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Scripts are handy little things, especially when it comes to repetitive tasks. You can record almost anything you do in PSP and play it back as a script: they can be as simple or as complicated as you make them. For now, we’re keeping it simple and writing a script for a procedure that many of us do on a regular basis: the “Resize for Web” to make our layouts or photographs small enough to upload. I am writing this in PSP X2 but the basic structure and method for writing scripts hasn’t really changed from Version 8, so you should find this tutorial will work whatever version you have.
Open a 12 x 12 layout to resize.. I am going to use a preview for a script (I create them at 12 x 12 to check they look alright!) and it starts off in the native .psp (or .pspimage) format with all layers intact. I’ve reduced the size of the image as there’s nothing of real importance here that you need to see.
Next I make a copy of this original preview, just in case I accidentally save over my precious work! On the Menu Bar go to Window>Duplicate, and then close your original image.
To open the script palette go to View>Palettes>Script Output on the Menu Bar.
The Script Output Palette is quite straightforward and is the easiest way to record and run chosen scripts.
Script Name: that’s easy enough!
Run Script: this blue arrow runs the script that is selected in the script name box.
Edit Script: this opens a dialog box (or default text editor like Notepad) for editing the selected script.
Toggle Execution Mode: A script can run “silently” where you have no input, or “interactively” where you can add your own choices, eg for the size of a drop shadow or a certain colour.
Clear Script Output Window: does exactly what it says, deletes the contents of the script output window which is useful when trying to find script errors.
We are then left with the self-explanatory Record Script, Pause Recording, Cancel Recording and Save Recorded Script. We will be using Record and Save in this tutorial.
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We’re ready to start! Click the circle Record Script button.
This method of resizing is my own personal preference, don’t feel you have to follow it exactly! You will notice I do not change my image to 72ppi first, I don’t think it’s necessary and we can be under the kb requirement for galleries by resizing smaller.
Go to Image>Resize on the Menu Bar or use the shortcut Shift+s.
In the Resize dialog box change the pixels to 500 x 500 and then click OK.
Now go to File>Export>JPEG Optimizer on the Menu Bar.
In the dialog box set the compression to 20. Sometimes you will have to increase compression if the image is very detailed and holds a lot of information, but as you can see, a setting of 20 here puts my image under 60kb, perfect for gallery submissions.
Navigate to where you save your web versions, here mine is handily called “My Web Versions” - aren’t I creative? Ha ha! Give your image a name and save.
Once the image is saved click the Save Script Recording button and the dialog box will open.
Change the Save In folder to Scripts-Trusted—it is trusted because you wrote it yourself and know there are no harmful actions in there! and it needs to be in Scripts-Trusted for the saving of the exported jpg image. Give the script a name and uncheck all boxes but Remove Undone Commands—that does what you expect, it removes any commands where you have used the Undo option.
Open a new image to resize and test your script on. In the Script Name box look for your resize script and select it. Then simply click the Run Script arrow and here is what should happen:
a) the script should open the dialog box for Resize Image first, with the values of 500 pixels already entered, so all you have to do is click the OK button;
b) next you will see the JPEG Optimizer and the value of 20 will be set: again you can change this if necessary and then click the OK button and save your web-ready image!
If you have any problems with this tutorial do send me a message via PM at Scrapbook-Bytes and I will do my best to help you out!
© Copyright by Scrapbook-Bytes.com
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