Exploring Different Scripting Methods for Stacking Files

I have recently been experimenting with scripting image stacking, i.e. variable multiple quantities of file sets into a single file (this could be 2, 3, 4 or more images). The source could be a single or multiple input folders and the script will create stacked images with layers correspondng to the variable quantity variable.

I have been thinking of the pros/cons of all the different methods to stack files. This briefly came up in another topic thread today, which has prompted me to make this new topic:

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PS thanks for pointing out to that script, i already have his scripts collection from github. I noticed he used the place command. I implemented that now i my version as well. That was a huge speed up. It went from 36.8 seconds to 16.4 seconds for 15 images. Thats half the time, huge speedup 🙂 nice!!!

By @schroef

 

Placing or replacing / linking Smart object give you fastest acceleration.

By @Kukurykus

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Off the top of my head, there are many different ways to transfer one file into another when scripting:

1) Copy/paste

2) Place image as smart object

3) Layer/duplicate

4) Calling the Adobe Load Files Into Stack script

5) Apply image

6) ... ?

I'm curious if anyone tested this or has anecdotal evidence of speed differences between the various approaches? With multipe options, does one stand out as better than the others for speed or perhaps other criteria? There are pros/cons between each method which may require additional steps or work-arounds depending on further processing steps are required once file sets have been created.