: Script to assign a Pantone color to a channel in photoshop I have a Pantone color, say "PANTONE 3135 C", and I would like to assign it to a channel in Photoshop (CC 2015, with ExtendScript

@Speyer780

As per @joojaa 's suggestion, I used Adobe's script listener plug-in to make Photoshop output JavaScript code for what the user currently does. I modified this output so that, instead of a fixed color, it takes the pantone name as a parameter.

Below is a JavaScript/EffectScript function for setting the color of the currently selected channel to a specific pantone color.

// Assign a pantone color and solidity (0.0-100.0) to the current channel
function setPantoneColor(pantoneName, solidity) {
if(typeof solidity !== "undefined" && (solidity < 0.0 || solidity > 100.0)) {
throw new Error("Solidity needs to be between 0.0 and 100.0, parameter value was " + solidity)
}

var idsetd = charIDToTypeID( "setd" );
var desc1 = new ActionDescriptor();
var idnull = charIDToTypeID( "null" );
var ref = new ActionReference();
var idChnl = charIDToTypeID( "Chnl" );
var idOrdn = charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" );
var idTrgt = charIDToTypeID( "Trgt" );
ref.putEnumerated( idChnl, idOrdn, idTrgt );
desc1.putReference( idnull, ref );
var idT = charIDToTypeID( "T " );
var desc2 = new ActionDescriptor();

/*
set channel name - we don't want this

var idNm = charIDToTypeID( "Nm " );
desc2.putString( idNm, pantoneName );
*/

// color
var idClr = charIDToTypeID( "Clr " );
var desc3 = new ActionDescriptor();
// set the color book to use
var idBk = charIDToTypeID( "Bk " );
desc3.putString( idBk, """PANTONE+® Solid Coated""" );
// set the color name
var idNm = charIDToTypeID( "Nm " );
desc3.putString( idNm, pantoneName );

/*
haven't observed any difference when those were left out

var idbookID = stringIDToTypeID( "bookID" );
desc3.putInteger( idbookID, 3060 );
*/
/*
the code seems to be in ASCII and represent a non-standard pantone ID

var idbookKey = stringIDToTypeID( "bookKey" );
desc3.putData( idbookKey, String.fromCharCode( 79, 82, 48, 50, 49, 67 ) );
*/
// back color?
var idBkCl = charIDToTypeID( "BkCl" );
desc2.putObject( idClr, idBkCl, desc3 );

if(typeof solidity !== "undefined") {
// opacity (#prc = number of percent?)
var idOpct = charIDToTypeID( "Opct" );
var idPrc = charIDToTypeID( "#Prc" );
desc2.putUnitDouble( idOpct, idPrc, solidity);
}

// SCch - set color channel?
var idSCch = charIDToTypeID( "SCch" );
desc1.putObject( idT, idSCch, desc2 );
executeAction( idsetd, desc1, DialogModes.NO );
}


To use this, one also needs to set the current channel:

// select a photoshop channel with the given name
function selectChannel(channelName) {
var idslct = charIDToTypeID( "slct" );
var desc = new ActionDescriptor();
var idnull = charIDToTypeID( "null" );
var ref = new ActionReference();
var idChnl = charIDToTypeID( "Chnl" );
ref.putName( idChnl, channelName );
desc.putReference( idnull, ref );
executeAction( idslct, desc, DialogModes.NO );
}


You can use them like this:

selectChannel("Name of the channel we want to set a pantone color for")
setPantoneColor("PANTONE Blue 072 C")
// alternatively, we can also set the solidity
//setPantoneColor("PANTONE Blue 072 C", 75.0)


Technical side-note: I commented out pieces of code that don't seem to serve any purpose. Especially the line containing "bookKey" would be difficult to reverse engineer, as the number (ASCII) codes represent what seems to be adobe's proprietary, fixed-size, pantone ID (e.g. PANTONE Black 6 C would set the code on this line to 66, 76, 65, 75, 54, 67, which are ASCII codes for BLAK6C). Luckily, all seems well even without those lines.

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