Preview Pane and Batch Renaming for Layer Scans, Plus a Better Drawing Light Box

[Halia]

Hi everyone,

Since getting back into the swing of things, I’ve been working my way through a box of tracing paper and pencil sketches on my scanner—around 400 scans over the past two weeks—and I’ve run into two issues.

First, I’d like to compare two versions of the same drawing in the preview pane without having to open Photoshop every time. I can switch between them using the keyboard, but I’d really like to see them side by side. Does anyone have a trick for doing this with two panes and a locked preview?

Second, I’m trying to batch rename my scan series with a counter (something like `floral_pattern_01`, `02`, etc.). I’ve tried a few things, but I’m not sure whether I’m missing something: the numbering starts over at 1 whenever I switch folders, whereas I’d like it to continue across the entire selection. Is there a way to do that properly?

If I can get both of these workflows working smoothly, it would save me a huge amount of time. At the moment I’m still renaming everything manually, and it’s becoming a real pain.

Part of the work still involves tracing, so I’m also using my old A4 light box, which I bought second-hand for about €40 eight years ago. It’s starting to flicker, the surface has yellowed, and my 12-year-old daughter keeps borrowing it for her lettering projects. On top of that, my 30 × 40 cm stationery layouts no longer fit on it.

While looking for an A3 model, I came across this comparison of drawing light boxes, and I was surprised by some of the differences. Some models claim 6000K, while others go up to 9000K. For tracing and then photographing the artwork flat immediately afterwards, what would you recommend?

And is adjustable brightness genuinely useful, or more of a gimmick? I’ve also seen models powered via USB as well as mains-powered ones, and I’m not sure which is more practical for a full day in the studio.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[highend]

Two different XY instances where the second one shows the preview pane to the left and is placed on the right side of the first instance?

But to automate the selection of the same files in two different instances some scripting would be required.

E.g. on the second (right) instance, execute this from the address bar:
echo <hwnd>;

And then on the first (left) instance, use this script:

Code: Select all

    $hwnd = the_value_you_got_from_the_second_instance;
    copydata $hwnd, <curitem>, 3;

With a real value this would look like:

Code: Select all

    $hwnd = 854422;
    copydata $hwnd, <curitem>, 3;

And then the current selected item in the first (left) instance would be displayed in the second (right) instance...

Regarding the renaming, go into branch view with files only, select all of them and then use a batch rename with e.g. this pattern:
*_<#01>