Press Release
Mac users who want to streamline their post-production workflows can now unleash Apple’s Automator on Photoshop CS5, thanks to the latest release of the Photoshop Automator Actions collection from completedigitalphotography.com.
Version 5 of this well-regarded collection of Automator Actions supports both CS4 and CS5, and adds bug fixes, feature enhancements, and three exciting new actions.
“Auto what?”
Built-in to the Mac OS, Automator provides a simple, drag-and-drop interface for creating complex scripting workflows. If you have an Automator-compatible application, you can simply drag action “bricks” together within an Automator workflow window to define an automation script, then save that script as an application, an OS X service, or Folder Action, or just run it from within Automator itself.
Photoshop Automator Actions version 5
This package is the largest collection of Photoshop actions available anywhere. The 95 actions give you access to just about every Photoshop command, as well as things that aren’t available in Photoshop, such as the ability to copy IPTC metadata to Spotlight comments.
Photoshop Automator Actions version 5 features three new actions for easing multi-picture layouts. Diptych and Triptych automate the process of creating two-up and three-up layouts, while Contact Sheet automatically generates contact sheets of thumbnails, with or without accompanying metadata.
The sophisticated Open/Render architecture of Photoshop Automator Actions allows Automator to work efficiently with large batches of images, rather than opening a huge number of files at once.
“Why would I use Automator instead of Photoshop Actions?”
While Photoshop’s Actions provide an incredible amount of automation power, their reach doesn’t extend beyond Photoshop’s features. With Automator, you can create automation workflows that span applications. For example, you can define a workflow that automatically processes images, uploads the results to an FTP server, and then burns final images to a CD.
The Photoshop Automator Actions collection has a few other advantages over Photoshop’s built-in actions. Many of the collection’s actions include their own built-in logic. For instance, you can tell the Resize Image command to not re-size any images that are smaller than your target size, so that you don’t accidentally enlarge an image.
A sophisticated set of Filter actions let you sort your images based on orientation, IPTC keywords, EXIF metadata, color mode, and more. This enables you to create workflows that process different images in different ways depending on their characteristics and metadata. This type of branching and comparing is not possible with Photoshop’s built-in actions.
Finally, if you’ve already built a lot of Actions within Photoshop, you don’t have to give those up, because you can trigger Photoshop Actions from within Automator.
And it’s free! Mostly.
The basic set of 41 actions for CS4 and CS5 is available as a free download (though donations are heartily encouraged). This set includes all of the everyday actions that most users will need. Users with more extensive needs can get the entire suite of 95 actions for $19.95. (Note that CS2 and CS3 packages are still available for free download.)
Download and purchasing links, as well as more info and a comprehensive list of which actions are included in which package, can be found here:
https://www.completedigitalphotography.com/?p=339
New to Automator? No problem.
As with previous versions, the Automator Actions collection ships with a comprehensive 70+ page manual. In addition, four tutorial movies are available at https://www.completedigitalphotography.com/?p=1473 with more to follow.
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on July 28, 2010
Commenting is easier and faster when you're logged in!
