key! Wohoo!
  • zkblack
    a version for PS CS4 would be great!
  • thomas g
    Congratulations!

    This tool is the solution to one of the main fails in photoshop. Thank you so much for sharing this prog.

    greets
  • Martin
    Would really appreciate a CS4 version :)
  • David
    This looks like an exceptionally useful tool, but i too am a CS4 user! an upgrade would indeed be awesome.
  • Thank you very much for this tool! I'm very excited to finally add more than one tone to my paintings :]

    would be nice to have the Color Picker also close at the same shortcut.
  • admin
    As it's programmed on C#, you need .NET Framework 2.0, from Microsoft. It's usually installed on every PC but you still can try using this link.
    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...

    I will release the sources soon, so any of you knowing programming will be able to make it work perfectly !
  • It's error in my PC. Can't launch it
  • Tosca
    Yeah, a version for PS CS4 would be great!
  • RobSteady
    Any chance for a version for CS4?
  • Toto
    Thanks a lot !
    Works much better than the previous version.

    Unfortunately, I found another bug : it only works when you start PS CS3 as an administrator; "Cannot find photoshop toolbars" is displayed when using the shortcut and when using PS logged in as a regular user.
  • Thank you so much for this application. I've been wanting a shortcut for the color picker ever since I started painting on PS. All I can hope for is a version for CS4...

    Thank you again, your work is very much appreciated!
  • admin
    Hi,
    I made the changes to the software so it does not causes system bugs anymore.
    I was closing some system windows by mistake, and so system was confused !
    Moreover, in version 1.1, I search for Photoshop when you use the shortcut. So you can launch the software at anytime (say at boot time), and you can open and close Photoshop as many times as you want, the shortcuts will keep working.

    If you guys have some other shortcut ideas or some feedback on bugs left, just tell me !
  • dt_kala
    Thx for this!
    Work like a charm.
  • Anonymous
    this made my pc malfunction
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