Do you need to print just one copy of the booklet or many (one time thing vs. over and over)?
Do you have any page layout software you can place the files into?
I need three copies of the book to start. And yes, I have Adobe In Design and Microsoft Publisher. But I feel I should be able to do this job right out of photoshop without having to make up my own action.
I can’t speak for possible In Design or Publisher solutions.
An action or a script – overkill in this case – are the only ways I can think of to automate the printing of multiple files from within Photoshop.
FWIW: It seems I read somewhere of someone trying to do something similar via an action, who had problems with printer setup specifications reverting to their defaults between File > Print steps. This would be something to check early in the action development / testing process if you decide to take this course.
Well, Danny, I got the action set up and tried it on batch, but It kept printing the first document, and then the second, the first again, then the third the first and then the fourth etc. I think all im gonna need in the action is print, save and close. The batch command will do the rest. One hopes.
Hmmm… 1,2 1,3 1,4 — that’s interesting.
I had envisioned you recording the action in discrete Open, Print, Close steps for each page vs. using File > Automate > Batch, but FAB is definitely a viable approach.
Another possibility (a little messy, but it would work)… Would be to create a multi-layer .psd, each layer representing a page. Then record an action that steps through the layers one by one. That would overcome any problems with printer settings between pages if that’s an issue.
If you’re invoking the action through FAB, the action would only need the File > Print command. Save and Close is automatically taken care of by FAB if the FAB Destination option is set to ‘Save and close’. Dunno if that was the source of sequence weirdness or not.
Another FAB consideration: Files are processing in alphabetical file name order, so if your files are named something like P001-xxx, P002-xxx (or some format that ensures the desired sequence), that would be OK.
Hope this gives you some new ideas.
If you are still having trouble getting the action to work, you could try the VBScript below. It’s very simple but I don’t think there is too much could go wrong as long as you only have image files in the folder. I don’t usually use VBScript, hence the lack of error checking. It was just sitting on my computer doing nothing so maybe it will be of some use to you or somebody else.
You just need to record the Print command in your action and substitute the folder name, the action name and set where indicated. Don’t record an open or close command or it will throw an error. It will open all files (again make sure they are only image files or it will throw an error) in the folder, run an action (this could be anything you want) and then close the files without saving them. I’ve only tested this in CS but it should work in 7 with the Scripting Plug-In installed. If you have NAV, you will need to turn off script blocking or it will try to stop the script. Save everything below here as whatever.vbs in Notepad and double click the file.
‘ VBScript source code
‘opens all files in directory folderPath
‘and runs the named action
Dim fsoRef
Dim folderRef
Dim fileCollection
Dim fileRef
Dim appref
Dim theFolderPath
Dim saveOptions
‘substitute full source folder path here
theFolderPath = "E:\TestImages"
Set appRef = CreateObject("Photoshop.Application")
‘suppress PS dialogs
appRef.DisplayDialogs = 3
Set fsoRef = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set folderRef = fsoRef.GetFolder(theFolderPath)
Set fileCollection = folderRef.Files
For Each fileRef In fileCollection
Set docRef = appRef.Open(fileRef.Path)
‘substitute name of action and action set here
appRef.DoAction "Print", "Tests.atn"
‘don’t save changes
docref.close(2)
Next
Another simple option, is simply grab all the files in windows explorer and open up your printers folder (start/settings/printer) and drag all the files to your printer icon.
