Adobe 23102480 Scripting Guide - Page 56

Photoshop CS3

Adobe Photoshop CS3

Scripting Guide

Scripting Photoshop CS3

56

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A type ruler, which is active when using the type tool.

You set measurement unit types for the type ruler using the

type units (TypeUnits/typeUnits)

property.

Note:

These settings correspond to those found in the Photoshop CS3 preference dialog under

Photoshop > Preferences > Units & Rulers

on Mac OS or

Edit > Preferences > Units & Rulers

in

Windows.

Unit Values

All languages support plain numbers for unit values. These values are treated as being of the type

currently specified for the appropriate ruler.

For example, if the ruler units are currently set to inches and the following VBScript statement sets a

document’s size to 3 inches by 3 inches:

docRef.ResizeImage 3,3

If the ruler units had been set to pixels, the document would be 3 pixels by 3 pixels. To ensure that your

scripts produce the expected results you should check and set the ruler units to the type appropriate for

your script. After executing a script the original values of the ruler settings should be restored if changed in

the script. See

‘Setting Ruler and Type Units in a Script’ on page 59

for directions on setting unit values.

Please refer to Photoshop CS3 Help for information about available unit value types.

Special Unit Value Types

The unit values used by Photoshop CS3 are length units, representing values of linear measurement.

Support is also included for pixel and percent unit values. These two unit value types are not, strictly

speaking, length values but are included because they are used extensively by Photoshop CS3 for many

operations and values.

AppleScript Unit Considerations

AppleScript provides an additional way of working with unit values. You can provide values with an

explicit unit type where unit values are used. When a typed value is provided its type overrides the ruler’s

current setting.

For example, to create a document which is 4 inches wide by 5 inches high you would write:

make new document with properties {width:inches 4, ¬

height:inches 5}

The values returned for a Photoshop CS3 property that uses units is returned as a value of the current ruler

type. Getting the height of the document created above:

set docHeight to height of current document

returns a value of 5.0, which represents 5 inches based on the current ruler settings.

In AppleScript, you can optionally ask for a property value as a particular type.

set docHeight to height of current document as points

This returns a value of 360 (5 inches x 72 points per inch).

The

points

and

picas

unit value types are PostScript points, with 72 points per inch. The

traditional

points

and

traditional picas

unit value types are based on classical type setting values, with 72.27

points per inch.

You can convert, or coerce, a unit value from one value type to another. For example, the following script

converts a point value to an inch value.

set pointValue to 72 as points

set inchValue to pointValue as inches

Section	Page
Contents	3
Introduction	5
About this manual	5
Conventions in this guide	5
Photoshop CS3 Scripting Basics	7
Scripting Overview	7
Why use scripts instead of actions?	7
Scripting Support in Photoshop CS3	8
JavaScript Support	8
Executing other scripts	9
Startup Scripts	9
Executing JavaScripts from AS or VBS	9
Photoshop CS3 Object Model	9
Containment Hierarchy	10
Application and Document Classes	10
Layer Classes	11
Layer Comp Class	11
Channel Class	11
Selection Class	11
History State Class	12
Document Info Class	12
Path Item, Sub Path Item, and Path Point Classes	12
Preferences Class	12
Notifier Class	12
Count Item Class	12
Color Sampler Class	12
Measurement Scale Class	12
The Containment Hierarchy and the Photoshop CS3 User Interface	12
Additional Objects	14
Constants	14
Creating a Sample Hello World Script	15
Creating and Running an AppleScript	15
Creating and Running a VBScript	16
Creating and Running a JavaScript	17
Scripting Photoshop CS3	19
Viewing Photoshop CS3 Objects, Commands, and Methods	19
Viewing Photoshop CS3’s AppleScript Dictionary	19
Viewing Photoshop CS3’s Type Library (VBS)	20
Targeting and Referencing the Application Object	20
Creating New Objects in a Script	21
Setting the Active Object	23
Setting the Active Document	24
Setting the Active Layer	25
Setting the Active Channels	25
Opening a Document	26
Opening a File with Default File Format	26
Specifying File Formats to Open	27
Saving a Document	29
Setting Application Preferences	30
Allowing or Preventing Dialogs	31
Working with the Photoshop CS3 Object Model	31
Using the Application Object	31
Using the Document Object	32
Manipulating a Document Object	32
Working with Layer Objects	34
Creating an ArtLayer Object	34
Creating a Layer Set Object	35
Referencing ArtLayer Objects	36
Working with Layer Set Objects	37
Linking Layer Objects	38
AS	38
VBS	38
JS	38
Applying Styles to Layers	38
Using the Text Item Object	39
Determining a Layer’s Kind	40
Adding and Manipulating Text in a Text Item Object	40
Working with Selection Objects	41
Creating and Defining a Selection	41
Stroking the Selection Border	42
Inverting Selections	43
Expanding, Contracting, and Feathering Selections	43
Filling a Selection	43
Loading and Storing Selections	44
Working with Channel Objects	45
Changing Channel Types	45
Using the Document Info Object	46
Using History State Objects	46
Using Notifier Objects	47
Using the PathItem Object	48
Working with Color Objects	50
Solid Color Classes	51
Using Hex Values for RGB Color	51
Getting and Converting Colors	51
Comparing Colors	52
Getting a Web Safe Color	52
Working with Filters	53
AS	53
VBS	53
JS	53
Other Filters	53
Understanding Clipboard Interaction	54
Using the Copy and Paste commands	54
Using the Copy Merged Command/Method	55
Working with Units	55
Unit Values	56
Special Unit Value Types	56
AppleScript Unit Considerations	56
Using Unit Values in Calculations	57
Unit Value Usage	57
Setting Ruler and Type Units in a Script	59
Sample Workflow Automation JavaScripts	59
Advanced Scripting	60
Working with Document Preferences	60
Applying Color to a Text Item	63
Applying a Wave Filter	66
Defining the Area of a Selection Object	66
Applying a MotionBlur Filter	69
Action Manager	72
The ScriptListener Plug-In	72
Installing ScriptListener	72
Action Manager Scripting Objects	73
Recording a Script using ScriptListener	73
Using the Action Manager from JavaScript	74
Using the Action Manager from a VBS Script	75
Running JavaScript-based Action Manager code from VBScript	78
Running JavaScript-based Action Manager code from AppleScript	78
Using ScriptListener to find event IDs and class IDs	79

Adobe 23102480 Scripting Guide - Page 56

Unit Values, Special Unit Value Types, AppleScript Unit Considerations

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