Imaging tip of the day: Automation

Automation seems to be all the rage in computing these days. I guess making computers do more of the work is finally catching on. A couple of weeks ago I posted an Imaging Tip on OSX Tiger Automator actions for Photoshop CS/CS2, and I figured it was time to expand our horizons to include a few more programs and and get Windows users in on the fun. More after the jump.

So here we go: First up is iView Media, a powerful Win/OSX imaging application that has both regular and pro versions. While the pro version runs $199, it is definitely well worth it as a professional, all-encompassing digital asset collecting and organizing suite that also just happens to be scriptable. On OSX it plays nicely with Applescript, and a set of Automator actions was just released for OSX Tiger users. On Windows it can dance with Visual Basic Script and Javascript environments.

Next up is Photolightning, a Windows app that makes mince meat out of importing, organizing, naming, commenting, backing up and sharing your digital camera photos. Touch up colors, preview before you download, share, email and backup sets of photos with mere clicks of a mouse.

Last but not least is a full-on command line/automation environment for windows that our own Marc Orchant pointed out called ActiveWords. While this is more of an all-around app for easily accessing and manipulating most files and apps on your Windows PC, it also has the handy ability of scripting just about anything in menus, dialogs and toolbars. With that kind of flexibility I'm sure your imagination can run wild, but check out some demos if you need help wrapping your head around the concept.

So there you have it; photo automation and batch processing on both Windows and OSX without a single copy of Photoshop in sight. Enjoy!

Tags: automation, imaging, shareware