Do some basic image manipulation via a free AppleScript app

Mar 03, '10 07:30:01AM

Contributed by: philostein

Want to do quick and dirty image editing on the fly? Let Image Events do the work for you. I created a free AppleScript app, which I've named uPad; download the script (112KB) (macosxhints mirror -- but use the original link as long as it works.), and then read on for some notes on how to use it...

uPad is an image manipulation utility that can convert, crop and pad, scale, and rotate images. It's an AppleScript that uses the Image Events process to read and manipulate images. For convenience, use a launcher to launch the AppleScript -- I'm using Spark. Or, for access from the menu bar, enable Show Script menu in menu bar in AppleScript Editor's General preferences, and put uPad in ~/Library » Scripts » Applications » Finder (you might have to create some of those folders yourself).

uPad moves selected files to a temporary folder on the Desktop, saves or moves files back to the target folder, and then deletes the temporary folder. After finishing, uPad will try to reappear with the manipulated files/folder selected in Finder. Type q to exit uPad. There are notes inside the script, or you can press i in the input box in the dialog to read some on-screen help. If you're script-confident, change the limiting variables near the top of the script to suit your workflow.

CAUTION: Work on duplicates if you don't want the original images to be moved to the Trash.
CAUTION: Manipulating images could result in reduced quality and loss of properties (e.g. alpha channels).

The good:
Manipulate multiple images, or a folder of images, without losing your Finder selection. App-like functionality without launching an app. Perform a number of manipulations on the same image batch without leaving uPad. It won't alter non-image files. Entirely original name.

The not-so-good:
The new image's metadata will not be same as that of the original. It can thrash a processor if manipulating many/large images. I couldn't manipulate useable formats sometimes, but converting to another format and back solved this for me. (This can cause image-data loss, though.) Hide a bottom-positioned Dock to see all the info on an 800-pixel-high screens. It could use extra buttons for design's sake (AppleScript dialogs only take three buttons).

I hope someone finds this useful; I use it a lot to make iTunes artwork.

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100228042252806