Save for Web: a script that might help you with LR/CS3 automation

I'm a bit obsessive about automating stuff, so a big bugbear of mine has been the lack of support for "Save for Web" in Photoshop actions (particularly when it comes to picking which folder images go to).

With moving to Lightroom and wanting to supply watermarked images for my clients to use on the web, I decided to have another go at this. With Lightroom's support for droplets on export, all I needed was an action that could save and close the currently open file ... with Save for Web.

The only way to do it is with a script. Here's what I put together:

// saveForWeb.jsx
// (c) 2008 one fine day photography
// ofdphoto.com
//
// $Id$
//
// WARNING: this script deletes and replaces the currently open file.
// For good measure, it also closes it.
//

var options = new ExportOptionsSaveForWe​b();
options.format = SaveDocumentType.JPEG;
options.quality = 70;

var doc = app.activeDocument;
var file = new File(doc.fullName.fsNa​me);
file.remove();
doc.exportDocument(fil​e, ExportType.SAVEFORWEB, options);
doc.close(SaveOptions.​DONOTSAVECHANGES);

I don't understand where is this used? As a droplet?

I use it at the end of actions that I then convert to droplets and use from Lightroom.

So basically you just paste that text (customized) into a text file, save it as a jsx extension, then run it in PS? I don't understand why you'd want to over-write your original file though. Wouldn't it be better to specify a new folder and drop it into that instead? Is that even possible?

Ya. Nothing revolutionary, it just saves the hassle of moving files after every Save for Web batch.

Don't worry I'm not trying to be a bear on this. I think it's a great idea. The SFW popup is annoying as heck.

I don't see a parameter in the code for resizing though so I'm confused a bit. Do you run this on already resized images? In other words, use a Save As command initially and specify the folder the image goes into, and then immediately after, the script follows up with a "open, save, delete old"?

Hmm. Tried to use it on PS7 but it won't work. PS7 doesn't recognize jsx extensions and then I get an error that Line 11 does not have a constructor when I try to run it as a js.

Boo!

Sorry, I'll explain more:

I do everything except the saving bit in a normal Photoshop action. Resizing, watermarking, framing, etc. Then, at the end of the action I do this save for web scripty bit.

Why overwrite the currently open file? Well, because this made the most sense within my Lightroom workflow. Now I can batch a set of JPEG's out of Lightroom, assign a droplet to run after export, and I only have one set of JPEG's at the end of the procedure. It does mean I waste a bit of CPU time (by generating a new set of JPEG's for each export), but it's a one-click procedure and I like coffee, so I don't really care.

You could experiment with adding "Save As" to your action, before running this script, to pick up Photoshop's automatic overriding of Save/Save As targets before doing Save for Web, but test this at your own risk!

cdifoto wrote in post #5629288
Hmm. Tried to use it on PS7 but it won't work. PS7 doesn't recognize jsx extensions and then I get an error that Line 11 does not have a constructor when I try to run it as a js.

Boo!

That sucks. Save for Web must have a different API in PS7.

Must be. I tried removing the "ExportOptions" part and having it as just "SaveForWeb" but that didn't help. I'm code-dumb so that's about as far as I know to try at this point. Like you, I enjoy coffee so it doesn't bother me to run something and walk away from it. I do already batch into a folder but I use SaveAs. It'd be nice to get those files smaller using the SaveForWeb though...if for no other reason than my web proofing.

I've gone hunting for Photoshop 7 documentation, and found very little of it Sorry.

Eh no shakes. It's not a huge deal since my website auto-generates thumbs usually under 8K and those are loaded by default. The ~50K images load pretty fast when it's just one at a time (I only proof at 435px on the long side). I was hoping to eek out about 30K though.

EDIT: I just remembered I can batch the small proof files in IrfanView & squeeze out smaller files without EXIF and such.

linarms, thanks for this. i was specifically looking for the solution to bypass the "overwrite?" prompt in my workflow. i had always found a way to get around it... but in my latest round of streamlining my workflow, this one thing really bugged me.

No worries Glad it helped you.