PSP 7.04, Creating Histogram Adjust "Presets" or
"Profiles"

I use PSP 7.04 and a Visioneer Onetouch 8890 scanner. I recenly modified the 
scanner to scan full-page transparencies (transmissive), rather than opaques 
(reflective). The scanner works fine for this. I use it to scan letter-sized 
plastic sheets full of 35mm photo negatives at 600dpi for digital 
thumbnailing and proofing.

The image that comes into PSP is, of course, unfinished. It's negative, and 
it's tinted by the acetate of the film itself. In order to make it decent, I 
have to make the image negative, then apply a Histogram Adjust to correct 
the wild color imbalance. For each different type of film (i.e. FujiColor 
200, Kodak Gold 200, Kodak Max 800, Kodak Ultra Color 400, etc.) I have to 
apply a different set of RGB numbers to correct the colors. I can use the 
same numbers over and over again, on the same film type, successfully.

Is there a way to streamline or automate this process? A menu option that I 
can create named (for example) "Kodak Ultra Color 400" that will carry
out 
the following steps:

1: make the image negative.
2: apply a Histogram Adjust with Red input scaled 46-160, Green input scaled 
142-235, and Blue input scaled 198-249.
3: any other processing step that I would wish to apply to all scanned 
sheets, such as Automatic Small Scratch Removal.

I would wish to make one for each film type, the only difference between 
each one being the color scaling values in step 2.

It woud save me a bit of time to be able to have the color scaling values 
stored in a preset, rather than having to re-type them in each time I try to 
scan a different film (I have the values all written on paper).

Is this possible within the PSP7 program, or would I have to find or write a 
Photoshop plug-in to do this?

Thank you,
Scott 

"Spott" <spott_andy@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:461292b0$1_3@cnews:

> 
> I use PSP 7.04 and a Visioneer Onetouch 8890 scanner. I recenly
> modified the scanner to scan full-page transparencies (transmissive),
> rather than opaques (reflective). The scanner works fine for this. I
> use it to scan letter-sized plastic sheets full of 35mm photo
> negatives at 600dpi for digital thumbnailing and proofing.
> 
> The image that comes into PSP is, of course, unfinished. It's
> negative, and it's tinted by the acetate of the film itself. In order
> to make it decent, I have to make the image negative, then apply a
> Histogram Adjust to correct the wild color imbalance. For each
> different type of film (i.e. FujiColor 200, Kodak Gold 200, Kodak Max
> 800, Kodak Ultra Color 400, etc.) I have to apply a different set of
> RGB numbers to correct the colors. I can use the same numbers over 
and
> over again, on the same film type, successfully. 
> 
> Is there a way to streamline or automate this process? A menu option
> that I can create named (for example) "Kodak Ultra Color 400"
that
> will carry out the following steps:
> 
> 1: make the image negative.
> 2: apply a Histogram Adjust with Red input scaled 46-160, Green input
> scaled 142-235, and Blue input scaled 198-249.
> 3: any other processing step that I would wish to apply to all 
scanned
> sheets, such as Automatic Small Scratch Removal.
> 
> I would wish to make one for each film type, the only difference
> between each one being the color scaling values in step 2.
> 
> It woud save me a bit of time to be able to have the color scaling
> values stored in a preset, rather than having to re-type them in each
> time I try to scan a different film (I have the values all written on
> paper). 
> 
> Is this possible within the PSP7 program, or would I have to find or
> write a Photoshop plug-in to do this?
> 
> Thank you,
> Scott 

Not in v.7.  In v.8 and above you can record scripts that will do that 
for you.

Regards,

JoeB

Spott wrote:

> Is there a way to streamline or automate this process? A menu option that
I
> can create named (for example) "Kodak Ultra Color 400" that will
carry out
> the following steps:
> 
> 1: make the image negative.
> 2: apply a Histogram Adjust with Red input scaled 46-160, Green input
scaled
> 142-235, and Blue input scaled 198-249.
> 3: any other processing step that I would wish to apply to all scanned
> sheets, such as Automatic Small Scratch Removal.
> 
> I would wish to make one for each film type, the only difference between
> each one being the color scaling values in step 2.

PSP 7 does not provide either presets nor scripting of PSP commands.
These were introduced in the next version, namely PSP 8. However,
PSP 7 remembers the last-used settings for each filter. For Histogram
Adjustment the last-used settings are under this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Jasc\Paint Shop Pro 7\HistogramAdjust
You could apply one of the specific Histogram Adjustments settings
you need to an image and, immediately afterwards, export the
resulting registry key as an appropriately named .reg file. After
that you could repeat this process for each additional collection
of settings you want to save. Then, simply by double-clicking the
relevant .reg file you can install whichever settings you want in
the registry so that when you subsequently invoke the Histogram
Adjustment filter it will start with these settings (because it
will treat them as if they were the last-used settings extracted
from the Registry).

Spott wrote:
[snip]

> Is there a way to streamline or automate this [negative
> correction] process? A menu option that I can create named
> (for example) "Kodak Ultra Color 400" that will carry out the
> following steps:
[snip]
> Is this possible within the PSP7 program, or would I have to
> find or write a Photoshop plug-in to do this?

As Joe says, not possible in PSP 7, also not practical in a plug-in, 
but easy with the script recording in later versions. I'll add that 
you can execute your recorded scripts--containing exactly the 
presets you want--from your own custom menu or from your own custom 
tool bar full of icons. You can batch process an entire folder of 
Kodak Ultra Color 400 images at once.

Spandex's work-around is a partial solution, but why not invest $10 
(the recent low price) in a copy of PSP 10? (PSP 9, the most 
reliable of the post-7 versions, has become hard to find outside the 
pirates' sites.) Corel has been shopping 10 around to be bundled 
with various products and it shows up from time to time on Amazon 
and at Costco. Search its newsgroup for recent finds.

You can still download the 30-day free trial from
<http://www.corel.com/akdlm/6763/downloads/esd/PaintShopProX/Corel_PaintShopP
ro1000_EN_PREMIUMCD_Retail.exe> 
to see whether it is worthwile.
-- 
Fred Hiltz,  fhiltz at yahoo dot com