6
1
Introduction
About this Manual
This manual provides an introduction to scripting Adobe
®
Photoshop
®
CS4 on Mac OS
®
and Windows
®
.
Chapter 1 covers the basic conventions used in this manual.
Chapter 2 covers a brief overview of scripting, how to execute scripts, and the Photoshop object model.
Chapter 3 covers Photoshop-specific objects and components and describes advanced techniques for
scripting the Photoshop application. Code examples are provided in three languages:
➤
AppleScript
➤
VBScript
➤
JavaScript
TM
N
OTE
:
Separate Photoshop scripting reference information is provided for each of these languages
through the Scripting Reference Manuals provided with this installation, or through the object browsers
available for each language. See
“Viewing Photoshop’s AppleScript dictionary” on page 21
and
“Viewing
Photoshop’s type library (VBS)” on page 22
. For information about using the Extend Script Object Model
Viewer, see the
JavaScript Tools Guide
.
Chapter 4 covers the Action Manager, which allows you to write scripts that target Photoshop
functionality that is not otherwise accessible in the scripting interface.
N
OTE
:
Please review the
README
file shipped with Photoshop for late-breaking news, sample scripts, and
information about outstanding issues.
Conventions in this Guide
Code and specific language samples appear in monospaced courier font:
app.documents.add
Several conventions are used when referring to AppleScript, VBScript and JavaScript. Please note the
following shortcut notations:
➤
AS stands for AppleScript
➤
VBS stands for VBScript
➤
JS stands for JavaScript
The term “commands” will be used to refer both to commands in AppleScript and methods in VBScript
and JavaScript.
When referring to specific properties and commands, this manual follows the AppleScript naming
convention for that property and the VBScript and JavaScript names appear in parenthesis. For example:
“The
display
dialogs
(
DisplayDialogs/displayDialogs)
property is part of the Application object.”