AppleScript for converting InDesign to Photoshop

max tokman

Learn / Forums / InDesign Add-ons (Scripts, Scripting, and Plug-ins) / AppleScript for converting InDesign to Photoshop

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    • July 21, 2014 at 9:14 am #69617
      max tokman
      Member

      As web developers, we are often asked by our creative partners to work with InDesign files instead of Photoshop (which is our preference). So, we created an AppleScript that converts InDesign file into layered Photoshop document.

      https://www.oss-usa.com/blog/exporting-indesign-photoshop

      In the next version of the script we will try to keep InDesign text fully editable when it is transferred to Photoshop

    • July 21, 2014 at 9:27 am #69620
      David Blatner
      Keymaster

      Cool! Great idea. I’m a big fan of doing layouts in Photoshop.

      Any chance of seeing this as an extendscript so that it could work on Windows, too? I know that AppleScript is cross-application (whereas extendscript/jsx is designed for one program at a time), but perhaps this could be made to work across InDesign and Photoshop via Bridge or something? Not sure.

    • July 21, 2014 at 9:51 am #69621
      max tokman
      Member

      Hi David,

      We will certainly look into that. Right now, we want to see how far we can take it with transferring all of InDesign objects and properties to Photoshop.

    • April 16, 2015 at 3:54 am #74710
      Hylda Von Dincklage
      Member

      Hi, I put up a post yesterday that I was after this same script – but with a function to select a page range or alternate layout groups. Exporting the layered page/alternate layout pgs perhaps as groups or folders? This is so I can export out multipule pages to create a stack in Photoshop.

      Thanks!

    • April 16, 2015 at 4:35 am #74712
      max tokman
      Member

      Hi Hylda,

      We stopped development of our script on version 2.2 and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. You can try splitting your .indd into multiple files, each containing individual page and running the script on those single file .indd files.

      https://www.oss-usa.com/blog/exporting-indesign-photoshop

    • April 20, 2015 at 10:05 am #74845
      Aaron Troia
      Participant

      Hmm, I set everything as instructed, set the document to pixels (882px x 648px) but the layers converted to an insanely small spread size, like 15px wide and the alignment of everything is off, could this be that I am using bleed? (“4.5 Make sure all objects are placed exclusively on the artboard / page area – placing objects outside work area will impact scaling and position”) Also I noticed is that the script converts the full graphic used, so if you make a frame smaller to hide certain parts that I don’t need, the script automatically converts the entire graphic (hidden and visible) and adds it to the exported layer, not just what is visible in the frame, which defeats the purpose of why I have the frame smaller than the graphic (You instructions mention “4.3 Fit frame to text content for all text objects” but nothing about the frame for graphics). Anyway, that’s just some things I observed while testing your Applescript Applet.

    • August 4, 2015 at 5:43 pm #77141
      Hylda Von Dincklage
      Member

      HI Max,

      Oh no. I love this script.
      Oh well, Hopefully there is more development on the script by fans – esp with keeping the copy live when rebuilding in Photoshop.
      I do have one question- when the file rebuilds in PS – the file shifts horizontally or/and vertically by a few pixels, any reason why?

      • August 4, 2015 at 7:48 pm #77143
        max tokman
        Member

        Hi Hylda,

        There might be elements spilling outside InDesign canvas (perhaps placed there for a full bleed effect), that when brought to Photoshop are placed flush against PSD canvas edge, resulting in overall shift. Otherwise, the calculations are based on pixel values brought over from InDesign to Photoshop.

    • August 10, 2015 at 8:44 pm #77210
      Hylda Von Dincklage
      Member

      Thank you Max!
      One more question – any ideas in minimising the antialiasing from Indesign to PS?
      I have set up a 1px x 1px grid and there is still some anti aliasing that comes through even through objects are pixel aligned in Indesign.

      Thanks Max.

    • August 11, 2015 at 6:07 am #77217
      max tokman
      Member

      Hylda,

      What kind of objects are no longer aligning – text, image boxes, or is it across the board? I would venture a guess that aligning in .indd accounts for some of the object’s properties, such as stroke weight or anti-alias on text, that do not translate precisely into .psd, hence the shift.

    • August 11, 2015 at 4:45 pm #77240
      Hylda Von Dincklage
      Member

      HI David – Amazing article. This will def come in handy with a few of the workflows I am building.
      Unfortunately, I need a layered psd – for HTML development.
      PNG’s are used but only to proof at artwork stages before despatch.

    • August 11, 2015 at 4:56 pm #77241
      Hylda Von Dincklage
      Member

      Hi Max,

      The anti-aliasing happens between objects flush aligned.
      This post box is a good example. the white box and the grey strips on the top and bottom. there is anti-aliasing between the 2 colours sometimes over a pixel.
      Do you think its the pdf profile? a direct copy and paste shows that it does align pixel perfect, however there is a massive colour shift (and direct copy and paste does not efficiently fit in with this particular workflow, due to the number of layers)

      Thanks guys

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