Main Event Software Ships PhotoScripter 1.0; New AppleScript Product for Photoshop Enables Integrated Automation of Image Processing.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 22, 1998--Main Event Software, Inc. today announced it is now shipping PhotoScripter 1.0, providing automated AppleScript support for the capabilities in Adobe Photoshop 5.0 and higher.

Now for the first time, Macintosh users can automate the commands and processes available in Photoshop by using simple, English-like AppleScript sentences. PhotoScripter is available today at http://www.mainevent.com/ for $299 per single-artist license and $999 per production machine license. Special introductory pricing of $899 for production machine licenses is available through January 3, 1999, directly from Main Event Software.

"With PhotoScripter, the level of integration between Photoshop, QuarkXPress, and the Finder is unprecedented," commented Cal Simone, president of Main Event Software. "Many shops, large and small, will literally save hundreds of thousands of dollars by using PhotoScripter in automating many of the repetitive aspects of image processing. Now Photoshop can join the ranks in the stable of core applications used for workflow."

"It changes the whole way we look at the image-processing part of building QuickTime VR objects," explained Joel Smith, president of Realitysmith. "By scripting the use of filters, changing saturation levels, and cropping, then running the script against a whole batch of images, we get to see quickly if the overall effect is what we want. It also allows us to achieve a more consistent quality, with a lower margin of error. Before I might look at something and say, 'that's good,' while now I've got the latitude to ask, 'and what if we did this, too?'"

Main Event's PhotoScripter plug-in implements the Apple Event Object Model and provides a large semantic vocabulary that is used by script writers. Using PhotoScripter, graphics professionals, power users, solutions providers and in-house developers can now easily incorporate automated Photoshop processing into several phases of their production processes.

For example, during the last Seybold keynote, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer, Inc., and Phil Schiller, vice president of worldwide product marketing, demonstrated the easy-to-use, automated image processing and document assembly with Adobe Photoshop enhanced by PhotoScripter 1.0 and QuarkXPress, integrated via an AppleScript.

Expanded Possibilities for Image Processing

PhotoScripter provides Photoshop with an extensive dictionary that can be opened in any standard script editor, including the basic Script Editor that comes with the Mac OS or a more advanced environment like Main Event's Scripter. The PhotoScripter dictionary defines the vocabulary of terms available for writing commands in the AppleScript language.

Among the range of Photoshop capabilities that can be accessed using PhotoScripter:

- Open and save documents in various file formats

- Query and change image attributes, including size, resolution, color space (mode), and image documents' NAA/IPTC file information

- Create new documents, layers, channels, paths and more

- Fill, stroke, draw lines and make gradients; flip, rotate and transform

- Create and apply new monitor (RGB), printing (CMYK) and profile setups

- Perform all Photoshop image adjustments; flatten layers 

- Apply Photoshop filters and effects

Using variables, conditional execution, looping, and other techniques available in AppleScript, each image in a batch can be processed in different ways under differing conditions. Over 250 applications, such as QuarkXPress, FileMaker Pro, Canto Cumulus, and the Macintosh Finder, are AppleScript-aware, thus making it possible for integration between these applications to be created by both programmers and non-programmers alike.

System Requirements 

To run PhotoScripter 1.0 you need a Power Macintosh, with Mac OS System 7.5.5 or later and Photoshop 5.0 or later.

Pricing and Availability

PhotoScripter 1.0 is available today for purchase directly from the Main Event Web site at http://www.mainevent.com/ for $299 per single-artist license. Quantity discounts are also available for multiple single-artist licenses. Educational discounts of 25% are offered.

Production machine licenses for any machine with up to 10 artists submitting images to it for production are available at a special introductory price of $899 each (regularly $999). Licenses to accommodate more than 10 artists per production machine are easily arranged directly through Main Event. Special introductory pricing for production machine licenses remains in effect through January 3, 1999. Reseller, OEM and developer license pricing have not yet been determined.

About Main Event Software

Located in Washington, Main Event is the leading developer and publisher of tools for authoring and deploying AppleScript. Best known for its award-winning Scripter authoring, development and debugging environment, Main Event also publishes the PhotoScripter plug-in for Photoshop, the high-speed Rosanne Data Processing Package, and the ScriptBase database for AppleScript. Further information on Main Event may be obtained by calling 202/298-9595, accessing Main Event's Web site at http://www.mainevent.com/, or sending mail to:[e-mail].

Note to Editors: PhotoScripter, ScriptBase, and Rosanne are trademarks of Main Event Software, Inc. Scripter is a registered trademark of Main Event Software, Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, AppleScript, Macintosh, Power Macintosh and Mac OS are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Adobe and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. All brands and products referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.