Professional Photoshop Scripting

[scotwllm]

I'm thinking about buying Professional Photoshop Scripting, by Davide Barranca. It's kind of expensive, but I prefer having a book and flipping through its pages over searching endlessly on the Internet. I also prefer printed books because they've been edited (usually) and have better grammar than much of what's available online. They're just easier to understand.
Do any of you have favorable or unfavorable opinions about this book? Do you recommend a different resource for in-depth info on using Javascript in Photoshop?

Scott

[erinferinferinf · Accepted solution]

😅 I think it's worth it, my manager had me read it as soon as I started working in extensibility at Adobe (scripting and plugins). The online code resources included with the book are very valuable, too. (Actually I only read a PDF, not the physical book.)

I've been keeping track of resources like this for the past five years, and, unless you're working with InDesign, there are few other similar resources.

Also be sure to check out Davide's UXP Things You Need to Know playlist.

[schroef]

That is kinda funny, someone outside Adobe makes better guidance documentation then Adobe does?!

[scotwllm]

Well, I decided to buy the book. It wasn't the result of one person's suggestion that I made the decision -- it was the combined knowledge you all shared with me that did it. I'm not sure who I would assign the Correct Answer credit to. Can I choose more than one person? Steven Marsh made the suggestion to read the online free chapter. At first I thought it was just the table of contents and forward, but the author (Davide Barrance, DB) gets into the nitty gritty once you get past that section. Signfeld endorsed DB as a well respected thought leader in our field. He also provided links to related information available for free online. Love that! And of course, the endorsements from those who actually read the book (erinferinferinf and Chuck Uebele) are extremely persuasive. 

I started using Photoshop back in the 1990s, stopped around 2000, and started using it again a couple of years ago. It changed a lot over those years. Here's the interface I remember -- PS presented your current image, plus a lighter and darker version, and you chose which one you preferred. Then the image was surrounded by squares of colors -- red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow. You would drag the squares onto your image until it looked the way you wanted it to. You could resize images to make them pixelated or blurry. You could print the image on your office color printer if you wanted a dark and murky version. You could bring it to a service bureau if you wanted to be embarrassed about using a PC.

I started learning PS again by watching videos on Youtube. It was like watching magic tricks. Unmesh would assure me I am his friend, show me the starting image, run (sprint?) through a bunch of steps, throw in a curves adjustment layer, and show me the completed image. "And that, my friend, is the power of Adobe Photoshop." 

What just happened??? How did you know how to get from point A to point B? How did you know which pixel radius, blending option, and fill level would get us to the promised land?

I bought the "Photoshop Classroom in a Book" book. Half the menu items in PS are not even mentioned. I could imitate the magic tricks presented if my image matched their image, which was practically never. I'm guessing that if I bought the "Classroom in a Book" book for each of the prior 20 years, and learned the progression of improvements made over the years, I'd understand the current state of the program. But I ain't got no time fo' dat.

And Adobe's user guides are frustrating. I get the impression they were written by the marketing department rather than the tech department. And they always feel like something important is missing.

So that's why I've decided to get the book. Judging my the other educational materials on his website, his approach is based on math and formulas. Once I understand the math behind something, then I can predict its behavior in various conditions, which is a lot faster than wondering what would happen if I just tried another blend mode. 

So, anyway, thank you all for sharing your knowledge and expertise with me. 

Scott

[Chuck Uebele]

You can select multiple correct answers.

[Ciccillotto]

Which Barranca book did you get?

[scotwllm]

Professional Photoshop Scripting