Adobe 65014293 Scripting Guide - Page 8

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2

Photoshop Scripting Basics

This chapter provides an overview of scripting for Photoshop, describes scripting support for the scripting

languages AppleScript, VBScript, and JavaScript, how to execute scripts, and covers the Photoshop object

model. It provides a simple example of how to write your first Photoshop script.

If you are familiar with scripting or programming languages, you most likely will want to skip much of this

chapter. Use the following list to locate information that is most relevant to you.

➤

For more information on the Photoshop object model, see

“Photoshop Object Model” on page 11

.

➤

For information on selecting a scripting language, refer to the

Introduction to Scripting

guide.

➤

For examples of scripts created specifically for use with Photoshop, see Chapter 3,

“Scripting

Photoshop” on page 21

.

➤

For detailed information on Photoshop objects and commands, please use the reference information

in the three reference manuals provided with this installation:

Adobe Photoshop CS4 AppleScript

Scripting Reference

,

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Visual Basic Scripting Reference

, and

Adobe Photoshop CS4

JavaScript Scripting Reference

.

N

OTE

:

You can also view information about the Photoshop objects and commands through the object

browsers for each of the three scripting languages. See

“Viewing Photoshop Objects, Commands, and

Methods” on page 21

.

Scripting Overview

A script is a series of commands that tells Photoshop to perform a set of specified actions, such as applying

different filters to selections in an open document. These actions can be simple and affect only a single

object, or they can be complex and affect many objects in a Photoshop document. The actions can call

Photoshop alone or invoke other applications.

Scripts automate repetitive tasks and are often used as a creative tool to streamline tasks that might be

too time consuming to do manually. For example, you could write a script to generate a number of

localized versions of a particular image or to gather information about the various color profiles used by a

collection of images.

If you are new to scripting, you should acquaint yourself with the basic scripting information provided in

the

Introduction to Scripting

manual.

Why use scripts instead of actions?

If you’ve used Photoshop Actions, you’re already familiar with the enormous benefits of automating

repetitive tasks. Scripting allows you to extend those benefits by allowing you to add functionality that is

not available for Photoshop Actions. For example, you can do the following with scripts and not with

actions:

➤

You can add

conditional logic

, so that the script automatically makes “decisions” based on the current

situation. For example, you could write a script that decides which color border to add depending on

Section	Page
Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 Photoshop® Scripting Guide	2
Introduction	6
About this Manual	6
Conventions in this Guide	6
Photoshop Scripting Basics	8
Scripting Overview	8
Why use scripts instead of actions?	8
Scripting Support in Photoshop	9
JavaScript support	9
Executing other scripts	10
Startup scripts	10
Executing JavaScripts from AS or VBS	10
Photoshop Object Model	11
Containment hierarchy	11
Application and document classes	12
Layer classes	12
Layer Comp class	13
Channel class	13
Selection class	13
History State class	13
Document Info class	13
Path Item, Sub Path Item, and Path Point classes	14
Preferences class	14
Notifier class	14
Count Item class	14
Color Sampler class	14
Measurement Scale class	14
The containment hierarchy and the Photoshop user interface	14
Additional objects	16
Constants	16
Creating a sample Hello World script	17
Creating and running an AppleScript	18
Creating and running a VBScript	19
Creating and running a JavaScript	19
Scripting Photoshop	21
Viewing Photoshop Objects, Commands, and Methods	21
Viewing Photoshop’s AppleScript dictionary	21
Viewing Photoshop’s type library (VBS)	22
Targeting and Referencing the Application Object	22
Creating New Objects in a Script	23
Setting the Active Object	25
Setting the active document	26
Setting the active layer	27
Setting the active channels	28
Opening a Document	28
Opening a file with default file format	28
Specifying file formats to open	29
Saving a Document	31
Setting Application Preferences	32
Allowing or Preventing Dialogs	33
Working with the Photoshop Object Model	33
Using the Application object	34
Using the Document object	34
Manipulating a document object	35
Working with layer objects	36
Creating an ArtLayer object	37
Creating a Layer Set object	38
Referencing ArtLayer objects	38
Working with Layer Set objects	39
Linking layer objects	40
Applying styles to layers	40
Using the Text Item object	41
Determining a layer’s kind	41
Adding and manipulating text in a Text Item object	42
Working with Selection objects	42
Creating and defining a selection	43
Stroking the selection border	44
Inverting selections	44
Expanding, contracting, and feathering selections	44
Filling a selection	45
Loading and storing selections	45
Working with Channel objects	46
Changing channel types	46
Using the Document Info object	47
Using history state objects	47
Using Notifier objects	48
Using the PathItem object	49
Working with color objects	51
Solid color classes	52
Using hex values for RGB color	52
Getting and converting colors	52
Comparing colors	53
Getting a Web-safe color	53
Working with Filters	53
Other filters	54
Understanding Clipboard Interaction	54
Using the copy and paste commands	54
Using the copy merged command/method	55
Working with Units	56
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	60
Advanced Scripting	60
Working with document preferences	61
Applying color to a text item	64
Applying a wave filter	66
Defining the area of a selection object	67
Applying a MotionBlur filter	71
Action Manager	73
The ScriptListener Plug-In	73
Installing ScriptListener	73
Action Manager Scripting Objects	74
Recording a Script using ScriptListener	74
Using the Action Manager from JavaScript	75
Using the Action Manager from a VBS Script	76
Running JavaScript-based Action Manager code from VBScript	79
Running JavaScript-based Action Manager code from AppleScript	80
Using ScriptListener to find event IDs and class IDs	81

Adobe 65014293 Scripting Guide - Page 8

Photoshop Scripting Basics, Scripting Overview, Why use scripts instead of actions? - part number

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