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The Über-Droplet: Tidy Your Work Folders
Note: This extremely simple mini-tutorial was written for Adobe CS3. Hopefully CS4 handles everything the same way.
I personally have an intense fear of two things: a) losing image data and b) having disorganized folders. I always keep hi-res versions of any image separate from the final comp, and I most definitely always keep my .psd finals. However, for any web graphic, you also will need the flat jpeg version. However, if you use this technique, you’ll keep your work folders clear of those redundant jpegs.
I’m sure everyone has some form of coping mechanism for the .psd/.jpeg glut, but for what it’s worth, here’s mine. It’s possibly the simplest tutorial ever, but I hope it helps you out.
Create a folder somewhere convenient. This here folder will be the receptacle for all of your jpegs. I named mine “_export” because I’m creative.
Open up a file (any old file, really). Create an action. You know, those macro recordings in Photoshop that it’s very possible you’ve never used (I sure hadn’t). Hit Record.
Now, Save For Web, into the above folder. Pick all your settings carefully - the idea is that this recorded action will apply to the majority of your Save For Web exporting. 80% quality and .jpg format does it for me 95% of the time.
Close the image file. Hit Stop on the action recording.
Now, go to File > Automate > Create Droplet. Under the “Play” section, select your new Action (whatever you named it). Keep “Destination” as None. Click OK.
Ta-da! You now have an executable droplet that will take whatever you drag onto it, open it up, and spit it out into your container folder.
Working at Griffin, I have to maintain about 200 folders’ worth of product images. I keep the .psd’s in there, and have a “SFW 80 JPG” droplet sitting in my work folder that I use all the time. I just drag whatever .psd files I want to it, and the resultant jpegs fill up my _export folder. Clean and simple.
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Cameron Daigle is a designer who scribbles information in notebooks, in his head, or (ever so occasionally) on this website.