Automated processing of a series of similar images with ColorPerfect 2.20 and above

ColorPerfect's automation features are intended for our advanced users. Please do obtain a sound understanding of how to use ColorPerfect's various controls on individual images before attempting to integrate the items presented on this page into your imaging workflow. If you don't know where to start in exploring ColorPerfect's features looking at the videos on our YouTube Channel typically is a good idea.

PhotoLine Batch Converting: Processing a series of similar images with ColorPerfect

To be able to use ColorPerfect's automation features in either PhotoLine (as shown on the current page) or in Adobe Photoshop (as shown here) please first familiarize yourself with the Restore Settings button on ColorPerfect's Start panel. If you have not read about that already do so now and return here from the link at the bottom of that page.

Automating ColorPerfect using our custom set of PhotoLine Actions

 

If you have ever tried recording a PhotoLine action with ColorPerfect in it you will have found that for one the settings you had in ColorPerfect do not get stored in the recording and that for another ColorPerfect's graphical user interface still always comes up. Both is by design as the way Adobe Photoshop handles related things would seriously impair ColorPerfect in its regular mode of operations.

With the automation extension we implemented in ColorPerfect 2.20 it is still not possible to record any specific settings for future use. What is possible is to process an individual image to whatever goal and then to apply the same processing to as many other images as you like in an automated way. That is without ever seeing the plug-in's graphical user interface in that process.

In order to use the automation feature we provide a special set of PhotoLine actions. They are named after the according states of the Restore Settings button.

The use of the actions themselves is very simple. Group all images that shall get the same processing into a folder. Those might be linear scans or Tiff files produced by MakeTiff or maybe even camera JPEGs to be processed in TouchUp mode. Choose a representative image to manually work into the state you'd like to apply to the set. OK out of ColorPerfect once you are done with that and use PhotoLine's File > Functions > Batch Converting feature to process all items in your folder into some other target folder using whatever action from our downloadable set that suits your needs. 

To install our set of automation actions choose View > Panels > Actions in PhotoLine. Then perform a right click into the panel's content area. Select "Merge..." from the fly out menu to keep your current PhotoLine Actions while installing our set of actions or choose "Load..." to replace your current PhotoLine actions with our set. Point the according file selection dialog to the *.actions file found in the downloaded zip archive.

Providing a way to automate ColorPerfect has proven challenging to implement due to the way settings for actions and scripting are being handled in Adobe Photoshop. For other plug-ins providing a limited number of adjustments Adobe's approach for that might be suitable but for a system of ColorPerfect's complexity it clearly is not. After several years we have now devised a working automation angle for ColorPerfect but please be aware that it is a prototypical implementation. That means that it might stay what it currently is or that it might change radically in future versions of ColorPerfect. Tell us what you think about it to help with the feature's evolution if you like.