Version 3.7, which is for Photoshop CS3, adds two new actions:
1. Set Blending Mode of Current Layer
2. Copy IPTC to Spotlight Comments
The first lets you change a layer’s blending mode, just as you would from Photoshop’s Layers palette, while the second lets you automate the process of copying IPTC tags into spotlight comments.
With this release, a few other actions have seen feature additions. You can now use multiple copies of Restore Original Image within the same workflow, and Copy Data to IPTC now lets you specify a separator to use when appending data. This release also brings some important bug fixes, most notably to Unsharp Mask, which now works properly.
Why Automator?
While Photoshop has its own built-in Actions mechanism for automating repetitive tasks, Automator offers a number of advantages. Because Automator lets you build automation workflows that include more applications than just Photoshop, you can create a single automation that processes images in Photoshop, and then hands the output to another application for additional work. Also, with the Photoshop Action Pack collection of Automator actions, you get logical operations and conditional functionality that you don’t have with Photoshop’s built-in actions. So, you can build automated workflows that process each image differently depending on its characteristics.
The Photoshop Action Pack is available for free download at www.completedigitalphotography.com/?p=339
If you find these actions helpful, and want to see more development on them, or if you’re just extremely thankful to be reading about something other than the iPhone, you should consider making a donation using the Paypal button located at the bottom of the Action Pack web page.
This article was last modified on December 17, 2022
This article was first published on July 15, 2008
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