Tag Archive for 'photoshop'

Preamble:

The app that I’m going to be ranting about, is one that I really do like, one that I paid a license for (at full price), and one that I use quite a bit.

It’s just a rant about the issues that I ran into with the app, and how I had to switch to another app to get what I wanted done, done correctly.

On with the RANT!

As linked to on my Colophon page, I use Downsize to manipulate images for posting here on my site. The primary use of Downsize for me, is to quickly change the dimensions of an image and to add a border and/or a drop shadow. I used to use a similar (but less functional) freeware app before switching to Downsize. I’ve been using Downsize because of it’s advanced feature set, and for the fact that it produces a higher quality image over the competitor’s inferior product.

My issue with Downsize started today when I wanted to batch convert a number of high resolution PNG graphics that had transparency. When I fed them to Downsize they looked great.

What I didn’t notice at the time, and never even thought about, was that Downsize took the PNG graphics, again with transparency, and converted them to JPEGs.

Ah. That’s all well in good if I wanted JPEGs, but I gave it PNGs with TRANSPARENCY. I want it to do it’s magic and produce PNGs with TRANSPARENCY. I give you a PNG I expect a PNG as the output, just like if I gave it a JPEG I would expect it to output a JPEG.

From what I can see, there is no option to enable or change the output format. So I had to shelve Downsize for these particular images, and find an alternative method that was just as quick, and would produce a PNG with TRANSPARENCY!

So I turned to the trusty and expensive Photoshop CS4 Extended. Seriously Adobe, just have one version of Photoshop CS4 and stop milking your customers with overpriced software and bundles.

Okay, I know the fastest way to reproduce repetitive tasks is to create an action. I go through, record the action, and test it out. Yup it works. Time to make a droplet. Where is the option to make the droplet? It was there in the Actions pallet before in the little drop down attributes area. Oh Adobe, you just had to tinker with CS4 didn’t you? You must have moved it on me, or removed it completely (that wouldn’t be a first).

After about a half hour trying to figure out where the heck they moved the create a droplet feature, I just decided to open all the images and to run the action. Once they all opened, I clicked the play button for the action. I hit command+s to save, but I was prompted with an Adobe save dialog, asking where I want to save it to, and what format, which for some reason it defaulted to Adobe Photoshop PDF.

Ah, no, thats not what I asked for. I asked to SAVE, as in SAVE over the file you are editing, aka SAVE the file as it’s native format, not SAVE AS an Adobe Photoshop PDF.

I then proceed to change the format, remove the stupid “copy” portion of the file name and hit save. Then I command+w to close the window. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SAVE? Hello! That’s what I just asked you to do, and you couldn’t even do that! So I try it, again, not the native format. Screw it. I continue on through the dialog hell that is Adobe CS4 until I got all 39 images completed.

Then I found, out of the blue, the create a droplet action. Nice, real flipping nice. So I attempt to set it up. Well, of course it’s not going to work as expected. I have to tweak it a few times to get it to save the files correctly.

In the end I got a functioning droplet app that does what I want it to do… I feed it a PNG with TRANSPARENCY, it resizes, expands the canvas, applies the effects, and saves the file in it’s native format: a PNG with TRANSPARENCY! Finally!

All of this could have been avoided if Downsize just exported the format that it was given.

If you are wondering what this rant is about, it’s so that I can display app icons (and or iPhone app icons) on a striped background without having a white border around the icon which looks really stupid don’t you say?…

BEFORE: PNG w/Transparency > modified and then converted to JPEG via Downsize on striped background:

AFTER: PNG w/Transparency > modified using a Photoshop Droplet and exported in it’s native format on a striped background:

I think it’s pretty obvious which one looks better. If you say the BEFORE, you are wrong. If you see a gray background on the AFTER image, UPGRADE TO A REAL BROWSER! Internet Exploder is garbage. Get FireFox or Safari.

In closing…

I still love Downsize, and still highly recommend it. As I said in the preamble, I have nothing against the app, or the developer. The program does what it does, and does it well. It would have been nice if it produced a file that was the same native format that it was given.

I will continue to use Downsize for images that do not require transparency, and for those images that can live as the inferior format that is JPEG.

LONG LIVE PNG w/TRANSPARENCY!