Feature: Paragraph and character styles!

[TheRadicalDreamer]

On photoshop there is a feature called Paragraph and character styles. With them you can control multiple text layers at the same time.

Which is a real time saver (and error controller) for projects with a lot of texts.

Here is a video explaining the use of the tool on Photoshop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P01qAn52Y8

It will be possible to add this feature? :)

[photoeditorlover]

The feature is already exist. Character styles is already exist. You can already used it manually though. The Photoshop is just advanced.

[camoody1]

Photopea has Paragraph and Character settings windows, yes, but it doesn't have saveable Paragraph and Character Styles. I think he really wants something similar to the current Layer Styles that we can save and load and easily apply to a plain text layer like what you see in the video he listed above. I can see where that would be a really nice quality of life improvement for someone who uses multiple text styles across their work.

Photopea Layer Style Window

Photoshop Paragraph Style Window

Photoshop Character Style Window

[TheRadicalDreamer]

Exactly!

And being able to save profiles to apply to text layers that can also be updated after.

It will really improve my workflow.

Many times I work with 30 (or more) different text layers. And if I have to change a tracking or a leading I have to manually go one by one. And many times I have skipped one or two by mistake

[MichalSZZ]

This is something like using styles for heading and paragraph in MS Word. Almost nobody use it normal life for one page editing, but when someone is writing a large document with many pages (for example on high school) then it is very helpful. Or when someone is making some business template for someone else. The same thing is in the web design with CSS. One change in styles makes changes on whole site.

Where it can be usefull in Photopea? I think, when someone will be making some PDF (for example book, business report) with many pages on artboards. It will be 0,0001% of Photopea's users ;)

I used this function in Photoshop 1 time in my whole careere and 3 times in MS Word. But in InDesign when you make a book it is a great functionality (I worked on a book template and it was a real time saving thing)

[TheRadicalDreamer]

I do make planners and instruction manuals for clients.

[photopea]

BTW. when you select several text layers, and you change the text style (Type Tool at the top, Characters window, Paragraph window) ... the new style is applied to all selected layers.

[photopea]

I have made "my own version" of the Character Styles (press Window - Character Styles).

It looks for all existing combinations of Font / Size / Color in a document, and shows them as a list. When editing a text, you can click any item in Character Styles, and it applies that style (font, size and color) to the selected text (or a selected layer, or several selected layers).

In the future, you can double-click an item in the Styles list and change the style (change it for all occurences of text with that style in a whole document).

The problem is, that you can not have styles which do not exist in your document (you would have to have a hidden text layer which uses all your styles).

@hxim what do you think about this solution?

[TheRadicalDreamer]

I tested it.

It kinda improves the workflow. But I am missing an important point.

On photoshop each text layer can be bound to a character style. So when you change the properties of the style, all the text layers get changed.

I know that with the actual solution this somehow can be made. But if i change a text layer property it unbounds from the character style. Even worse, if you change all the text layers, the style gets eliminated.

So the style is not a separate entity, where maybe i can preload some (maybe I already have some styles dictated by my editor) and i have to use them while i am working.

Maybe character styles should be like a hidden text layer that can only be accessed by this new window. So i can create as much as i want. And can set them a name (that can be used to show the font). And maybe they are kept in my account, just like certain assets (patterns, fonts, brushes, etc)

What also is missing is the other way around, where you have a text layer and you use it to update the character style. And when you do, all the text layers that are bounded to that character style are updated.

I believe this is a step to the right direction, but I'm still missing the core functionalities of character styles.

Here is a little video of me showing how styles work on Google Docs, which are particularly similar to Photoshop's character style:

https://github.com/photopea/photopea/assets/11801254/b279c29d-bda8-4708-a0f0-b4a010e07444

[camoody1]

To really make this functionality useful, I think you need to be able to open a brand new, empty project, add a text layer and immediately apply a paragraph and/or character style to that layer from a list of styles you have previously created for yourself and saved for future projects. The style list should be saved as file that is loaded every time you open Photopea, much like the personalized fonts, patterns and brushes we already have. The user should not have to start from zero with each new project they create. Imagine having to recreate patterns or brushes every time you started a new project. Not good.

I realize we're probably running up against limitations of browser based applications, but man... someone needs to punch the Google browser developers to make them add in some additional functionality to make things like this work more smoothly.✌🏽

[photopea]

But when you start a new document in Adobe Photoshop, there are no character styles in it. Character styles are different for every document, and you can not create a style in one document and use it in another.

Also, in Photoshop, you can not save your character styles as a special file to your computer, and load it later, or do I miss anything?

[MichalSZZ]

But when you start a new document in Adobe Photoshop, there are no character styles in it. Character styles are different for every document, and you can not create a style in one document and use it in another.

Also, in Photoshop, you can not save your character styles as a special file to your computer, and load it later, or do I miss anything?

it load PSD that has styles (but without opening that PSD)

[photopea]

That is interesting! But if you want to save your styles, you need to save a PSD?

[camoody1]

That is interesting! But if you want to save your styles, you need to save a PSD?

That's what it looks like. I just checked on my old "borrowed" version of PS, and when I tried to Load a Character Style, it gave me an window to open a PSD file. It wouldn't open any of the files I tried, though, saying that they were using the wrong text engine. I don't really know what that means. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[photopea]

But isn't it better how it works now? The Character Styles window is "aware" of all styles that exist in your document right now, and it lets you apply any of these styles to any part of the text (or several layers at once). You never have to define styles manually, and come up with their names.

[camoody1]

It isn't better if you're just starting a new project from scratch. If you want to build a new project to look similar to another project you already have, PS will allow you to get the styles from the previous project and make them available in your new blank project.

[TheRadicalDreamer]

But if you beginning a project, you cannot have styles that you have not used on any text layer. Nor can someone share with you the specific values of the character styles for a specific project.

Also, right now i see too much info in Character styles

[TheRadicalDreamer]

I am still interested in this feature.

Because i work making text and educational books, many times i have to adjust many text layers to a new color/font/size/etc.

Doing it manually is too labor intensive.

For example:

This pamphlet has 30 pages with different text layers. The client wants me to change the font size and color. I have to manually go ONE by ONE.

If i have character styles, when i created those text layers i could bound them to a style, so then i modify the style and all layers are modified correctly.

Hope you understand the struggle.

[MichalSZZ]

@TheRadicalDreamer maybe you could use Filtering by the name. If you change text layer names to something that will be specific hor headers - h1-chapter-title, h2-xxx-xxx you could filter all layers and select them easily.

[photopea]

I agree - you could select all your layers in the Layers panel, and then, set their color for all layers at once.

[TheRadicalDreamer]

It is a way around, but it will be more difficult to identify them later if all are called the same 🙈

Thank you for the suggestion though

[TheRadicalDreamer]

I still want to prove my point.

For example i had to do this work last night:

Now if I have to change the font 1 size point, it will take a lot of time. But if all paragraphs were linked to a paragraph style, I would just change the style and BAM! all done in a second.

And this is another project that took me ages to finish, because any correction of the fonts, took me hours to change.

[photopea]

I understand what you want to do. But since you keep mentioning Character Styles in Adobe Photosohp, I am not sure if it is the same thing. Could you tell me, how would you do this in Adobe Photoshop?

[TheRadicalDreamer]

No it is not, it is my mistake, sorry for the confusion.

I meant Paragraph styles for my particular issue.

But also having character styles would be useful in other cases that i have had.

Here are a couple of videos showing the use of paragraph styles is Photoshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdbnTmfTZBE https://www.youtube.com/live/zty_kBLwq4s?si=oZJz_b7EhpldYWME&t=965

And here is a video showing character styles in Photoshop: https://www.youtube.com/live/zty_kBLwq4s?si=TtbrVQokPIDJPNYb&t=1105

Hope you find them explanatory 😀

[TheRadicalDreamer]

Is is possible to have this features from Photoshop in Photopea?

Here are a couple of videos showing the use of paragraph styles is Photoshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdbnTmfTZBE https://www.youtube.com/live/zty_kBLwq4s?si=oZJz_b7EhpldYWME&t=965

And here is a video showing character styles in Photoshop: https://www.youtube.com/live/zty_kBLwq4s?si=TtbrVQokPIDJPNYb&t=1105