Photoshop cs5 by steve Johnson part 65 doc

The Automate commands let you process—through batch file processing—hundreds of image files with the click of a button.. The Photoshop automation commands appear 17 What You’ll Do Work w

Working with Automate

Commands

Introduction

It's great when you hear about new tips and tricks that will

save time But it's never a good policy to shave time if it

means sacrificing quality Adobe Photoshop has come to the

rescue with some great time-savers that will help you The

Automate commands give you the ability to streamline your

workflow, and make short work of repetitive tasks

Think of an automation as a batch of actions all rolled up

into one powerful command In the busy world of graphic

design, with all the image processing you need to do on a

daily basis, Photoshop's Automate commands give you the

ability to deliver consistent results, over and over again, with

the click of a button

The Automate commands let you process—through batch

file processing—hundreds of image files with the click of a

button In addition, you can use commands to crop and

straighten photos, resize photos, and merge photos together

to create a panoramic or HDR (High Dynamic Range) image

Photoshop also gives you the ability to convert a multi-page

PDF file into a Photoshop document

In addition to using the automation commands in

Photoshop, you can also use them in Adobe Bridge The Tools

menu in Bridge contains commands available with different

Adobe Creative Suite programs, such as Photoshop or

Illustrator The Photoshop automation commands appear

17 What You’ll Do

Work with Batch File Processing Work with Conditional Mode Change Use the Crop and Straighten Photos Command

Convert a Multi-Page PDF to PSD Create a PDF Document

Use Photomerge Merge Images to HDR Process Multiple Image Files Use the Fit Image Command

There is nothing more exciting than working on a new creative project, and watching your designs come to life Conversely, there is nothing more tiresome than having to apply a new creative concept or correc-tion individually to 50 separate images For example, you just spent three hours coming up with a procedure to color-correct an heirloom photograph, and the process took two filters and three adjustments

The photo looks great; however, you now have 50 other images with the exact problem You could create an action, but you would still have to open each image and apply the action 50 times The solution is to batch process the images after you have created the action Batch file pro-cessing lets you apply an action to an entire folder of images, and all you have to do is click a button Now, what could be simpler than that?

Working with Batch

File Processing

Work with Batch File

Processing

Create a new folder, and then

move all the images into the folder

IMPORTANT These files must

be image files There should not be

any other files, such as text files,

inside this folder

Create a second folder to hold the

modified images (optional)

Open Photoshop (you do not need

to open a document)

Click the File menu, point to

Automate, and then click Batch.

Select from the following Play

options:

◆ Click the Set list arrow, and

then select the Set containing

the Action you want to apply to

the images

◆ Click the Action list arrow, and

then select the correct Action

Click the Source list arrow, and

then select an image source from

the following: Folder, Import,

Opened Files, or Bridge

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Click Choose (available if Folder is

selected as the source), and then

select the location of the image

folder

Select the check boxes for any

options you want:

◆ Override Action “Open”

Commands Select to use an

open command embedded into

the Action

◆ Include All Subfolders Select

to batch process any images

located in folders embedded in

the main image folder

◆ Suppress File Open Options

Dialogs Select to disable the

File Open dialog box

◆ Suppress Color Profile

Warnings Select to disable the

Color Profile Mismatch dialog

box

Click the Destination list arrow,

and then click None, Save and

Close, or Folder.

Click Choose (available if Folder is

selected as the source), and then

select the destination of the

modified images

Select the Override Action "Save

As" Commands check box to use a

save command embedded into the

Action

If Folder is selected as destination,

the File Naming options allow you

to rename the modified files, and

then select the Compatibility

options you want: Windows, Mac

OS or Unix, or any combination of

the three

Click the Errors list arrow, select

an errors option, and then click

Save As to save your error

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Things to Remember About Batch File Processing

There are many settings and requirements in order to make your batch file processing a success Remember that before you begin, you need to have a created action For more information on actions, you can refer to Chapter 15 After your action is created, and all the kinks are worked out, you can then set up your batch file processing

Knowing ahead of time where the source images are, where you'll

be storing them (destination), having a naming convention, and other similar details will help reduce your setup of the batch file process-ing to a few easy steps

For Your Information

The Conditional Mode Change command lets you specify the conditions for changing the mode of an image in an action When you create an action that changes modes, it can cause a problem when you run the action For example, you create an action and one of the commands is

to convert the image from RGB to Grayscale Running the action on a file that is not RGB will cause an error But, what if you want to use the same action to convert a CMYK image to Grayscale? You can if you make the mode change within the action using Conditional Mode Change Using this option guarantees that you will never have a prob-lem using an action to change the mode of an image

Working with

Conditional Mode

Change

Work with Conditional

Mode Change

Open a document

Start recording an Action

IMPORTANT To make a

conditional mode change, you

must have a document open and

an available Action to change

Click the File menu, point to

Automate, and then click

Conditional Mode Change.

Select the check boxes with the

possible modes for the source

image; you can click All.

Click the Mode list arrow, and then

select the Target mode to which

you want the image converted

Click OK.

Add any additional commands to

the action

Click the Stop Recording button,

and then save the action

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See Also

See “Building a New Action” and

“Recording an Action” on pages

362-363 for information on action

recording

Using the Crop and

Straighten Photos

Command

Use the Crop and Straighten

Photos Command

Open a document

Click the File menu, point to

Automate, and then click Crop and

Straighten Photos.

Photoshop automatically creates

separate images from the

available image information in the

active document, and then places

the images into individual files

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The Crop and Straighten Photos command is a nifty way to quickly straighten multiple scanned images or make separate image files out of one image For example, you have a photograph of two people standing side-by-side, and you want a separate image of each person Or you have several scanned images that weren't quite straight on the platen

The Crop and Straighten Photos command works best when the images

in the document are separated by some white space When you apply the command to an image, it looks for areas to divide based on shifts in color; no selection is required

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Image cropped and straightened

Did You Know?

You can control the Crop and

Straighten Photos command through

selection Use the Rectangular

Marquee tool to select a portion of the

image before using the Crop and

Straighten Photos command, and then

Photoshop will work only within the

selection

Photoshop's list of automation features is impressive, and it gets longer and better with each new version of the program One of the features that will come in handy is the ability to convert a multi-page PDF directly into multiple Photoshop image files For example, you have this great Adobe PDF document that contains images you want to use in a Photoshop design The PDF format is a versatile file format that can contain both vector and bitmap data, as well as electronic document search and navigation features Some PDF files contain a single image, while other PDF files contain multiple pages and images When you open a PDF file, you can choose which pages to open, as well as spec-ify a specific rasterization process (how to convert the image from vec-tor to raster) Although Adobe moved this process from the Automation panel to the Open dialog box, it still rates a spot in automation

Converting a

Multi-Page PDF to PSD

Work with Multi-Page

PDF to PSD

Open Photoshop (it is not

necessary to open a document)

Click the File menu, and then click

Open.

Select a document in the

Photoshop PDF format

Click Open.

Click the Pages or Images option

to display PDF pages or images

extracted from the PDF pages

Select from the following Page

Options:

◆ Name: Enter a name for the

new document

◆ Crop To: Click the list arrow,

and then select from the

various cropping options

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Photoshop PDF format

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◆ Anti-aliased Select the check

box to use anti-aliasing

smoothing techniques during

the conversion

◆ Width and Height Specify the

width and height for the image

size in the measurement

system you want Select the

Constrain Proportions check

box to maintain proportions

◆ Resolution Choose a resolution

for Photoshop to use when it

rasterizes the PDF document

◆ Mode Click the list arrow, and

then select a color mode for

the output document

◆ Bit Depth Click the list arrow

and then select 8- or 16-bit

color depth

Select the Suppress Warnings

check box to prevent the operation

from stopping on alert dialog

boxes

Shift+click to select contiguous

pages, or Ctrl+click (Win) or

A+click (Mac) to select separate

pages

Click OK.

Photoshop creates separate PSD

files from each specified page

within the PDF document, and

places the text and/or images on a

transparent layer

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Did You Know?

You can convert Photoshop images

into PDF documents Photoshop gives

you the option to save the document in

the Photoshop PDF file format

Photoshop documents saved as PDF

files preserve shape information as

vector data, and you have the option of