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_omid_meradji_
Participant
September 5, 2008
Question

Photoshop plugin/script to have it read and create a new file from an excel file?

  • September 5, 2008
  • 6 replies
  • 2018 views
I do prepress and cover design for our book manufacturing company. I have made a tool that I input book specs into and it tells me the exact size of the photoshop document I need to create for an accurate book cover layout. It calculates total width, height, spine placement and spine width, bleeds, and even where to place the adobe guides in the document.

I've always book toggling back and forth on my mac to get the measurements etc while I am designing a cover. What I want to know is if there is a way this can all be automated.

I know photoshop supports scripting and plugins but I have not found anything remotely along the lines of what I am looking for. If I could get this process automated somehow my workflow and productivity would shoot through the roof!

In short I am looking for a script/plugin for Adobe photoshop CS3 that can read from an excel sheet and create a new document based on the specifications in that excel file.

Does anyone know if this is already out there? Or if it can be done? I would certainly invest in this.

Thanks!
This topic has been closed for replies.

6 replies

G
GagnonEric
Known Participant
October 1, 2008
xbytor answered to you already for javascript.

It's something that is very easy to do using applescript (scripting excel through excel applescript dictionary, i have used it for a projet, found it usefull for the scenario i was working with, but it was incredibly slow.. same thing in Realbasic when driving application through automation.

Depending on the number of record that need to be processed (if you dont have to fetch data in different tabs) it's often better to have a "pre-process" to save the excel file as a CSV and using any other solution to process the text file. Can make a HUGE difference in processing time...

You will surely be able to find a professional to help you with this task if you willing to pay for custom developpement.

If you have internal ressource or want to give it a try yourself, have a look at this:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/A/7/3A70FB4B-0C6A-43E3-AAB7-AC9166B25632/Excel2004AppleScriptRef.pdf

ps: Beware! The dictionnary can have little difference depending of the excel version that you use.
try67
Community Expert
try67Community Expert
Community Expert
September 25, 2008
egreenhouse, send me an email. I can help you out.
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_egreenhouse_
Participant
September 25, 2008
I'm also looking for something similar to this. I need to be able to create massive amounts of color .tifs in Photoshop using Excel data to edit/fill in the C,M,Y,K values. Anyone have any ideas or a script for this?
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_xbytor_
Known Participant
September 5, 2008
> Does anyone know if this is already out there? Or if it can be done? I would certainly invest in this.

Normally, when working with spreadsheets in PsJS you need to save the sheet out
as a CSV file. This file can be read in easily from JavaScript at which point
you can construct your document as required.

-X
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for photoshop scripting solutions of all sorts
contact: xbytor@gmail.com
C
Carl_Stawicki
Participating Frequently
September 5, 2008
An AppleScript can read the Excel info and switch to Photoshop to create the file. You can open the Excel AppleScript dictionary to learn how to script Excel.

Carl.
try67
Community Expert
try67Community Expert
Community Expert
September 5, 2008
Hi Omid, I've recently created something similar for Illustrator, and I'm sure I can create what you're after as well. Contact me by email for more info (click on my user name for the address).
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