Home » Adobe Manuals » Computer Software » Adobe 23101335 » Manual Viewer

Adobe 23101335 Scripting Guide - Page 5

Introduction, 1.1 About this manual, 1.1.1 Conventions in this guide

UPC - 718659152833

Add to My Manuals
Save this manual to your list of manuals

Page 5 highlights

1 Introduction 1.1 About this manual This manual provides an introduction to scripting Adobe Photoshop 7.0 on Mac OS and Windows®. Chapter one covers the basic conventions used in this manual and provides an overview of requirements for scripting Photoshop. Chapter two covers basic scripting terms, concepts and techniques. Experienced AppleScript writers and Visual Basic programmers may want to skip to Chapter three for specifics on scripting Photoshop. 1.1.1 Conventions in this guide Code and specific language samples appear in monospaced courier font: documents.add(); IMPORTANT: Most code examples in this manual are brief snippets that will not work as fully functional scripts. Several conventions will be used when referring to AppleScript, Visual Basic and JavaScript. Please note the following shortcut notations: ● AS stands for AppleScript ● VB stands for Visual Basic ● JS stands for JavaScript The term "commands" will be used to refer both to commands in AppleScript and methods in Visual Basic and JavaScript. When referring to specific properties and commands, the manual will follow the AppleScript naming convention for that property and the Visual Basic and JavaScript names will appear in parenthesis. For example: "The display dialogs (DisplayDialogs/displayDialogs) property is part of the Application object." In this case, display dialogs refers to the AppleScript property, DisplayDialogs refers to the Visual Basic property and displayDialogs refers to the JavaScript property. Photoshop 7.0 Scripting Guide 5

Section	Page
Photoshop 7.0 Scripting Guide	1
Table of contents	3
Introduction	5
1.1 About this manual	5
1.1.1 Conventions in this guide	5
1.2 What is scripting?	6
1.3 Why use scripting?	6
1.4 What about actions?	6
1.5 System requirements	6
1.5.1 Mac	7
1.5.2 Windows	7
1.6 JavaScript	7
1.7 Choosing a scripting language	7
1.8 Legacy COM scripting	8
Scripting basics	9
2.1 Documents as objects	9
2.2 Object model concepts	9
2.2.1 Object classes	9
2.2.2 Object inheritance	10
2.2.3 Object elements or collections	10
2.2.4 Object reference	10
2.3 Documenting scripts	11
2.4 Values	12
2.5 Variables	14
2.5.1 Assigning values to variables	14
2.5.2 Using variables to store references	15
2.5.3 Naming variables	15
2.6 Operators	16
2.7 Commands and methods	17
2.7.1 Conditional statements	17
2.7.2 Control structures	18
2.8 Handlers, subroutines and functions	20
2.9 The Scripts menu	21
2.9.1 Scripts folder	21
2.9.2 The scripts dialog box	21
2.10 Testing and troubleshooting	23
2.10.1 AppleScript debugging	23
2.10.2 Visual Basic debugging	25
2.10.3 JavaScript Debugging	26
2.10.4 Error handling	31
Scripting Photoshop	33
3.1 Photoshop scripting guidelines	33
3.2 Viewing Photoshop objects, commands and methods	34
3.2.1 Viewing Photoshop’s AppleScript dictionary	34
3.2.2 Viewing Photoshop’s type library (VB)	35
3.3 Your first Photoshop script	36
3.3.1 AppleScript	36
3.3.2 Visual Basic	37
3.3.3 VBScript	39
3.3.4 JavaScript	41
3.4 Object references	42
3.4.1 AppleScript	42
3.4.2 Visual Basic and JavaScript	43
3.5 Working with units	44
3.5.1 Unit values	44
3.5.2 Unit value useage	46
3.5.3 Changing ruler and type units	48
3.6 Executing JavaScripts from AS or VB	48
3.6.1 Passing arguments to JavaScript	49
3.6.2 Executing one-line JavaScripts	50
3.7 The Application object	50
3.8 Document object	54
3.8.1 Saving documents and save options	55
3.8.2 Document information	56
3.8.3 Document manipulation	57
3.9 Layer objects	58
3.9.1 Setting the Active layer	61
3.9.2 Layer sets	61
3.9.3 Linking layers	62
3.9.4 Applying styles to layers	63
3.9.5 Rotating layers	63
3.10 Text item object	64
3.10.1 Setting the contents of the text item	65
3.10.2 Setting text stroke colors	66
3.10.3 Setting fonts	66
3.10.4 Warping text	67
3.11 Selections	67
3.11.1 Defining selections	68
3.11.2 Stroking the selection border	69
3.11.3 Inverting selections	70
3.11.4 Expand, contract and feather selections	70
3.11.5 Filling a selection	71
3.11.6 Rotating selections	72
3.11.7 Loading and storing selections	73
3.12 Working with Filters	74
3.12.1 Selecting channel(s) to filter	74
3.12.2 Other filters	75
3.13 Channel object	75
3.13.1 Channel types	75
3.13.2 Setting the active channel	76
3.13.3 Creating new channels	76
3.14 Color objects	77
3.14.1 Setting a Color	77
3.14.2 Getting and converting colors	78
3.14.3 Comparing Colors	79
3.14.4 Getting a Web Safe Color	79
3.15 History object	80
3.15.1 Filling a selection with a history state	81
3.16 Clipboard interaction	81
3.16.1 Copy	81
3.16.2 Copy merged	82
3.16.3 Cut	82
3.16.4 Paste	83
3.16.5 Paste into command	83
3.17 Action Manager scripting	84
3.17.1 Using the Action Manager from JavaScript	84
3.17.2 Using the Action Manager from VBScript	87