Printing from Photoshop using AppleScript

[Guest]

I am working on a project that will automatically print an image that is moved to a folder.

Right now, I have the following working: the image from my camera saves to a folder on my desktop, then applescript opens the image in Photoshop and runs an action on it that resizes it, crops it, and then re-saves it into a different folder. Here's where my problem starts...

My printer - an Epson R800 - does not have a default paper size of 5x7 borderless. That selection has to be made in Photoshop, however, Photoshop actions will not capture paper settings. (Which I think is sooooo stupid, but that's another issue.)

When the image is dropped in the second folder, it currently automatically prints, but on "letter" size paper.

I need to script the following:

Tell Photoshop CS4 to open the image (well, I can do that), but then select the correct paper size (5x7 borderless), and print. I've tried a few different things and they aren't working.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Michelle

[Muppet_Mark-QAl63s]

Do you only have Photoshop? If you have the suite then placing and printing from Indesign would be my preferred route… You would just have a saved print preset handle all the options… As far as Im aware printing with Photoshop does not record with actions or the scriptlistener plug-in… So GUI scripting it would be your only option… PITA to do and not very reliable…

[Guest]

Yes, I have the full CS4 compliment.

I don't think I've ever used InDesign actually, does it have actions like Photoshop does? Or how do I set up a "saved set" of presets?

I'll still have to script it from AppleScript to open and run something, as camera-to-output needs to be 100% automated.

[Muppet_Mark-QAl63s]

Indesign is a page layout application… But as your page only requires the one rectangle to place an image in it should not be too difficult for you. Set up a print options with all your printer specific requirements save it then this can be called by script in the future… Makes things much simpler…

[Guest]

I'll give that a try when I get home.

Is InDesign the "new" PageMaker? I used to work in digital pre-press, and we used quark for making the impositions for books. If it's anything like Quark or Pagemaker, I should be ok with it!

Thanks!

[Muppet_Mark-QAl63s]

Yes, if you are used to working with either of those other apps then Indesign will pose no problem to you at all… Its better than both of them too… not so 'new' thou now… I started to learn script with Quark & AppleScript… BTW you may even decide to leave out the image process altogether as you could crop and scale within the rectangle/frame unless there is something else your using Photoshop for…

[Guest]

Ok, I can't figure out the scripting for InDesign.

I made a printer preset, so I have that taken care of, but I can't figure out how to get a new document to open and then put in the .jpg file then print.

If you can give me some pointers I'll keep working at it, but I'm stuck right now.

[Muppet_Mark-QAl63s]

Here is a starter that is working just fine at work where I have access to CS2 and printers…

-- A path to an image file as text

set PrintImage to (path to desktop as text) & "HE2015.tif"

--

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS2"

activate

-- Turn off the app dialogs

tell script preferences

set user interaction level to never interact

end tell

-- Get the new document preset

set DocPreset to document preset "A4-P" -- Change here

-- Make our new doc

set PrintDoc to make new document at beginning ¬

with properties {document preset:DocPreset}

-- Get the printer preset

set PrintPreset to printer preset "Xerox A3-P-SEF" -- Ditto Here

tell PrintDoc

set DocWidth to page width of DocPreset

set DocHeight to page height of DocPreset

-- Add a rectangle to hold the image

set ImageFrame to make new rectangle at beginning ¬

with properties {geometric bounds:{0, 0, DocHeight, DocWidth}}

tell ImageFrame

-- Put our image in the rectangle

place PrintImage as alias

-- Fit our image to fill box keeping proportions

tell image 1

fit given fill proportionally

fit given center content

end tell

end tell

print using PrintPreset without print dialog

end tell

end tell

There are two strings that you will need to change one for a 'new document preset' and the second for a 'print preset'…

The example just uses an image off my desktop to test with… Any problems post in the Indesign forum as this no longer belongs here…