Script tutorial ?

Hi all,

could anyone here please point me at a decent photoshop script tutorial ? I've finally managed to create an action that will watermark my images, and the only problem is placement.

With landscape images, I never know what the height of the image that I want to watermark will be. Once I've cropped my image I resize it using the Fit Image tool under File -> Automate. This sets the width to 1024, and the height to whatever is required to maintain proportion (there's probably a better way of explaining that, sorry :()

What I'm trying to do is have the watermark in the lower left corner, so what I want to do is to find the height of the image and place the custom shape relative to that.

At the moment, my watermark action has a draw step that actually places the custom shape onto the layer. It looks like this:
Draw
Shape: Custom Shape
Name: Penguinpowered Copyright 2004
Top: 7.238 inches
Left: 0.471 inches
Bottom: 7.854 inches
Right: 7.264 inches
With Anti-Alias

I think what I want to do is to have a script that will adjust the Top, Left, Bottom and Right numbers depending on the size of the current image.

Any advice / pointers on this would be greatly appreciated!

Kind Regards

Is it possible to use percentages as the units?

[QUOTE=random]Is it possible to use percentages as the units?[/QUOTE]

I don't know how to edit those units - they were placed there when I was recording the action, based on where I placed the shape with my mouse.

Do you mean scripting, or making actions? If you are indeed scripting, what language are you using? If it's Visual Basic I can most likely help you.

[QUOTE=Galaphile]Do you mean scripting, or making actions? If you are indeed scripting, what language are you using? If it's Visual Basic I can most likely help you.[/QUOTE]

I thought there was a scripting language specific to photoshop that could be used with / without actions ?

I've made an action, but I need it to change where something is placed depending on the picture size. I can't see any way of doing this within an action ?

It depends on the position you want for your watermark. If you want it in the precise center and if the watermark is rasterized (no text or rasterized text) you can get the action to work. Ctrl+A then Ctrl+X then Ctrl+V will place it dead center. However if you want it in a corner and (as the case seems to be) the pics have different sizes and orientation...it's a little trickier.

after you have your watermark on its own layer (or several layers in a folder) make sure it is selected, click "V" to get the move tool - then click Ctrl+A to select the whole canvas - then use align options (Align bottom/right edges) - that should put your watermark whenre you want it...you can then push it with the arrow keys a few pixels towards the center to have it nicer. Alternatively - you can have the whole thing set as a manual step - for extra control:

Just put a "Stop" with "Allow Continue" the previous step should be selecting the move tool (V) and also making sure the proper layer is selected. You can simply drag it where you want it - and then click "Play" again to resume the rest of the action.

[QUOTE=Anonymouslemming]I thought there was a scripting language specific to photoshop that could be used with / without actions ?

I've made an action, but I need it to change where something is placed depending on the picture size. I can't see any way of doing this within an action ?[/QUOTE]

Well..you can use javascript, visual basic, or applescript to write scripts in photoshop. VB and applescript are stand-alone, meaning you don't have to access them from the photoshop interface, but javascript is given it's own menu in photoshop. Basically you have more power with scripts, being able to give percentage coordinates, etc.