CMYK to RGB conversion without 3rd party software?

Ric, don't worry, I know you aren't, and I'm glad you did follow since you are knowledgeable.

Gimp could be an option, however I have yet to see any Automator access for it.

The major issue here is that I am working with someone else, and we both have to convert these inconvenient images. Since we are both using Tiger, Automator should be great for our application. Especially since we both have different software installed.

Personally I have Photoshop and Graphic Convertor. However the Photoshop Automator actions I found (not the action pack which is commercial, but the freeware edition available from Apple Downloads) doesn't actually seem to work. I added a color mode change item into Automator, and it shows that step by name in the menu bar, and with Automator open it gives that step a green check mark, but everything still comes out CMYK. I tried with Photoshop both launched and unlaunched.

Graphic Convertor also seems not to do Automator directly, but it does have Applescript support and is Shareware. It would still be the cleanest solution if we could find a way to do this in Automator without any additional downloads. Even if some hairy Applescript or command line utilities were involved.

Hello again Ric,

Thanks for your help. I would appreciate a bit of Applescript help. I have Automator back in the mix after playing around a bit.

Yes, my associate who owns the website has neither PS, or GC. So if we can set up a way to automate this via email that would be great. I think I am actually about half way there, and I hope you will be kind enough to help me get the rest of the way.

My machine is no longer the spunkiest, so I am using GC to do the color mode conversion, as it can launch, convert, and save the file in less than 1/4 the time Photoshop takes to launch. So yes, I'm doing this in a crazy fashion, but I have good reasons. 🙂

This is my script thus far:

using terms from application "Mail"
on perform mail action with messages theMessages for rule theRule
tell application "Mail"

set numberOfMessages to count theMessages

repeat with eachMessage in theMessages

set theSubject to subject of eachMessage

try
set nameOfAttachment to the name of the first mail attachment of eachMessage

(*if nameOfAttachment ends with ".torrent" then*)

set filename to "Macintosh HD:Users:parr:Desktop:Alpha Images:•From Brett:" & nameOfAttachment

save first mail attachment of eachMessage in filename

tell application "GraphicConverter"
activate
open {alias filename}
save window 1
close window 1
quit
end tell

tell application "Automator"
execute "Alpha Convert"
end tell

end try

end repeat

end tell

end perform mail action with messages

end using terms from

This works up until I call my Automator workflow. In my workflow I currently have the scale item and the convert to jpeg item.

Question 1: How do we tell Automator what files to use as an input? Do I have to add a Get Selected or Get Specified Finder Items? Can I use the 'filename' variable from the above script?

Once I have that down, any advice you can give on emailing it back would be great.

Thanks again.

QS2002 933 - Soon to be Macbook 2.0 Mac OS X (10.4)

Okay, I have played with this some more and have ended up with this:

using terms from application "Mail"
on perform mail action with messages theMessages for rule theRule
tell application "Mail"

set numberOfMessages to count theMessages

repeat with eachMessage in theMessages

set theSubject to subject of eachMessage

try
set nameOfAttachment to the name of the first mail attachment of eachMessage

set filename to "Macintosh HD:Users:parr:Desktop:Alpha Images:•From Brett:" & nameOfAttachment

save first mail attachment of eachMessage in filename

(*set the text item delimiters of AppleScript to {"."}
tell application "Finder"
set theFile to (filename as string)
set theName to the name of file filename
set theName to (text item 1 of theName)
end tell*)

tell application "GraphicConverter"
open {alias filename}
save window 1
close window 1
quit
end tell

tell application "Automator Launcher"
open "Macintosh HD:Users:parr:Library:Workflows:Alpha Convert.workflow"
end tell

end try

end repeat

end tell

end perform mail action with messages

end using terms from

The issue I have now is that Automator pops up a message stating:

Finder got an error: Can't get file type of alias "Macintosh HD:Users:parr:Desktop:Alpha Images:•From Brett:".(-1728)

Any ideas?

QS2002 933 - Soon to be Macbook 2.0 Mac OS X (10.4)

QS2002 933 - Soon to be Macbook 2.0 Mac OS X (10.4)

Kurt, thanks for the advice, but Photoshop is a bit heavy handed for what I am trying to do. A bit like using a Ferrari to go 1/4 mile to the supermarket.

I'm continuing to look at options with Automator and Graphic Converter since the entire script can run in much less time than it would take Photoshop to launch, and if I leave Photoshop up and running it really eats a bit of resources.

I finally got my scripts working on my end. I have not got the emailing thing down though.

I finally created my original automator script again, then added a run applescript block at the end which basically has GC open and save the file, my older version of GC automatically translates the image to RGB since it is before CMYK was supported by GC. I also had the alias errors happen here. What I think was happening is that there is a bug in Automator wherein if you use column view mode, and the column displaying the item you are working on is in view but not highlighted (i.e. its image isn't being previewed in a column pane) then Automator doesn't seem to pass the file name properly.

I tested this by creating a simple workflow, just resize and change to jpeg, then if you open the finder window in column mode (my default) and quickly grab the image by the icon to drop it on your Automator application, it goes through the motions but doesn't do anything. If you have Automator open you can watch it add green checkmarks to the resize and make jpeg blocks, but when you go back into the finder, the item is still a tiff and has its original size.

Click on the item so that you see its preview, try again, and suddenly everything works. Weird eh?

So now I have a script that resizes, changes to jpeg, and then calls on GC to convert to RGB. Now if I had a way to get the email side of things working, I would be golden.

Thanks for the help thus far.