Python + Photoshop pattern files

Tools Photoshop
#1

Hi folks,

I’m having a hard time trying to find a documentation of the Photoshop pattern file format (*.pat).

What I have in mind is a small external pattern browser that shows just a plain list or much better some thumbnails of the contained patterns.

Does anybody definitely know if this can be realized?
Is there a file format tech sheet / specification / documentation for PAT files?
Actually I was challenging Google kinda 100 times to find something, but yet without any success.

All hints are welcome, I appreciate any help.
Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Killian

#2

Not using Photoshop personally, but found some pointers from Google:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet-apps/photoshop/fileformatashtml/
http://www.selapa.net/swatches/patterns/fileformats.php
http://registry.gimp.org/files/ps-pat-load_1.c

I think it could be done, but can’t say it’s going to be easy.

#3

That selapa site is great, good find! Killian, if you need help understanding how to read byte formats, feel free to ask.

#4

@madyasiwi
That link to selapa looks pretty interesting. I already had an eye on the other sites this morning.

Rob, thanks for your aid. I will give myself a try to understand it tomorrow and I’ll keep up with any results.

Thanks a lot, both of you.

Best Regards,
Killian

#5

Perfect, that site really helped me out. My pattern loader works quite well and I can retrieve all required information from the magical bytes. :):

I’m using struct.unpack(…) to read the pattern files what seems to be pretty fast, but I haven’t tested it with a huge amount of data, yet.
The only (pseudo) issue, that is worth mentioning, was the fact of having all data stored by using big endian byte-order.
I was close to madness until I finally chipped in with it. :rolleyes:

If anyone’s heading for the code, please send me a PM.