Photoshop CS3 Action help

[W00DY]

Hi All,

I have created a watermark which I want to apply to all my images before posting to the web. It is a long and tedious task to open each image copy and paste the watermark and then reposition.

Is there a way I can use an action to ask which file i want to open, then copy/paste/position the watermark, then save the file (working in JPG), then close the file and ask for the next file?

Appreciate any help you can offer...

W00DY

[bwhinnen]

Hi Woody,

Create the action to put the watermark in there, you will need to position it at an exact pixel site though. You can then use the batch option under the main file menu to do this action for a group of files.

Does that make any sense?

Brett

[rooboy]

Create the action to put the watermark in there, you will need to position it at an exact pixel site though.

Not by using Layer > Align

There's lots of tutorials for both watermarking and actions if you hunt around, but a pretty straightforward way of doing it would be:

1. Open the first file in the set you want to resize/watermark.

2. Create a new action.

3. If you are resizing the images for web display, use File > Automate > Fit Image and set to whatever you want your longest side to be (eg 600 pixels).

4. Add the text or image for the watermark, apply whatever layer effects as required.

5. Use Layer > Align to position the watermark as needed (eg dead centre, bottom left corner, top right etc)

6. File > Save for Web & Devices, enter destination & file quality.

7. Stop the action recording.

8. File > Automate > Batch. Select the action you just created, choose the folder where all images are located, and you're done

[bwhinnen]

Sweet, didn't know about the align layer function! That makes it much easier and may have solved another problem for me! Thanks!

[jdear]

+1 for image align... and fit image

I go one more step further and create the watermark in Illustrator paths, then paste the paths into PS, which saves all the information of that path, and then can add it to whatever size image I watermark and will always be 100% crispy and always aligned (bottom or middle with align)

- just make sure your watermark is aligned in the top left hand corner first 0,0 - then do the align images - because 0,0 will always exist in either horizontal or vertical images.

Jonathan

[adamj123]

Adobe Exchange is a handy resource for actions and such... Here is a link i found to a watermark action: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/i ... id=1179528

or this one which is a batch resize/crop + watermark: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/i ... id=1178985

[W00DY]

Create the action to put the watermark in there, you will need to position it at an exact pixel site though.

Not by using Layer > Align

There's lots of tutorials for both watermarking and actions if you hunt around, but a pretty straightforward way of doing it would be:

1. Open the first file in the set you want to resize/watermark.

2. Create a new action.

3. If you are resizing the images for web display, use File > Automate > Fit Image and set to whatever you want your longest side to be (eg 600 pixels).

4. Add the text or image for the watermark, apply whatever layer effects as required.

5. Use Layer > Align to position the watermark as needed (eg dead centre, bottom left corner, top right etc)

6. File > Save for Web & Devices, enter destination & file quality.

7. Stop the action recording.

8. File > Automate > Batch. Select the action you just created, choose the folder where all images are located, and you're done

Excellent, thanks for that.

I could not work out the align step though. Once I have pasted the watermark over the image I then want it aligned to the right edge and about three quarters down the image (it will be in the same spot on each image).

If you don't mind can you please provide some more info around this step. I worked out that where ever I positioned the watermark in the action is where it was placed in all images, but this does not work when some images are portrait and some landscape (hence the need to align to right edge)

Cheers.

[rooboy]

Sorry, I missed the crucial step with alignment (although it works slightly differently in different versions of Photoshop). You have to select each layer that you want to align before the option becomes active in the menu. Control/command click on both layers (so they are highlighted blue), and then you should be able to use Layer > Align.

On CS, you had to group layers before aligning them, so give this a go if it still isn't working

That said, you can only align top-centre-bottom, and left-centre-right (not by percentages). If you wanht the watermark to be 3/4 down each image, you'd have to use a different method - can't help you there.

[W00DY]

ok, were one step closer

The Align works great (thanks) however it seems that I need to recreate the action each time I want to run another batch as the destination folders are stored in the action (even though when I choose batch I then choose the destination file as well)?

Is there a way that I can setup the action so it does not reference destination folders?

Thanks.

[rooboy]

Yep, change the Save to Web step in my list. Instead of Save to web, use File > Save As (doesn't matter where you save it here, as you will be able to choose the destination later). Make sure you close the document while the action is still running, or else you'll end up with dozens of open documents.

Now, when running the File > Automate > Batch command, look at the third pane down. For destination, choose 'Folder', tick 'Override 'Save As' Commands, and press Choose to select the destination.

The downside is that you'll probably have to choose the Save quality for each file (unless CS3 has changed this or someone knows a way around). This is why I personally use Save for Web, since it batches well and always produces smaller files than ordinary Save commands. I dump all web-ready images in a special folder on my desktop, then move them as needed - I'm sure that there is a better solution, but works very well on my work Mac

[W00DY]

Yep, change the Save to Web step in my list. Instead of Save to web, use File > Save As (doesn't matter where you save it here, as you will be able to choose the destination later). Make sure you close the document while the action is still running, or else you'll end up with dozens of open documents.

Now, when running the File > Automate > Batch command, look at the third pane down. For destination, choose 'Folder', tick 'Override 'Save As' Commands, and press Choose to select the destination.

The downside is that you'll probably have to choose the Save quality for each file (unless CS3 has changed this or someone knows a way around). This is why I personally use Save for Web, since it batches well and always produces smaller files than ordinary Save commands. I dump all web-ready images in a special folder on my desktop, then move them as needed - I'm sure that there is a better solution, but works very well on my work Mac

Mate thanks heaps for your help, you have saved me a LOT of time

I think I will opt for the web-ready folder as you have above. The batch process runs really well (just ran 120 images through it).

Cheers.
W00DY

[rooboy]

Mate thanks heaps for your help, you have saved me a LOT of time

I think I will opt for the web-ready folder as you have above. The batch process runs really well (just ran 120 images through it).

Cheers.
W00DY

No problem - I have to explain this stuff when drunk on Saturday night to our photographers. Monday night at home is very easy