I recently discussed and gave an introduction to Automator a built-in workflow utility on Mac OSX. In this post I will demonstrate the steps I use to resize any number of images using Automator and Photoshop CS2, I will provide appropriate links to download the packages needed as well as provide my workflow as a download so that you can modify it to fit your own needs.

What you will need for this workflow:

• Basic understanding of Automator (found in my Introductory article)
• Photoshop Automator Actions v3.0 (found here) - my current install is v2.2 so if you have that you are fine - install this after download
• Photoshop CS or CS2
• photos or other graphics you’d like to resize
• some spare time

The Photoshop Automator Actions come wtih a large number of actions for use with Photoshop and Automator. A handy instruction document is also provided which will explain each action in further detail as well as the options that they provide.

To begin we first need to set the Color Settings in Photoshop so that the Automator doesn’t stop mid-process. This is a stumbling block I initially hit as I generally have Photoshop prompt me to convert each file I open to the working color space if it currently is not in that working space. Every time I ran the workflow I would have to accept the change to the working color space which made the automation process seem redundant considering I had to sit at my computer and select OK every time a picture was opened up. To remedy this make sure the check box for Ask When Opening under Profile Mismatches is unchecked when you want to run the workflow (I have provided a screenshot of my Color Settings below).

We are now ready to create our workflow inside Automator. Open Automator and select Finder in the left menu then select Get Specified Finder Items and drag that into the workflow window.

From here select Photoshop CS then Open and drag it underneath the Get Specified Finder Items aciton. You will see a link created on the right hand side between the two actions. The next action is to resize the image, drag and drop Resize Image underneath the Open action. From here you may fill in the boxes however you wish, my choice is 25% of the original size. If you want to resize the image proportionately you can just enter your resized value in the width field and the height field will automatically use that size (if height field is at 0). You may also set the resolution and units that the resize occurs at.

The next few steps are optional. Considering I display the images I resize online and recently a lot of the pictures have begun being used without my permission or credit given to me as the photographer I have started to add a watermark to my pictures. To do this drag the Add Watermark option into the workflow window and set the values to what you prefer. My watermark is simply my name with the current year positioned in the lower left with white text. I have also selected the checkbox to Flatten After Adding Watermark Layer so that the image is properly rendered for saving.

From here I chose to store all the newly resized images to a folder which Automator creates on my desktop. To do this select Finder from the left menu then New Folder and drag this under the Add Watermark action. I gave the folder the generic name of Pictures as that is what will be stored in it, before I upload the pictures to the web I rename the folder then upload it with the new name (the name usually depends on what the photo gallery name for the pictures would be).

The final and most important step of the workflow is the Render action found under the Photoshop menu item. The Render action will render all of the effects that were placed before it in the workflow — what this basically means is that the workflow will not work without this action added. Because I am resizing photographs and using them for the web I chose the Save As JPEG option, I decided to keep the original name as I was not overwriting the files but storing them in a new folder which was created in step 5 of my workflow. For the desitination field you fill in the file path of where the folder you created in step 5 would be. Because mine is located on the desktop my directory was HDName:Users:UserName:Desktop:pictures: as pictures was the folder name I chose. I set my image quality to 10 (once again as they are portfolio photographs) and checked the option to embed the color profile. The options selected here are completely up to you but those are what work for me.

You may now save your workflow and place it where ever you think you’ll use it the most. I have mine saved to my desktop for the ease of use factor. For any image I want to resize I can just drag the image onto the icon for my saved workflow and the workflow automatically begins resizing the image. If I have a folder of images (which I usually do) I drag and drop the folder onto the workflow and everything else is done for me.

The time saved by creating this simple workflow is unbelievable. If you have ever went through resizing and watermarking pictures manually the workflow above is something you’ll learn to love.

My workflow is available for download here, you will need to tweak some settings to match your system setup.

If you found this useful please let me know. If you would like me to cover anything else, let me know as well.

EDIT: I received word that my workflow gave errors. I uploaded a new version in hopes of remedying this, with further research it seems that a workflow created using the Photoshop Automator Actions v2.2 may not work properly with v3.0 so you might have to follow the steps I posted above instead of just using my file. Remember to change the save location under the Render action. Also I forgot to mention that in order to save your workflow for the drag and drop use when you save it select “Save As” from the file menu and choose Application from the File Format menu.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Utilities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.