Automatically set default Save As... image file type to JPEG in Photoshop on Mac OS X

Question

In Photoshop, on Mac OS X, is there a way to have the file type in the Save dialog automatically set to JPG?

If not, is there an easy way to trigger an AppleScript program to set it that way?

Seems like every time I want to save a JPG file I need to manually change that to JPG and, being primarily a keyboard user, it is not that easy.

Solution

I don't think you can set a default file type, but you can create an action to save in the format of your choosing. You can set one of your function keys to trigger the action.

EDIT In CS5: Open a document. To create the action, make sure the Actions palette is showing (Window > Actions, or F9). From the palette menu, choose New Action.... Give it a name and choose a function key, then hit record. Choose Save As... and set your desired save location and filetype (JPEG). When you're done, hit the Stop button in the Actions palette. You should now have an Action that saves as JPEG that can be triggered by the function key you chose.

Comments

[cwd]

thanks! any thoughts on how i can run an action with applescript?

[brevno]

@cwd tell app "Adobe Photoshop CS5" to do action "Molten Lead" from "Default Actions". As for saving directly via AS, save document 1 in <file> as <format> should work, but I'm getting General Photoshop error occurred. This functionality may not be available in this version of Photoshop.