Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [316]
Creating a droplet
Photoshop actions can also be converted into self-contained, batch processing applications, known as ‘droplets’, which can play a useful role in any production workflow. When you drag a document or a folder on top of a droplet icon this will launch Photoshop (if the program is not already running) and initiate the action sequence that's contained within the droplet. The beauty of droplets is that you only need to configure the batch processing settings once and they are then locked into the droplet. Droplets can be stored anywhere you like, although it makes sense to have them readily accessible such as in an easy-to-locate system folder (Figure 15.8).
Figure 15.8 When you drag and drop an image file on top of a droplet, this will launch Photoshop and perform a single or batch processing operation within the program. Droplets can perform Save and Close operations (overwriting the original) or can be configured to save the processed images to an accompanying folder as a new version of the master image.
To make a droplet, go to the File Automate menu and choose ‘Create Droplet…’. Figure 15.9 shows the Create Droplet interface and you will notice that the Create Droplet options are identical to those found in the aforementioned Batch Actions dialog. Choose a location to save the droplet to and, if required, you can also choose a destination folder for the droplet processed files to be saved to. When you are done, click OK.
Figure 15.9 This shows the Create Droplet dialog.
Image Processor
The Image Processor (Figure 15.10) is located in the File Scripts menu in Photoshop and can also be accessed via the Tools Photoshop menu in Bridge. The Image Processor is a fine example of what Scripts can do when they are presented via an easy-to-use interface. The Image Processor basically allows you to select a folder of images (or select all open images) to process and select a location to save the processed files to. The Image Processor can then be configured to run a Photoshop action (if required) and save the processed files using either the JPEG, PSD or TIFF file formats. However, it will also allow you to simultaneously process and save files in multiple file formats. This can be very handy if you wish to produce, say, both a TIFF version at high resolution and a JPEG version ready to place in a web page layout.
Figure 15.10 This shows the Image Processor (formerly known as Dr. Russell Brown's Image Processor). This Scripting dialog can be configured to process single or multiple images, apply Photoshop actions, add copyright info and save the files to a designated folder location in one or more of the following file formats: JPEG, PSD or TIFF. The destination folder will contain the processed images and these will be separated into folders named according to the file formats selected. Once configured, you can click on the Save… button to save these settings and load them again at a future date.
Preparing JPEGs for the Web
When you are preparing images that are destined to be shared by email or published via the Web, the Image Processor is a handy tool to use because you can not only resize the images as part of the image processing, but you can instruct the Image Processor to convert the image from its current profile space to sRGB, which is the ideal RGB space for general purpose Web viewing.
Scripting
One of the most neglected aspects of Photoshop has been the ability to write scripts to automate the program. For most of us, the prospect of writing scripts is quite scary and I freely confess I am one of those who has looked at the scripting manuals and simply shuddered at the prospect of having to learn scripting code. Steps have been taken though to make scripting more accessible to the general user. You can start by referring to the Photoshop Scripting Guide and other PDF documents about scripting that can all be found in the Photoshop CS5/ Scripting Guide folder.