Contact Sheet X 1.0 re;eased

CSX is an enhanced and extended version of Contact Sheet 2 written completely in JavaScript.
It runs under Photoshop CS2 and the Photoshop CS3 Beta. Future releases will include full Bridge support and more extensive CS3 integration.

And it’s free.

-X

Sound intersting if I could figuer out what it’s supposed to do. The web site is quite un-enlighting.

John Passaneau

wrote:

Sound intersting if I could figuer out what it’s supposed to do. The web site is quite un-enlighting.

I like to use the word ‘lame’ to describe the site. Up until now, most of the people using CSX were the ones generating the requirements, so they kinda all knew what it would do.

It’s like Contact Sheet II on steroids. For instance, you can – specify layer styles for both the thumbnail and the caption text – use any font, font size, and font color for the captions – have overlay captions
– specify background images and colors
– specify a template document into which the sheet is placed – start new sheets when you start a new folder
– specify indents and alternate indents for pagination
– have automatic headers, page number and date/time layers in your templates – load and store settings and templates

This is a partial list, but highlights what I’ve added to CSX beyond the capabilities of CSII.

I’ve also written some optimization extensions that will allow you to use thumbnails that are embedded in the image files or have the thumbnail creation be performed by an external application. These can be huge time savers.

One other important (to me) extension that is planned is to have the ability to restart a CSX run in case PS locks up or crashes part of the way through a large run. Another is to split a run into parts. CSX would then process a part, restart PS, process another part, etc… until the batch is done. Having this capability would hopefully let people work around PS crashes and lock-ups since most of the ones that I’ve seen typically occur after processing a large number of (possibly) large images.

The CSX.pdf file that comes with the distribution explains how the UI works. I’ll be adding examples on the website that will hopefully give people a better idea of what’s capable with the tool.

—
for photoshop scripting solutions of all sorts
contact:

Its great, everyone that does contact sheets or photo posters should download this puppy.

Robert

"It’s free" and it doesn’t work! lol
I was slightly curious, but it doesn’t work with CS3 beta or CS2 for me.

< http://img159.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=01229_Clipboard01 _122_478lo.jpg>

The error you happened upon is in some internal log management code. You will only get that error on Windows if you don’t have a C:\temp folder. You can fix this either by creating C:\temp or by editing the code.

If choose to edit the script, change the line from
Exec.log(file.parent.toUIString() + " does not exist, changing to " + to
Exec.log(folder.parent.toUIString() + " does not exist, changing to " +

I’ve made the changes to my code and the fix will be in the next release.

Thanks,
-X

Hello,

I have a couple of suggestions for you…

1. First and formost thank you for the script, it is wonderful.

2. I didn’t have the c:\temp folder problem that others hand. However, I can see this as being a problem. I don’t normally have a c:\temp folder, I just happened to have one from another project I was working on. But, normally I keep my c:\ drive’s root directory as clean as possible. I think it would be better if you used c:\windows\temp. Since this folder is pretty much guaranteed to be there on a Windows system I think it is a safer bet and would be less confusing than a novice computer user getting the odd and obtuse error message. Either that or ask for the person to create a directory the first time the script runs.

3. I would like to have a border option for the images. I currently use your script to do Photo Posters and I do a black background with a 1 pixel wide white border around each image. So a border option that allows one to set the width of the border and the color and maybe choose if the border is on the outside of the image, center or inside the image like the Layer Effects border option in Photoshop does.

4. There are some minor nicesties missing. For example if you change the page measuremetns from pixel to inches the default pixel dimensions are left and not converted to inches.

5. The templates as well as the layer style option need more descriptive names or an in Contact Sheet X preview of them so that we can see what we are getting.

I don’t know how much of this can be done with Photoshop’s JavaScript scripting, but these are things I would like to see. Again, thank you for the awesome script. It is a great version 1.0.

Robert

Changed the script, another error (in CS3).
< http://img172.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=05687_Clipboard02 _122_593lo.jpg>

[1. First and formost thank you for the script, it is wonderful. ]

Thanks. I’m glad you like it.

[2. I didn’t have the c:\temp folder problem that others hand. However, I can see this as being a problem. I don’t normally have a c:\temp folder, I just happened to have one from another project I was working on.]

The script should not have failed like it did. It shouldn’t matter if there is a ‘/c/temp’ directory or not. One of the library components writes a log file _only_ when I am debugging it on my machine. I have a ‘/c/temp’ folder on my machine so that’s what it defaults to. If there is not a ‘/c/temp’ folder, the log file is supposed to be written somewhere else. There was a bug in the code that handled this situation. Users of the script should never be aware of any of this. I have fixed this already and the change will be in the next release.

[3. I would like to have a border option for the images. I currently use your script to do Photo Posters and I do a black background with a 1 pixel wide white border around each image. So a border option that allows one to set the width of the border and the color and maybe choose if the border is on the outside of the image, center or inside the image like the Layer Effects border option in Photoshop does.]

I explicitly didn’t provide any border options. The ‘Layer Style’ pull down menu gives you access to all of the name Layer Styles currently available in your PS. You can add new named styles to PS and they will automatically appear on this menu. The intent was that users would define new Layer Styles for things like borders. This gives you ultimate customizability of the Layer Styles/borders.

[4. There are some minor nicesties missing. For example if you change the page measuremetns from pixel to inches the default pixel dimensions are left and not converted to inches. ]

Yep. I’ve debated on whether or not to add that. That part of the interface/code has stabilized so I’ll take another look at getting that implemented.

[5. The templates as well as the layer style option need more descriptive names or an in Contact Sheet X preview of them so that we can see what we are getting.]

I like the idea of having a Template Preview. Let me see if there’s a way that I can get it smoothly integrated into the UI.

The Layer Style options (on both the thumbnail and caption panels) could only really be previewed in an actual Photoshop document. I can’t apply a Layer Style to a portion of the JavaScript UI. However, if I predefined some set of LayerStyles, I could pre-generate previews that I could then display in the JS UI. Let me think on this.

I’ll add these items to the Feature Requests here:
< http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=173281&atid=864 857>

Thanks for the input. It’s been very helpful.

-X

stevent – 12:53am Jan 11, 07 PST (#7 of 8) Edited: 11-Jan-2007 at 1:00am

Changed the script, another error (in CS3).

The error message is probably accurate. The script failed in creating a new document using the dimensions and resolution that you gave.

I will add some better error detection and a better diagnostic error message.

While I don’t mind responding to questions about CSX here, it is probably better if bugs are reported and handled here:
< http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=173281&atid=864 854>

Use the ‘Submit New’ link to add new bugs.

There is also a Discussion forum:
<http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=621745>

and a Feature Request area:
< http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=173281&atid=864 857>

Thanks again,

-X

I figured out the layer effects thing and that is way cool. I made a layer style that gave me the border I wanted. I thought you were handling the naming of the layer styles in the list, but your not someone just didn’t name the styles I have loaded very well.

One more comment. I use the script for doing photo posters. If I turn off the auto fill option I then get massive amounts of blank space between the rows (it might happen with the columns under the right circumstances I don’t know).

I also noticed that the auto fill crops the image and then makes it square. How about adding some options to this that one the user can control the crop area, like upper right, lower right, upper left, lower left, middle top, middle bottom, middle right, middle left, middle middle.

And also add an option that that it keeps the images aspect ration but crops and zooms to fill the space so you don’t end up with the large gaps between the images. I don’t know if I am explaining this right or not. Hopefully you will get it.

As for the layer effects preview how about allowing the user to create say a 100 x 100 pixel JPG image that they can store in a certain directory that shows the layer effect. The JPG is named the same as the layer style and your script when it finds the matching JPG shows it, if it doesn’t find one it just shows a "no preview" image instead. This way people could use if they wanted or not.

Also, is there anyway to fix the layer styles option in your script so that it doesn’t use the styles in the Photoshop styles palette. I really don’t like this. I can see myself creating a limited set of styles to use with your script and it would be nice to use this set without having to first load or replace what I already have in the layer effects palette. I don’t know if this is possible, but it would be nice to keep these contact sheet specific. This would also make the preview idea easier, the JPG’s could be in the same directory as the layer effects file. Maybe an option to go either way, whatever the user wants.

Thanks again,

Robert

From Robert Barnett – 5:45pm Jan 11, 07 PST (#10 of 10)

[One more comment. I use the script for doing photo posters. If I turn off the auto fill option I then get massive amounts of blank space between the rows (it might happen with the columns under the right circumstances I don’t know).]

The amount of space between rows (and columns) is determined by:
1) whether Auto-fill is on or off. Auto-fill determines whether the entire image is visible (off) or if the entire area available to the image is filled (on) in which case the image is probably cropped.
2) the aspect ration of the image in the image space,
3) the setting of the ‘spacing’ options,
4) the setting of the ‘Constrain to square’ option. This one was appropriated from LightRoom.

I’ll try to put together some diagrams in the docs that explain in a bit more detail how these various settings interact.

[I also noticed that the auto fill crops the image and then makes it square. How about adding some options to this that one the user can control the crop area, like upper right, lower right, upper left, lower left, middle top, middle bottom, middle right, middle left, middle middle.]

Interesting idea. I hadn’t consider it. I’ll see what it can take to get this implemented.

[And also add an option that that it keeps the images aspect ration but crops and zooms to fill the space so you don’t end up with the large gaps between the images.]

Auto-fill should do this now. Images are always zoomed to either fit or fill. I don’t have the ability in the script to maintain the relative scale of images.

[As for the layer effects preview how about allowing the user to create say a 100 x 100 pixel JPG image that they can store in a certain directory that shows the layer effect. The JPG is named the same as the layer style and your script when it finds the matching JPG shows it, if it doesn’t find one it just shows a "no preview" image instead. This way people could use if they wanted or not.]

This was almost exactly what I was intending for both previewing layer styles (thumbnail and caption) and previewing Templates. I may also do something like this for row/column layout similar to what’s in CSII. But I may require that the previews be .png files since that’s the easiest thing to display in the JS UI.

[Also, is there anyway to fix the layer styles option in your script so that it doesn’t use the styles in the Photoshop styles palette. I really don’t like this. I can see myself creating a limited set of styles to use with your script and it would be nice to use this set without having to first load or replace what I already have in the layer effects palette. I don’t know if this is possible, but it would be nice to keep these contact sheet specific. This would also make the preview idea easier, the JPG’s could be in the same directory as the layer effects file. Maybe an option to go either way, whatever the user wants.]

I was already considering something like this, but for different reasons. I wanted to provide a standard set of borders/styles that would be delivered with CSX to make the Templates more useful. The simplest mechanism is to create a .asl file with those styles,let’s call it CSX-Styles.asl and put it in the csx/templates directory. Let the user add their own .asl files to the templates directory so CSX can find them. There are the PS-provided .asl files in Presets/Styles. And, lastly, there are the System styles found in the runtime Presets Manager. When the UI comes up it would create a pull-down list with that set of .asl files to choose from. When one is selected, the list of styles in that file is displayed a second pull-down list. You select your style from that that last list. The current CSX rev operates as if you had selected the System styles are unable to change to a .asl file. I already have code to parse .asl files for listing the contents in the menu. The only trick will be temporarily loading and unloading the required style in and out of the runtime styles palette.

Interesting problem.

And, thanks again for the feedback. I’ll get this added to the CSX Feature Request list.

-X

What you don’t have all this done yet. I posted these suggestions yesterday. Geeze! 😉

Robert

wrote in message

From Robert Barnett – 5:45pm Jan 11, 07 PST (#10 of 10)

[One more comment. I use the script for doing photo posters. If I turn off the auto fill option I then get massive amounts of blank space between the rows (it might happen with the columns under the right circumstances I don’t
know).]

The amount of space between rows (and columns) is determined by:
1) whether Auto-fill is on or off. Auto-fill determines whether the entire
image is visible (off) or if the entire area available to the image is filled (on) in which case the image is probably cropped.
2) the aspect ration of the image in the image space,
3) the setting of the ‘spacing’ options,
4) the setting of the ‘Constrain to square’ option. This one was appropriated from LightRoom.

I’ll try to put together some diagrams in the docs that explain in a bit more detail how these various settings interact.

[I also noticed that the auto fill crops the image and then makes it square.
How about adding some options to this that one the user can control the crop
area, like upper right, lower right, upper left, lower left, middle top, middle bottom, middle right, middle left, middle middle.]
Interesting idea. I hadn’t consider it. I’ll see what it can take to get this implemented.

[And also add an option that that it keeps the images aspect ration but crops
and zooms to fill the space so you don’t end up with the large gaps between
the images.]

Auto-fill should do this now. Images are always zoomed to either fit or fill. I don’t have the ability in the script to maintain the relative scale of images.

[As for the layer effects preview how about allowing the user to create say a
100 x 100 pixel JPG image that they can store in a certain directory that shows the layer effect. The JPG is named the same as the layer style and your script when it finds the matching JPG shows it, if it doesn’t find one
it just shows a "no preview" image instead. This way people could use if they wanted or not.]

This was almost exactly what I was intending for both previewing layer styles
(thumbnail and caption) and previewing Templates. I may also do something like
this for row/column layout similar to what’s in CSII. But I may require that
the previews be .png files since that’s the easiest thing to display in the JS UI.

[Also, is there anyway to fix the layer styles option in your script so that
it doesn’t use the styles in the Photoshop styles palette. I really don’t like this. I can see myself creating a limited set of styles to use with your script and it would be nice to use this set without having to first load or replace what I already have in the layer effects palette. I don’t know if this is possible, but it would be nice to keep these contact sheet specific. This would also make the preview idea easier, the JPG’s could be in the same directory as the layer effects file. Maybe an option to go either way, whatever the user wants.]

I was already considering something like this, but for different reasons. I wanted to provide a standard set of borders/styles that would be delivered
with CSX to make the Templates more useful. The simplest mechanism is to create
a .asl file with those styles,let’s call it CSX-Styles.asl and put it in the
csx/templates directory. Let the user add their own .asl files to the templates
directory so CSX can find them. There are the PS-provided .asl files in Presets/Styles. And, lastly, there are the System styles found in the runtime
Presets Manager. When the UI comes up it would create a pull-down list with
that set of .asl files to choose from. When one is selected, the list of styles in
that file is displayed a second pull-down list. You select your style from that
that last list. The current CSX rev operates as if you had selected the System
styles are unable to change to a .asl file. I already have code to parse .asl files
for listing the contents in the menu. The only trick will be temporarily loading
and unloading the required style in and out of the runtime styles palette.
Interesting problem.

And, thanks again for the feedback. I’ll get this added to the CSX Feature Request list.

-X

The patch rev for stevent’s problem can be found here:
< http://ps-scripts.sourceforge.net/ContactSheetX/builds/Conta ctSheetX-1_40.zip >

Still doesn’t work in CS3 – using the default settings (or any other settings that I can find).

Still doesn’t work in CS3 – using the default settings

Please send me your log file and I’ll investigate this further.

You can find the log file here on WinXP (or somewhere similar): C:\Documents and Settings\[user id]\Application Data\Adobe\xtools\ContactSheetX.log

and someplace like this on OSX:
/Users/[user id]/Library/Preferences/xtools/ContactSheetX.log

-X