Miggins Tutorials: July 2022

Scripting tag names using both PS and PSP an easy way...

Part One

Photoshop Part

First of all, you will need a spreadsheet so open a new one.

In the first column on the top line give this list a name you will remember I've called mine "newname"

Save this spreadsheet as a CSV text document i saved mine as "newname" as well that way you can have a few different lists going for always lists etc and you won't get confused.

you should have this so far...

In the first column again directly under where you wrote newname add your list of names

Save this now and don't forget to save it as a CSV file now we can let that sit for a while,

open Photoshop and load in the tag you wish to work on. Select the text tool and add a word (i usually add my name (it doesn't matter what you add as it won't get processed) select the font and size and place it where you want the name to be. You can use any colour but do NOT attempt to use any styles or the layer options as this will stop it from working,, here's mine

When your happy with the placement make sure the text layer is highlighted and we will crack on.

In Photoshop go to Image/variables/define

So your text layer being highlighted has ensured we are working with the correct bits.

As you'll see the layer with my name on "Miggins" is shown in the box

Totally ignore the visibility Box but tick text replacement and the words "TextVariable1" will appear

and now here's the hard part change that to " newname" or whatever you have named your list...click OK

Once again to Image/variables/define/Data sets

click "import" and direct it to open the CSV spreadsheet file we made

Click Load Ok and OK

Go to Image/variables/define/Data sets again

make sure the first name on your list is showing on the first box and newname is in the second

and click on the little arrow next to the top box and check that all your names are in (spreadsheets are notorious for not saving properly and PS may also remember an older version so it's worth it to double check)

If all looks good click Ok

almost there

Go to File/Export/datasets as files

Choose your folder you want the tags saved in and how you want the name to read when you happy click OK

you will see the later name changing and the text on your tag wibble wobbling as it works

you can at this point only save them as a PSD but this is what we want.

So here are all the tags with two layers, one is text one is based in a folder ready for the next part while we are here add a new folder in this one for later...

I know all this seems like a "wow that looks hard" moment but really it takes 2 or 3 minutes once you've done it a couple of times. the hardest part is compiling the list of names in the first place lol...

Part Two

The PSP Part

Open PSP and open the first tag we just made with the two layers

Play around until you know what effects you want to use for your text once you have that done we can script it. Don't save this tag yet it'll be an oops moment. lol

Once you are happy we can script this ( don't get put off its easy and you'll find you'll be using this method all the time for other projects)

Make sure your Script toolbar is showing and click the start recording button

Now go through the effects you decided on (gradient glow ..inner bevel drop shadow)

you will find that some plugins will need you click OK each time but just hold your curser in the same place and click its no biggy lol

you need to save this and close it

so when you finished save this script by clicking the save script button

now save this script you will need to make sure you save it in your SCRIPTS TRUSTED folder

you can call it what you want

Just a note here there's two ways now to do this you can open all the tags in PSP and keep clicking the script run button adjusting the names as you go if you have a lot of long ones or you can run the batch process just opening the ones you know are very long and adjusting to fit and re-saving

so way 1...open all tags in psp

get the ones that are a bit long and type D this will bring up the raster deform tool and you can adjust the name to fit

now you can run the script for each tag

Way 2... just open the tags you know will be an issue fitting the name in..adjust those in the same way and save and close ..now we can use the batch process

browse to the folder with the PSD tags in and select them all

1.browse to your script

2. make sure new type is ticked

3 in the options we need to save as a PNG tag

4. browse to the new folder we made inside the one with the tags (or any )

5.Click start

as you can see the plugin i chose will need you to click OK but it takes seconds compared to the alternative

DONE ... give them a final quick look over if there are any you don't like you still have the PSD to load and adjust if you are happy you can delete those

you just have to deliver them now

I hope you've managed to follow this I've tried to make it as simple as I can so even newbies can do it

as I said before it looks long and winded but there are a lot of pictures and once you've done it a few times it takes minutes

happy tagging xxx

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Scripting tag names using both PS and PSP an easy way...