Photoshop Automator Actions v3.7

July 13, 2008 by Ben Long
Filed under: Automator Actions 

Mac OS X 10.4 ships with Automator, a powerful workflow automation tool that lets you easily automate the operation of any AppleScriptable application. While Automator can control many applications right out of the box, it lacks the ability to automate Photoshop. For Photoshop control, you need The Photoshop Action Pack, which provides everything necessary to drive Photoshop CS, CS2 and CS3 using Automator. This update, for Photoshop CS3 only, provides a couple of important bug fixes as well as 2 new actions.

To use Automator, you string a series of "actions" together to create a workflow. The Photoshop Action Pack provides 90 Actions (86 in the CS2 version, and 85 for CS) that allow you to control a tremendous number of Photoshop’s functions. In addition, the Action Pack includes special filter operations that let you sort images based on various criteria including EXIF and IPTC tags, color mode, size, orientation and aspect ratio. With the Photoshop Action Pack, you can execute complex batch operations that are impossible with Photoshop’s own internal Actions. In addition to filtering by file properties, you can create branching logic for more complex functionality. While Adobe Bridge provides a simple interface for launching batch processes, it limits you to only operating on the files within a single folder. Automator has no such limitations, and provides are more ways to launch a batch process.

Because Automator can control much more than just Photoshop, you can automate entire photography and graphics production pipelines. For example, you can use Automator and the Photoshop Action Pack to batch process the manipulation of your images and then automatically upload the results to a server, or archive them to a CD or DVD.

Changes in Version 3.7 include a repair to the package’s Unsharp Mask action. Version 3.6 had broken the action, but with 3.7 it’s back to normal. Two new actions have been added: Set Blending Mode of Current Layer, which lets you control the blending mode of a layer, just like you would from Photoshop’s Layers palette, while the new Copy IPTC to Spotlight Comments lets you stash IPTC information embedded in the image into the file’s Spotlight Comments field. In addition to these changes, numerous bug fixes have been implemented, as documented below. Note that this version of the action pack does not include actions for any of Photoshop CS3’s new features. Those will be added in a future version.

The following actions are provided in the new Action Pack:

Add Empty Adjustment Layer Flip Canvas
Add Graphic Watermark Gaussian Blur
Add Layer Glass
Add Watermark HDR Merge
Arbitrary Rotate Hue/Saturation
Assign Color Profile Invert
Assign Custom Profile Load Selection
Assign Epson 2200 Profile Maximum/Minimum
Assign Epson 2400 Profile Mono Gaussian Noise
Auto Color Motion Blur
Auto Contrast NTSC Colors
Auto Levels Ocean Ripple
Bleach Bypass Open as Raw Data
Change Bit Depth Open
Change Mode Paint Daubs
Change Pixel Aspect Ratio Photo Filter
Change Resolution Pinch
Channel Mixer Polar Coordinates
Clouds Posterize
Color Balance Purge
Convert to Profile Radial Blur
Copy Data to IPTC Reduce Noise
Copy IPTC to Spotlight Comments Render
Crop Resize Canvas
Deinterlace Resize Image
Desaturate Resize to File Size
Deselect Resize to X by 10%
Despeckle Restore Original File List
Diffusion Ripple
Do Action Scale Image
Duplicate Current layer Set Blending Mode of Current Layer
Dust and Scratches Shadow/Highlight
Edit IPTC Info Sharpen Edges
Exposure (CS2 only) Sharpen More
Filter by Aspect Ratio Smart Blur
Filter by Bit Depth Smart Sharpen (CS2/CS3 only)
Filter by Color Mode Sphereize
Filter by EXIF Strip Extra Channels
Filter by File Type Swap Colors
Filter by IPTC Threshold
Filter by Orientation Trap
Filter by Size Trim
Fit Image Twirl
Flatten Document Unsharp Mask
  Use Currently Open Documents

Version 3.7 is fully compatible with PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. In addition to the action bundle, an assortment of sample workflows is provided. The included 73-page manual gives you a reference for all of the included actions, as well as an introduction to using Automator, and strategies for building Photoshop workflows. Note that if you’re using CS or CS2, you’ll need to download one of the previous versions of the Action Pack. Maintaining three versions is simply too complicated so, unless there’s rioting in the street, from here on development will proceed with CS3 only.

You can download the Photoshop Action Pack for free using the link below. (All three versions are 11.1 mb) As mentioned in the installation section of the included manual, you might need to use this script to clear out your Automator action cache. See the manual for more details. If the Action Pack still doesn’t appear, then try this.

If you find these actions useful, please don’t be at all shy about PayPal-ing me some cash! $5! $10! $1.2 million! I’m not picky! Just click this button right here:

Download the Photoshop Action Pack for Photoshop CS2
Download the Photoshop Action Pack for Photoshop CS

Download the Photoshop Action Pack for Photoshop CS3

If you’d like to know more about Automator, check out Apple’s Automator pages.

What’s new in version 3.7

Beginning with version 2, an entirely new architecture was introduced to the Action Pack. If you’re upgrading from a 1.x or earlier version of the Action Pack, then you’ll need to consult the documentation to see how things have changed, and to learn how you’ll need to modify your existing workflows. If you’re upgrading from version 3.0, then you’ll see the following bug fixes, in addition to the new features listed above:

* Hue/Saturation now allows a proper Hue range, -180 to 180 rather than the limited -100 to 100 that it had before.

* Added "Set Blending Mode of Current Layer" action.

* Fixed a bug in the Duplicate Current Layer action that could cause the wrong layer to be selected if you issued several duplicate actions in a row.

* Copy Data to IPTC now lets you specify a separator to use when appending data.

* Fixed bugs in Resize Image that were keeping it from proportionally resizing an image when the workflow only specified a single dimension.

* Changed Restore Original Image so that it’s now possible to use multiple instances of the action within one workflow. Each one restores the original set of images that were originally passed to the workflow.

* Added a "Copy IPTC to Spotlight Comments" action.

* Unsharp Mask now works properly. Due to an embarassing bit of debugging code that was left in the final version of 3.6, Unsharp Mask was always using hard-coded parameter values, unless you told it to apply its effects to a new layer. It doesn’t do this anymore.

* Some of the saving parameters in the Render dialog weren’t sticking when you saved a workflow. This has been fixed.

A Note About Version Numbers

While all of the actions in the Action Pack have a version number, at this point it’s only the version number on the Render action that really counts for anything. As the number of actions in the collection has grown, it’s just become too unwieldy to update every project. At some point, I’ll take the version numbers out of the other actions, but even the wieldy level of that task has been too much for me so far.

Buy a copy of Photoshop CS 3 for the Mac at Amazon.com.

Need to upgrade to Snow Leopard? Order it now from Amazon.com.



Comments

34 Comments on Photoshop Automator Actions v3.7

  1. Doug C on Mon, 14th Jul 2008 8:18 pm

    2. I guess we can tell what these cryptically named other posters are using THEIR licensed (ahem) copies of Photoshop to do… is there a “make (female celebrity name) nude” filter? Amazing amount of spam for all arriving at 2:06AM with the same thoughts in mind, don’t you think?

  2. Adam on Thu, 14th Aug 2008 2:14 pm

    3. Any photoshop actions for us Windows Users… and please i’m not here to get into the battle of the Systems.

  3. ext237 on Sat, 16th Aug 2008 7:47 pm

    4. “Edit IPTC Info” doesn’t seem to edit the IPTC info. Tried it on CR2, DNG and JPG files, no actual changes are made to the meta data and it completed successfully.

  4. Ryan on Fri, 3rd Oct 2008 9:17 pm

    5. Actions do not work. Workflow runs to completion, however, photoshop actions do not work. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

    Macbook Pro 2.2
    Mac OSX 10.5.5
    Photoshop CS3 10.0

  5. morannon on Sun, 5th Oct 2008 5:29 pm

    6. Same problem here:

    Macbook Pro 2.2
    Mac OSX 10.5.5
    Photoshop CS3 10.0

  6. Ben Long on Sun, 5th Oct 2008 5:31 pm

    7. Make sure you’re using Open and Render properly. If you’re not, then the workflow will run, but nothing will happen. And it has to be the Open command from the Action pack. See the manual for details.

  7. morannon on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 2:30 am

    8. Thank you so much. I forgot to add the Render action. Mea culpa.

  8. morannon on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 4:54 am

    9. Anyhow, the IPTC actions do not work. Probably there’s a connection with the new xml format that Photoshop uses (instead of the good old IPTC). Hopefully you can fix that. Otherwise I have to look for an workaround.

  9. Tim on Sat, 11th Oct 2008 2:07 pm

    10. I’ve tried several times to install v3.7, I’ve even completely reinstalled my entire system and my PS3, still no dice. The automator actions that show in Automator say v3.5.1 and any Photoshop steps in actions I build do nothing. I’ve even tried to open the contents of the installer package, locate the actions and manually copy them into Automator actions in my library…same result.
    This is very promising stuff (at the bare minimum I’m looking for a fast batch resize to web action that replaces PhotoTool since it won’t work under OS X 10.5)

    #8 – These aren’t ‘actions’ in the Photoshop sense, they are Automator actions — it’s Mac stuff. Look up the author’s reference to Automator. There isn’t a Windows version because this is something Windows can’t do.

  10. Michael Elmkjær Madsen on Mon, 27th Oct 2008 10:26 am

    11. Works beautiful in CS4 !

    So cool !

    - Thanx
    Michael

  11. rgr on Tue, 4th Nov 2008 6:37 pm

    12. Hello, i have many png’s with transparency. It’s there option to make some filters and save in ‘render’ png-24 with transparency bg? i can’t find this. I want soft edges. thx

  12. ficholas on Thu, 13th Nov 2008 4:42 pm

    13. ANy way to automate Stripping Extra Channels on a pc?

  13. Andrea on Sat, 22nd Nov 2008 4:49 am

    14. Hi, fantastic product, but I receive an error when use the Change Resolution task. It says:

    2008-11-21 22:08:06 +0100: All’azione ‚ÄúOttieni elementi selezionati‚Äù non sono stati forniti i dati necessari.
    2008-11-21 22:08:07 +0100: Ottieni elementi selezionati completati
    2008-11-21 22:08:08 +0100: Open completati
    2008-11-21 22:08:12 +0100: Change Resolution falliti
    2008-11-21 22:08:11.704 defaults[1094:613] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.
    2008-11-21 22:08:11.706 defaults[1094:613] Could not parse: {”theResolution” = 72,0;”theInterpolation” = “4″;}. Try single-quoting it. (5347184)

    I gave it a PSD, a JOG a NEF file but the results are the same: ERROR below. I have Leopard on a macbook pro, all the other task work greatly, this one no.

    Help please!!!!

  14. Travelling Mac on Mon, 24th Nov 2008 9:36 am

    15. Hi

    First of all, this package of Automator actions seems very, very good. So congratulations with the good work!

    I’m trying to make an action that converts Photoshop CMYK files til RGB.

    First I made an action that converts TIF files to JPG using “Filter by File Type”- and then Render to JPG – it works OK.
    Then I changed the filter to “Filter by Color Mode” [CMYK] and added a “Change Mode” [RGB].
    What happens now is that ALL pictures is converted to RGB, like there’s no filter applied at all.

    Is there possibly an error in the “Filter by Color Mode” action ?
    -or may be You could provide an example converting CMYK to RGB images ?

  15. tts on Sun, 30th Nov 2008 5:35 pm

    16. Thanks so much for this pack! You’re a saint!

  16. Ben Long on Fri, 5th Dec 2008 11:16 am

    17. Hi All, just wanted to let you know that I AM working on a CS4 port of the action pack. Unfortunately, I’m also travelling at the moment, so it’s going a little slow, but I should have something posted soon. At the very least it will be the same as the current version, but ported to work with CS4, but I’m also working on bug fixes, and trying to get some of the new CS4 functionality implemented. Thanks for all your support! –Ben

  17. Ian on Mon, 22nd Dec 2008 9:17 pm

    18. In this effort to save a few seconds here and there. I have now wasted about two hours of my life trying to get this to work. Photoshop would NOT appear as an option for applications in automator….not matter how well I followed the developer’s advice. In fact, there was no applications folder to begin with in my automator library. Tried everything suggested here. Holding the option key while re-launching automator (YES the downloaded actions appeared in automator actions list, but NOT the Photoshop application in the library)…I then Installed and used as directed the “Application Updater” file to try to get Photoshop CS3 involved. NOPE…. and now the suggestion is uninstall and reinstall CS3!!!! Yeah!?!? … Guess I’m stuck using Photoshop actions!

  18. Ian on Tue, 23rd Dec 2008 12:55 pm

    19. Hi, I’m back. And I guess I have the problem solved. In order to finally locate Photosgop CS3 as an application within automator (after the actions had been installed), I had to change view>arrange actions by>by category… to:… view>arrange actions by>application, ….and then the photoshop application appeared in the library, though not nested in an applications folder (as the instruction manual pdf states). This may be due to an update of automator??? I don’t know.. But now that I have it up an running, I love these actions. A small request: I would have liked to see a Brightness/contrast action. Keep up the good work Mr. Long.

  19. Ian on Tue, 23rd Dec 2008 2:19 pm

    20. Back once more….I promise, this is the last post.
    Brightness/contrast issue fixed by using the “Do Action” action (points to an already existing action created within Photoshop).
    Thanks again!

  20. monty on Thu, 25th Dec 2008 9:28 am

    21. will this work on a PC ?
    Can i hire you to make a custom batch / action process for photoshop ?

  21. commnunication skills on Fri, 26th Dec 2008 4:33 am

    22. I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. As i am learning photoshop the tips could act as a boon for me.
    I am happy now :)

  22. M. Plumet on Thu, 15th Jan 2009 4:50 am

    23. What about an upgrade of “Rename from IPTC” action ?
    This part of ActionsPack v2 for CS2 disapear since v3 but still works under 10.4 with CS3, not with 10.5 !
    A little help for our staff please.
    Thanks.
    MP.

  23. lol on Sun, 1st Feb 2009 10:17 am

    24. alert()

  24. Dale Appleman on Tue, 3rd Feb 2009 3:32 pm

    25. I have, but haven’t used, your 3.5 automator.

    I tried to download your update 3.7, but all it gave me was 3.5 again.

    I am running Leopard, a Power PC Mac, G5.

  25. uaithq on Fri, 13th Feb 2009 7:59 am

    26. julmtwlmrofwnrmtksyjzkmsbyenbc

  26. Kenny on Tue, 17th Feb 2009 6:01 am

    27. I’m using 3.7, but some of the values in the Render dialog still aren’t saving or affecting the saved file. For example, the quality setting for JPEG will always stay at 7 no matter what I saved it as, and it will always save the JPEG as 7 as well.

  27. Allison on Wed, 18th Feb 2009 6:05 pm

    28. I am having trouble with the Resize action. I have a workflow as follows – Get Selected Finder Item, Open, Resize image, Render. But when I check the image size it is the same as before :(

    Automator runs through the workflow and says it is finished and doesn’t give any errors for this.

    I am on a MacBook Pro 10.5.5. I do have the most current actions installed

    Any help would be great!!! :)

  28. Chris on Wed, 25th Mar 2009 11:48 am

    29. Hi,
    i have the same problem like Allison. All of my actions (previously working just fine with 3.5 in CS3) doesn’t resize any longer. File will be opened, not resized, saved and closed.. if you look at the safed file – same size.
    Mac Pro 10.5.6 CS4 on 3.7 Actions

  29. Chris on Wed, 25th Mar 2009 11:59 am

    30. Hi again.. i restored my library/automator folder from 3.5.. now resizing is working again.. must be something on 3.7 (thought this file was in developement but on my 3.7 installation “resize image” is still version 3.5.1?)

  30. dez on Mon, 13th Apr 2009 2:45 pm

    31. Great product. And the license agreement rocks. You really should have a copy of that on your site somewhere.

  31. Olive on Mon, 25th May 2009 12:21 pm

    32. Hi,

    So great Actions !
    all seams to work fine but the very one action I was looking for ;(
    the filter by size action. When I run it it says :

    Filter by size :
    CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData() : Old-style parser: missing semicolon in dictionnary

    I don’t get it.
    I’m on Leopard 10.5.6 ( Photoshop CS3)‚Ķ please tell me how I can fix this or if you can do it.
    And same as other I’ve downloaded last 3.7 actions but none of them are versionized 3.7. max last version is 3.5.1 on some actions‚Ķ

    I need you on this ;)

    Otherwise a very great job you did. please fix this and I promise you I’ll go on Paypal right away.
    Many thanks.

  32. Amy on Tue, 23rd Jun 2009 7:48 pm

    33. Thank you! I have CS4 and will see if they work for me!

  33. Jeremy on Wed, 8th Jul 2009 10:28 am

    34. Hi,

    I’m running the version that works with CS2 and I had a quick question. Whenever I Render something with the Save for Web feature of Render if my filename is over a certain number of characters (I think it’s 30) it truncates the file name. I notice that when you use the Save as Jpeg or one of the others that it doesn’t truncate the file name. The problem there is that the file sizes are large and I still need it for the web. Is there a way around this?

    -Jeremy

  34. Jeremy on Wed, 8th Jul 2009 2:29 pm

    35. I’ve been doing some more tests this afternoon with some ridiculously long file names and it seems to not truncate them sometimes and other times it does.

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