Using Photoshop Actions in PSP X3?

[kchildress]

I've never been a Photoshop user and am not familiar with their lingo, please pardon any semantics I may use here.

In a different web blog, I have found a gentleman that has created his own recipe for photo sharpening within Adobe Photoshop. I think his saved recipe is now referred to as an "action" within Photoshop? This sharpening action was originally created in CS2 and has been validated to work with CS3, 4, and 5. The file is available on his blog for others to download ... it is saved as a .atn file (don't know if this is Photoshop-specific or not).

I have downloaded this .atn file and would like to try this action as a plug-in with my X3 ... hoping to get a little guidance here if this is possible.

Hopefully I started in the right place: The online X3 user guide has a page for "setting plug-in preferences". I went through those steps and have successfully pointed my X3 in the right direction to find the file. But its not at all clear to me what I should do next. How do I tell X3 to actually apply the plug-in?

Any ideas would be appreciated!

Kevin

[LeviFiction]

A Photoshop action is not the same thing as a plugin. Plugins are actual programs with instructions for communicating with Photoshop (or other applications that can also use the standard). Actions can be thought of as scripts for Photoshop. Actions use a special language designed for Adobe's products. If it uses some of the same functions available in Paint Shop Pro you might be able re-create it in Paint Shop Pro's scripting language. The python language. But I couldn't say for sure as I haven't seen it.

[kchildress]

Ok, understood. I'll go back and find the page to see if there were visual examples of the steps included in the action. If I visually see what someone is doing in Photoshop, I can typically generate the same process in X3.

I opened the .atn file in a text viewer, and there are definitely commands in there but nothing I understand to recreate the process. It looks like the action creates a couple of duplicate layers and works from there.

Would it make any since to post the text here to try to translate it?

[LeviFiction]

If you want to. I'm only slightly familiar with Actions so don't know how much help I will be but if you wanted people to help you re-create it and aren't familiar with both languages then it makes sense to try.

[kchildress]

point taken ... here goes ...

I've pasted the text here just as I see it in my text viewer. I don't have a clue how this should be formatted (in lines, columns, etc). I understand many of the phrases but the actual workflow is alien to me.
____________________________________________________________________

S h a r p e n i n g A c t i o n S h a r p N o N R A d j u s t 1 TEXT duplicate Duplicateÿÿÿÿ
D u p l i c a t e Dplc nullobj Enmr Lyr Ordn Trgt Vrsnlong TEXT unsharpMask Unsharp Maskÿÿÿÿ
U n s h a r p M a s k UnsM AmntUntF#Prc@9 Rds UntF#Pxl@9 Thshlong TEXT unsharpMask Unsharp Maskÿÿÿÿ
U n s h a r p M a s k UnsM AmntUntF#Prc@bÀ Rds UntF#Pxl?ð Thshlong TEXT fade Fadeÿÿÿÿ F a d e Fade OpctUntF#Prc@Y Md enum BlnM Drkn TEXT unsharpMask Unsharp Maskÿÿÿÿ
U n s h a r p M a s k UnsM AmntUntF#Prc@bÀ Rds UntF#Pxl?ð Thshlong TEXT fade Fadeÿÿÿÿ F a d e Fade OpctUntF#Prc@I Md enum BlnM Lghn TEXT unsharpMask Unsharp Maskÿÿÿÿ
U n s h a r p M a s k UnsM AmntUntF#Prc@bÀ Rds UntF#Pxl?ð Thshlong TEXT fade Fadeÿÿÿÿ F a d e Fade OpctUntF#Prc@. Md enum BlnM Mltp TEXT set Setÿÿÿÿ null nullobj Enmr Lyr Ordn Trgt T Objc Lyr OpctUntF#Prc@I TEXT stop Stopÿÿÿÿ S t o p Stop MsgeTEXT ÷ I n n e x t w i n d o w - A t l e f t t o p , a n d u n d e r S t y l e s - S e l e c t B l e n d i n g O p t i o n s : C u s t o m
A d j u s t O p a c i t y l e v e l s t o s u i t .
O n c e f i n i s h e d , s e l e c t L a y e r / F l a t t e n I m a g e . S a v e y o u r f i l e u s i n g ' S a v e A s ' - D o n o t w r i t e o v e r t h e o r i g i n a l .

C l i c k ' C o n t i n u e '

Cntnbool TEXT set Setÿÿÿÿ S e t setd nullobj prop Prpr LefxEnmr Lyr Ordn Trgt T Objc Lefx Scl UntF#Prc@z
ªªªª«

[LeviFiction]

I'm sorry, my bad, I meant for you to upload the actual file. The good news is it's just a recording, but the actual values and requirements aren't readily readable and I do own Photoshop so I can get access to the steps right away. I don't know if I can do a direct copy of this into notepad but I'll try.

EDIT: Nope didn't take.

[kchildress]

DUH ! I see the upload attachment tab now (sorry ... still kind of green to this forum)

Here goes ...

Errrrr, not gonna work, I think. Getting message saying "extension atn is not allowed". Oh well, not that big of deal. I'm waiting to hear from the author.

Thanks again!

[LeviFiction]

Alrighty then. You could put it in a zip file or give us the link but the author will without a doubt give you better info so good luck with that.

[kchildress]

okay, we're on a roll today. The author supplied me with what I need, I think . I have some text that I will paste into this reply and an image that I will attach as a supporting document.

The bulleted list below seems straight forward, or at least it is enough that I could take a swipe at generating this process in X3. Its the attachment that I'm not familiar with. Like I said, I don't speak Adobe language. Is there anything in the attachment that is more or less than the bulleted list below?
___________________________________________________________________

The author comments:

I edit my image (to taste) and then apply my action.

The action does the following :

* NR (noise reduction) at Strength 8 and Color 30% (no sharpening or detail preservation)
* Makes a new layer
* Applies USM (35,35)
* Applies USM (150,3)
* Fades USM selection at 100% and in 'Darken' style
* Applies USM (150, 3)
* Fades USM selection at 50% and in 'Lighten' style
* Despeckles image
* Flattens image

Cautionary Note : The USM step of 35, 35 applies some contrast to the image, so it is wise to do this before you apply any other 'contrast' technique. Otherwise, you may blow highlights and block shadows more than you wish.

the attached file is a visual aid of the bulleted list provided in my last post

Sharp_Script.jpg (116.93 KiB) Viewed 13185 times

[LeviFiction]

Well Paint Shop Pro doesn't have a fade method so you have to apply the actions before the fades on a duplicated layer then reduce the opacity and change the blend mode before merging down one layer to get the same effect.

But it seems pretty straight forward.

[kchildress]

I'm missing something here. Your words are very plain but ...

Any chance you could create a bulleted list of actions for X3, taking into account what you just said??

Edit: what I mean to say is ... I don't understand what we're missing in the "fade mode" compared to Adobe products ... I don't know how to compensate for this process in X3 ... assuming we can.

[LeviFiction]

Fading the effect in Photoshop refers to scaling back the last action. To recreate the idea of a fade you first duplicate the current layer you're working on, apply the effect, change the opacity of this new layer (and blend mode if needed) and then merge this back down into the original layer. We don't have an automatic fade routine like they do.

So

* NR (noise reduction) at Strength 8 and Color 30% (no sharpening or detail preservation)
* Duplicate the layer
* Applies USM (35,35)
* Duplicate the layer
* Applies USM (150,3)
* Change Blend mode to darken
* Merge down
* Duplicate layer
* Applies USM (150, 3)
* Change Opacity to 50% blend mode to 'Lighten' style
* Merge down
* Despeckle
* Flattens image

[kchildress]

Levi,

Okay, this is excellent - I appreciate you taking the time to translate. I suppose I would test various settings here to see how X3 applies the process.

So my next question is about saving these processes as a "script" (which admittedly I haven't created X3 scripts yet), like it was saved as an action in Photoshop.

So in X3, is it possible to save/record all these steps as an automated script? You don't have to go into all the details of how to create the script - I like to at least try it on my own first with guidance from HELP.

Any experience you have in related areas would be great!

Kevin

[LeviFiction]

Yes you can record scripts from the script toolbar. You can turn on the script tool bar by going to View->Toolbars->Script.

The Help files are very easy to follow from here on actually recording and using the scripts.