ricola
asked on
Converting Action to Script instead based on what I'm doing right now?
Hi guys,
I've been working on Actions to work on a project of mine to generate sets of character TIF images. It has greatly simplified my process but still very time consuming in term of few main processes that I need to perform during automation :
manually changing to another character for different files of canvas size 256(where I varied in font for the different files).
After which, I would have to auto-centre the character at the centre of the canvas.Action didnt work for me as it was recording the actual unit translated thus I have to manually set the pt at different points of my bounding rectangle and manually enter the point to centre. The action which i was helping in this case was more of selecting my point of the box where i will enter the centred coordinates personally.
Subsequently I would have to save this psd , and also subsequently convert it to greyscale and save this image in TIF with a filename that is of this kind character_Font_Size.tif ie. A_Arial_128.tif . I would repeat this for the different font files I created and generate different such files with different fonts using the actions mentioned above =( [still very time-consuming]
On top of that, i would need to obtain the psd file which i have yet to convert to TIF to generate another 2 sets of images
1.the character in each file is to be BOLDED
2.the character in each file will be translated to another position of the canvas say the left-bottom coordinates of the bounding box is 1,1 eg.
Would greatly need to seek professional advice in what I can actually do to speed up this tedious process ? I happened to read about scripting when I was doing searches in EE but it seems pretty complex. I do have programming knowledge in C++ but not in javascript. Might still be able to grasp fast but would need some guidance.
Tks alot for reading this. Any other possible solutions i can look into?
I've been working on Actions to work on a project of mine to generate sets of character TIF images. It has greatly simplified my process but still very time consuming in term of few main processes that I need to perform during automation :
manually changing to another character for different files of canvas size 256(where I varied in font for the different files).
After which, I would have to auto-centre the character at the centre of the canvas.Action didnt work for me as it was recording the actual unit translated thus I have to manually set the pt at different points of my bounding rectangle and manually enter the point to centre. The action which i was helping in this case was more of selecting my point of the box where i will enter the centred coordinates personally.
Subsequently I would have to save this psd , and also subsequently convert it to greyscale and save this image in TIF with a filename that is of this kind character_Font_Size.tif ie. A_Arial_128.tif . I would repeat this for the different font files I created and generate different such files with different fonts using the actions mentioned above =( [still very time-consuming]
On top of that, i would need to obtain the psd file which i have yet to convert to TIF to generate another 2 sets of images
1.the character in each file is to be BOLDED
2.the character in each file will be translated to another position of the canvas say the left-bottom coordinates of the bounding box is 1,1 eg.
Would greatly need to seek professional advice in what I can actually do to speed up this tedious process ? I happened to read about scripting when I was doing searches in EE but it seems pretty complex. I do have programming knowledge in C++ but not in javascript. Might still be able to grasp fast but would need some guidance.
Tks alot for reading this. Any other possible solutions i can look into?
ASKER
increasing it to 200 =(
Sounds complicated. I don't think you'll be able to automate the whole process, but you can probably speed it up some by doing some automation of the user interface.
What platform are you working on? That will make a difference.
What platform are you working on? That will make a difference.
ASKER
Even scripting wont be able to help me much ?
May I know what do you mean by of the user interface? If you are refering to the project platform i'm working on.. I'm working on VC++ but all my images generated so far are through the use of photoshop.
I think the time consuming part lies in opening every single file in which i allocated a font, and change the existing character from say a 'A' to a 'B' and the list goes on.
Next was the autocentring of the character which i found it another of the time consuming step. This is due mainly that photoshop Actions do not remember the final position but more of the units that have been translated.
Is there any way of automating at least these 2 steps ? I believe if these 2 steps can be automated, the next few processes which I require might be able to carry out too.
May I know what do you mean by of the user interface? If you are refering to the project platform i'm working on.. I'm working on VC++ but all my images generated so far are through the use of photoshop.
I think the time consuming part lies in opening every single file in which i allocated a font, and change the existing character from say a 'A' to a 'B' and the list goes on.
Next was the autocentring of the character which i found it another of the time consuming step. This is due mainly that photoshop Actions do not remember the final position but more of the units that have been translated.
Is there any way of automating at least these 2 steps ? I believe if these 2 steps can be automated, the next few processes which I require might be able to carry out too.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Hi. me again.
have you tried using the Folder Batchprocessing in Photoshop?
The idea:
have one set of character-files in a folder, such as c:\stuff\fonts\basic\A.psd
copy this "basic" folder and name it "Arial"
let Photoshop work on all the files in this folder using the sequence of Actions
- select text layer
- change font setting ONLY (you already have the character!)
- cut/size
- set canvas size
you don't need to add the "Save as" because Photoshop already has the final filename and will override it.
Then use Flexible Renamer (or Batch) to create the final filenames.
To batch convert PSD to TIF you can use the same procedure or any free file converter.
Have fun,
CirTap
have you tried using the Folder Batchprocessing in Photoshop?
The idea:
have one set of character-files in a folder, such as c:\stuff\fonts\basic\A.psd
copy this "basic" folder and name it "Arial"
let Photoshop work on all the files in this folder using the sequence of Actions
- select text layer
- change font setting ONLY (you already have the character!)
- cut/size
- set canvas size
you don't need to add the "Save as" because Photoshop already has the final filename and will override it.
Then use Flexible Renamer (or Batch) to create the final filenames.
To batch convert PSD to TIF you can use the same procedure or any free file converter.
Have fun,
CirTap
wow, thanks for that. I will give it a try! Yup knew of the 'subroutine' but still taking me a looot of time. Did the old convention way.. kills off plenty of my precious time. Esp the changing of characters within each font file...
I'm also impressed of the renamer utility!
Keep u guys updated again!
I'm also impressed of the renamer utility!
Keep u guys updated again!
ASKER
cirtap,
your suggestion works for me. it heavily reduced my time required for cropping and auto-centering of images! I'm amazed with the renamer too. gosh, that helps me a lot too. too bad, that program has a steep learning curve. its documentation is bad. kept playing with some of its toggle field codes. But still, itz impressive! it helped me removed _128 easily without me having to rename one by one =)
Cool!
regards,
your suggestion works for me. it heavily reduced my time required for cropping and auto-centering of images! I'm amazed with the renamer too. gosh, that helps me a lot too. too bad, that program has a steep learning curve. its documentation is bad. kept playing with some of its toggle field codes. But still, itz impressive! it helped me removed _128 easily without me having to rename one by one =)
Cool!
regards,
Hi ricola,
glad it was helpful and thanx for the grade.
> that program has a steep learning curve
yep, I use it for a long time now and still discover new things to play with [just recently leardned how to save my own presets] :) but I think it's worth the time as it pays off once you get into it and have a lot of file operations to do in a regular basis.
In case you haven't found it yet: "Tool"->"Context Menu Option" is very handy, it adds the app to the "Folder" context menu in Explorer. It then only takes a few clicks to rename a zillion files and subfolders.
Have fun,
CirTap
glad it was helpful and thanx for the grade.
> that program has a steep learning curve
yep, I use it for a long time now and still discover new things to play with [just recently leardned how to save my own presets] :) but I think it's worth the time as it pays off once you get into it and have a lot of file operations to do in a regular basis.
In case you haven't found it yet: "Tool"->"Context Menu Option" is very handy, it adds the app to the "Folder" context menu in Explorer. It then only takes a few clicks to rename a zillion files and subfolders.
Have fun,
CirTap
ASKER