PhotoKit Color Contact Sheet actions

[Martin Evening]

The PhotoKit Color Contact Sheet actions page is up and running if you wish to download these actions which will enable you to apply multiple effects (cross processing, Split toning, color overlay) to a single image and generate a contact sheet.

Please note the disclaimer! These will be distributed as a free bonus to PhotoKit Color customers. The actions have been thoroughly tested and robust. However, as with any action, if a user interupts the action playback process it is always possible for accidents to happen and there is nothing we can do to avoid this other than to urge users to let the action do its work before clicking with the mouse.

http://www.pixelgenius.com/color/actions.html

Martin

[Ashley Karyl]

I like this contact sheet feature and it would be great to have the same option for the other Photokit products. No problems and it makes it easier to choose which effects work best.

[calligaris]

If there is an update to the Photokit Color Contact Sheet Action, would it be possible to use a more common type than Myriad Roman? As is, since I do not have the font on my system, I have to approve a font substitution every time the Action creates a new tile.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

Is there a way that I can change the Font choice in the Action?<o:p></o:p>

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[Martin Evening]

You can edit the actions yourself if you wish to change the font. But it is not something to be undertaken lightly. You should probably make a backup copy first. Expand the action in the Actions palette and run through till you get to the stop message before creating the contact sheet step and where the action requires the font to be used.

At this stage, click on the first action step at this point and Command/Control click the Play button to run the action one step at a time untill you get to the font placement step. At this point, option/alt double click this step and the text should become highlighted in the image. Choose a new font and click enter.

The action will now reset to start from the beginning. You will not want to replay from there. You must scroll down to locate the exact last step where you edited and then click on the step after that, command/control-click the play button again until you get to the next font substitution step and repeat...

Martin

[CGPhillips4]

I just downloaded the new 1.0.2 Update for CS2. Will the contact sheet action still work properly, or is an updated version coming as well? Thanks,

-Charles

[Martin Evening]

The posted update will ensure that PhotoKit Color works in Photoshop CS2 as well as in CS and 7. To do this I had to update most of the effect routines. The same thing applies to the use of the Contact sheet actions. I have had to produce a new set of contact sheet actions specifically for use in Photoshop CS2 and I have re-edited all the previous Contact sheet actions so that we can soon release a complete set of contact sheet actions which now use the Lucida Grande font.

It is hoped that the Lucida Grande font will be a better choice of font to enable the contact sheet actions to work on any Mac or PC. You can't download these yet. They are complete and ready to go, but please wait for the announcement via this forum.

Martin

[mfarbman]

Martin,

When do you anticipate the release of the CS2 PhotoKit Color contact sheet actions?
Morrie

[Martin Evening]

I can't say exactly, but very soon. They are complete - I have tested them thoroughly myself and I revised the actions not just for Photoshop CS2, but for Photoshop CS and 7 using the Lucida Grande font. As for a specific date, this is a question our chief engineer Mike will have to answer as he will be making the final checks.

Martin

[Mike Skurski]

I can't say exactly, but very soon. They are complete - I have tested them thoroughly myself and I revised the actions not just for Photoshop CS2, but for Photoshop CS and 7 using the Lucida Grande font. As for a specific date, this is a question our chief engineer Mike will have to answer as he will be making the final checks.

Martin

Sorry I was traveling the last few days.

By the end of the day on Monday the Actions web page will have the new actions posted.

[Mike Skurski]

Sorry I was traveling the last few days.

By the end of the day on Monday the Actions web page will have the new actions posted.

The PhotoKit Color Info page has been updated with the revised actions http://www.pixelgenius.com/color/info.html

[mfarbman]

Mike,
Thanks for posting the PK Color action for CS2. I installed the action and ran it only to find that I am missing the Helvetica Font . The action stops and asks to substitute at each style. This was the same problem I had with the CS version, only it was missing the Myriad Roman font. I am using CS2 upgrade version on a XP Pro OS. Can you provide some insight? Do I need to purchase the Helvetica font and if so which one? There are many.
Thanks,
Morrie Farbman

[Martin Evening]

The font used in the new Contact Sheet actions is Lucida Grande. We chose this font after researching which was the most commonly installed font on Macs and PCs. Can you check to see if you have the Lucida Grande font?

Martin

[mfarbman]

I will check later this afternoon and let you know. Thanks for your quick response.
Morrie

[mfarbman]

Martin,

I do not have the Lucida Grande font in my XP system. Can you advise as to how to assign a different font to the action?

Morrie

[Martin Evening]

I am afraid it looks like we will not be able to help you with this one. The choice of font was decided by asking around for the best suggestions on a common denominator font to both platforms. We used Myriad before, but not everyone had that, so we updated the actions for Photoshop 7 and CS with Lucida Grande - so you can now use the old actions for Myriad and the new ones using Lucida Grande. For Photoshop CS2 there is only the Lucida Grande font version.

These actions are supplied as free extras for PhotoKit Color and are as such unsupported. We were consciously aware that not everyone would be able to run these actions because of the possible font issues. There is an alternative, and that is to turn off the font layer steps completely so that the action generates the variations without adding text. Not ideal I grant you, but one way of using the actions as they are right now.

Martin

[mfarbman]

Thanks for your help. I was hoping that with the CS2 version I could stop hitting the enter key to subsitute a font. I understand that the action is not supported. Thanks for trying.
Morrie

[Benjamin]

I guess I'm lucky and the new action is now running fine, for me there is no need anymore to keep hitting 'Enter', Thanks!!
If I could make a hopeful suggestion; it would be fantastic if you could provide a similar action for the Photokit "Color to BW" function, so that one could compare the effect of different filters easily.
Just a thought. Thanks again, Ben.