aerobrainTech: Photoshop: Automate Save As JPEG

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Photoshop: Automate Save As JPEG

Since I was doing lots of photo editing these few weeks, I found out that Save As JPEG in Photoshop taking too much time. At first I was trying to use the Photoshop Action to automate the Save As process, but Photoshop Action does not support Save As with the current filename. Instead, it always save on a fixed filename that you use during the Action recording.

After a quick research, I remembered that a third party freeware called AutoHotkey that could help me to automate the Save As process. The problem with the Save As process is you need to select JPEG and there is another dialog box for the JPEG Quality Settings. By using AutoHotkey, I have been able with a single click to do all this selection.

Below is my AutoHotkey Script:

 #s::  
 if WinActive("ahk_class Photoshop")  
 {  
      Send ^+s  
      Sleep 250   
      Send {Tab}pj{Enter}  
      Sleep 250  
      Send {Enter}  
      Sleep 250  
      Send 12  
      Sleep 250  
      Send {Enter}  
 }

Quick enlightenment for those who did not familiar:
#s = Win Key + s [this is my shortcut to activate this script]
^+s = Control + Shift + s [this is Save As command in Photoshop]

AutoHotkey is very easy to use. You can do a lot of automation with this freeware. Visit http://www.autohotkey.com/ to download and start using!

AutoHotkey is a free, open-source utility for Windows. With it, you can:

Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder.
Create hotkeys for keyboard, joystick, and mouse. Virtually any key, button, or combination can become a hotkey.
Expand abbreviations as you type them. For example, typing "btw" can automatically produce "by the way".
Create custom data-entry forms, user interfaces, and menu bars. See GUI for details.
Remap keys and buttons on your keyboard, joystick, and mouse.
Respond to signals from hand-held remote controls via the WinLIRC client script.
Run existing AutoIt v2 scripts and enhance them with new capabilities.
Convert any script into an EXE file that can be run on computers that don't have AutoHotkey installed.