How do I set eyedropper settings using Photoshop ExtendScript (Javascript)?

Question

Is there a way to set Photoshop's eyedropper settings (sample size, sample, show sample ring) in a script? Or, failing that, use the script to find out what the current settings are? Thanks.

Answer 1

Based on some googling, it sure doesn't seem like it's directly possible. However, you can use scripting listener/action manager to change the tool preset.

So... maybe you could make a tool preset for each sample size you need and change the tool preset instead.

This method does have a few major drawbacks:

• One downside is that it saves all tool settings for the eyedropper, so if you need different sample layer settings too, you'd need to create even more presets...
• Not to mention the tool preset file .tpl would need to travel with the script, or you'd get issues down the line.
• A little bit of a drawback is that unless your tool preset list is showing presets for all tools, which it likely isn't or you can't assume it is, you can select a preset only if the correct tool is first selected.

Here's code that selects the eyedropper tool and activates a preset that I named 3 by 3 Average (All Layers).

selectTool("eyedropperTool");
selectToolPreset("3 by 3 Average (All Layers)");

function cTID(s) { return app.charIDToTypeID(s); };
function sTID(s) { return app.stringIDToTypeID(s); };

function selectTool( toolName ) {

  var desc78 = new ActionDescriptor();
    var ref38 = new ActionReference();
    ref38.putClass( sTID( toolName ) );
  desc78.putReference( cTID('null'), ref38 );
  desc78.putBoolean( sTID('dontRecord'), true );
  desc78.putBoolean( sTID('forceNotify'), true );
  executeAction( cTID('slct'), desc78, DialogModes.NO );

};

function selectToolPreset( toolPresetName ) {

  var desc75 = new ActionDescriptor();
    var ref36 = new ActionReference();
    ref36.putName( sTID('toolPreset'), toolPresetName );
  desc75.putReference( cTID('null'), ref36 );
  executeAction( cTID('slct'), desc75, DialogModes.NO );

};

I used the Xtools script: LastLogEntry.jsx to get the last Scripting Listener entry and clean it up a little.

Answer 2

To get a current setting of an eyedropper (switch to eyedropper first using Joonas' selectTool()):

//returns 0 for Point Sample, 1 for 3x3, etc
function getCurrentEyedropperSetting() {
    var ref = new ActionReference();
    ref.putProperty(stringIDToTypeID("property"), stringIDToTypeID("tool"));
    ref.putEnumerated(stringIDToTypeID("application"), stringIDToTypeID("ordinal"), stringIDToTypeID("targetEnum"));
    return executeActionGet(ref).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("currentToolOptions")).getInteger(stringIDToTypeID("eyeDropperSample"));
};