Applescript in Layout mode

[has27]

I've got an icon in photoshop, 50px by 50px. For Reasons to Become Apparent Later, I'd like to recreate this icon as single coloured pixels in FileMaker. Obviously, creating a couple of thousand pixels isn't my idea of a good time. I was hoping to AppleScript it.

Can I AppleScript layout mode to the extent of 'make a rectangle, colour it this colour, position it here'? If so, then I can script Photoshop to get each individual pixel's colour, then go to filemaker and recursively make them; if not, then I guess I have a few evenings' tedium in front of me.

Help much appreciated.

Hamish

[Fitch]

Can't be done. But you could make 50 fields with 50 repetitions and script or calculate the colors.

Or you could type a period (.) on the layout; give it an object name; then conditionally format it based on the object name... maybe use a custom function...

Huh? Who said that?

[Vaughan]

This would be a job for repeating fields. Then you'd only need 50 fields each with 50 repetitions. Get the first field right and duplicate it 49 times.

[comment]

I believe it could be done by using GUI scripting:

http://www.apple.com/applescript/uiscripting/

Though I'd be interested to know what advantage can there be in having an image broken into individual pixels (unlike a graduated background made out of grouped lines, that can be stretched in one direction).

[Fitch]

I'm curious about that too. "For Reasons to Become Apparent Later," so mysterious.

I can't quite picture doing this with GUI scripting, but maybe it's possible. Another option that I think would be easier to program is some kind of macro utility.

[has27]

;) Maybe I should've put 'reasons that are too boring to go into but which I think are reasonable'! I'd just prefer to have them, that's all.

I think that the best/only way to do it would be to combine it with Extra Suites and use mouse clicks in Filemaker. I can reasonably easily get the colour of each pixel in Photoshop, but it's the creation in FileMaker that would be hard. I can script the menus, but resizing would be hard. That's where Extra Suites comes in - if I put the Info box at the top left of the screen, I know its position, and I could get ES to click in the right box and then keystroke the width and height.

It might be interesting as a technical exercise, but I think isn't really worth it in the long run - as you say, images would work ok. I'll report back if I manage to get something working - it could be an amusingly kludge-based script for people to roll their eyes at! Thanks to all for the help.

H