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• • June 21, 2013 at 1:22 pm #34015
    Sean Reilly

    Member

    Hi,

    I recently found this forum via the blog post on “The Ultimate Contact Sheet”. The functionality achieved by the imagecatalog.jsx script isn’t exactly what I need but it’s in the right ballpark- hoping you might be able to help me get a bit closer.

    I’m currently working for a publishing house preparing images that will eventually be printed inside books. Files come to me in a wide variety of formats. I save them as either tiff or eps. These files (the tiffs and the eps) will eventually be sent along to someone that is doing layout work for the book and then to the printer. Before that happens however I need to provide the editor with hardcopies of the images that will be published so that they can review them. Having the editors look at digital versions of the files is not currently an option. Our current workflow (not designed by me) entails entering all the images for any given book into an InDesign template. Then in Indesign I have to enter some information about the images (their numerical designation, their file format). Then we print the .indd file for editorial review. Due to the amount of images I?m responsible for this process is very time consuming.

    What I would like to be able to do is select a folder of images (tiffs and eps only) and print them at 100% (no resizing, one image per page) with the file name at the bottom of the page, and the dimensions of the image in picas.

    I did a test run and was able to get the script to place one image per page but not sized at 100%. Also, I was unable to get the captioning to work. I could setup the captions in the ?caption setup? dialog box but when I went to add the caption using ?Object > Captions > Generate Static Caption?, the generate static caption option was greyed out.

    Please let me know if anything isn?t clear.
    Any advice?
    Thanks in advance

  • June 21, 2013 at 5:18 pm #34016
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    Sean,

    I suspect you’re “almost there” on both counts.

    For the images to be placed at 100%, deselect Fitting: Proportional. It might make more sense if the dialog had some indication of scaling, but it is what it is and your images will be proportional and at 100% when the option is deselected.

    With your caption setup complete, just select the images directly in the Links panel and the Live and Static caption options will no longer be grayed out.

    I give both of these tools a work out almost daily, and it won’t help for this particular task, but I found it helpful to assign a shortcut (Control+C) to the Live Caption command. I don’t usually need the Static option.

    Good luck!
    Bob

  • June 22, 2013 at 9:27 am #34020
    Sean Reilly

    Member

    Hi Bob,

    Thanks for the help! Deselecting fitting: proportional worked perfectly.

    I think my problem with the captions was that I was selecting all the files in the links panel but then trying to select “generate static caption” from the tool bar at the top of the screen not from the menu that pops up via control/right click.

    One sort of strange thing is still happening- image dimensions are filling in for some images but not others. Maybe I just need to fiddle with it a little bit. I’m also wondering- do you think there is any way to have the captions fill in image dimensions in picas? I tried switching my default unit of measurement before adding captions via InDesign> Preferences> Units & Increments but no dice.

    Even if I can’t get that part to work this method will still save me a good chunk on time.

    Thanks,
    Sean

  • June 22, 2013 at 7:30 pm #34023
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    Sean,

    I’m glad it worked out.

    I personally use the Links panel drop-down arrow to generate the captions.

    About the images not listing dimensions, do they happen to be EPS files? I wouldn’t be surprised if they are, InDesign can’t report resolution on EPS files either. Probably because EPS files can be created so many different ways, raster, vector, or a combination of the two.

    I think you’re out of luck changing the dimension preferences with Live Caption, read this: https://forums.adobe.com/message/5131151

    There is a solution here, however: https://www.rorohiko.com/wordpress/otherproducts/sizelabels/
    It puts the dimensions on their own layrer, and you can set up and use a paragraph style if desired just like Live Caption. And it may solve the issue with some image dimensions not being listed as well!

    It defaults to inches, but there are instructions on how to edit the script. I’ve edited a few scripts, and all you really need is a simple text editor, just remember to use plain text. I don’t have any experience with this script, but I’m guessing that a Rorohiko script won’t be a problem.

    Bob

  • June 23, 2013 at 2:12 pm #34033
    Sean Reilly

    Member

    Bob,

    Thanks again. Yes, they are eps files! I thought all was lost when I read that but I’m fairly certain sizelabels.jsx can manage to label the dimensions of eps files too so I hope to use that instead of captions.

    I am having a small issue with sizelabels.jsx (the boxes that the script creates with the information are very small and each and every one must be resized in order to read the text they contain) but I’ve contacted Kris and rorohiko and hopefully I’ll be good to go soon.

    Feels like progress…

    Sean

  • June 23, 2013 at 3:48 pm #34035
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    Sean,

    Did you edit the script for picas? If so, did you miss the step to convert the label width and height from inches?

    .3 in would be 1.8 picas. https://www.unitconversion.org/length/inchs-to-picas-conversion.html
    2 in would be 12 picas.

    I’m sure you’ve already figured out that running the sizelabels script before Live Caption is the way to work this so you don’t label the captions. Thought about that a bit after my last post. Anyway, you’re going to have this nailed for your editorial staff. Maybe you can create a PDF and post to a central location instead of printing it out and save a tree. They’ll just have to figure out how to make digital comments. ; )

    Bob

  • June 24, 2013 at 6:44 am #34042
    Sean Reilly

    Member

    Bob,

    I’d found the place in the script to change the unit to picas but hadn’t realized the box dimensions needed to be changed too. Thanks for the tip.

    I think I may not need to use captions since sizelabels.jsx can add the file name also. Still, I’m glad I have some familiarity with it now and if editorial needs any more information about the images it could come in helpful.

    I’d love to to be able to switch to digital commenting for a number of reasons but I think that’s an issue I’ll have to keep pushing. For the time being though you’ve really helped me out.

    Cheers,
    Sean

  • June 24, 2013 at 8:22 am #34045
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    Sean,

    I’m glad you got it all worked out. I did not know that SizeLabels could add the file name. Nice bonus for your task. And if you read the version history, it did not initially support EPS files. Dodged a bullet there.

    re: digital commenting
    One hurdle at a time, eh? Yeah, been there…

    Bob

  • June 24, 2013 at 1:54 pm #34050
    Sean Reilly

    Member

    Hi Bob,

    Seems that things aren’t quite as good as they seemed. I realized this afternoon that files being “placed” via imagecatalog don’t look as crisp as images placed in the conventional way when printed. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can hand pages over to editorial that don’t accurately reflect the file. Still, I think I can just place files and then use sizelabels to avoid manually entering all that information.

    Sean

  • June 24, 2013 at 2:26 pm #34051
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    Sean,

    That’s odd, it shouldn’t matter how the files are placed. Are you using All or Optimized Subsampling for your Send Data when printing? Try using Optimized Subsampling if you’re not already.

    It’s a bit counter-intuitive, and it actually goes back to the PageMaker days, but you may see an improvement.

    Bob

  • June 25, 2013 at 6:15 am #34055
    Sean Reilly

    Member

    Bob,

    Don’t ask me to explain why but I’m actually getting better results using All than Optimized Subsampling. In fact, when I checked the inside the print dialog box Optimized Subsampling was already being used. Thought it couldn’t hurt to see if All would have an effect one way or the other and viola- a clear print out.

    Thanks so much for helping me narrow done the issue.

    Sean

  • June 25, 2013 at 6:33 am #34056
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    Sean,

    Something seems really wrong about that, but as long as it’s working I wouldn’t ask questions. The next option would have been to try printing from a PDF.

    Again, I’m happy you found a solution for your task even if it veered off in another direction. It never hurts to know a bit more about InDesign’s automation features and all the scripts available, many of them free.

    Bob

  • October 16, 2013 at 11:11 am #65836
    Sean Reilly

    Member

    It’s been a lovely three months and three weeks using this method but now my office is switching over to Creative Cloud and I’m back to square one. (0_0)

    IndesignCC still has imagecatalog.jsx as a built-in script but it won’t work properly. In one instance it placed all my tiffs and none of the eps. Sometimes it will give me an error message (https://imgur.com/Y9swb9Q), and sometimes it just won’t respond at all. I’ve tried opening my files which were created using CS6 with creative cloud and re-saving them as the newest version but didn’t have any luck.

    Any ideas?

  • October 17, 2013 at 8:13 pm #65863
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    Hello again Sean,

    I may not be much help this time around because I have limited access to CC at the moment. From your screen capture I did notice that you’re receiving an AppleScript error, not JavaScript. Which one are you using?

    I doubt it would make a difference, but you might try copying the imagecatalog.jsx file from CS6 if still available. I have a customized version of that script that I’ve been using since CS2. If I can borrow a co-worker’s Mac for a few minutes, I’ll see how it acts with CC. I’m going to need to know myself soon.

    Bob

  • October 18, 2013 at 7:29 am #65867
    Sean Reilly

    Member

    Hi Bob,

    Good eye! I should have been using JavaScript. It’s working perfectly now- not sure what was throwing me off.

    Thanks for the advice about just copying scripts over to the new computer. I was able to move sizelabels.jsx and get that working without tweaking the code again.

  • October 18, 2013 at 7:33 am #65868
    Bob Rubey

    Member

    Gotta love the easy ones. Back to work for us.

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