UXP Scripts and Plugins turbo-charged with the new Photoshop API
Learn the brand new Photoshop API, introducing some amazing novel features.
Save time with a curated learning path that brings you up to speed with Photoshop Scripts and Plugins with UXP.
Suitable for beginners and more experienced Photoshop developers alike.
Plenty of examples and demo code for everything!
“Davide was hired by the Photoshop team to fix and enhance the UXP API for Photoshop and created some great documentation for us. We would not be where we are today with our API without his instrumental help.”
—Tom Ruark
Senior Computer Scientist II, Adobe Inc.
(from the book’s Foreword)
The UXP Photoshop API Explained
► Learn the brand new Photoshop API, introducing some amazing novel features.
► Save time with a curated learning path that brings you up to speed with Photoshop Scripts and Plugins with UXP.
► Suitable for beginners and more experienced Photoshop developers alike.
► Plenty of examples and demo code for everything!
The transition to UXP has fundamentally reshaped the landscape of Photoshop's extensibility. The ExtendScript language, which was used for legacy scripts and CEP extensions, has been deprecated. Meanwhile, Photoshop engineers took the opportunity to rebuild the Photoshop Document Object Model (DOM) from scratch.
This isn't just about switching to a different syntax; the data structure of the DOM has been expanded, refined, and enhanced, leading to significant differences. Alongside modern JavaScript, we’ve got several new features that outshine the legacy environment.
Learning the new Photoshop API can be daunting: official resources are sparse, forum posts are rabbit holes and code snippets may or may not work. It’d be great if there were a straightforward guide through all this change.
The Book
In 2020, I wrote “Professional Photoshop Scripting”, a course that has helped hundreds of developers learn the ins and outs of ExtendScript. “Professional Photoshop UXP” represents its evolution into the UXP era, covering both Scripts and Plugins.
I’ve designed it to have a progressively steeper learning curve, ensuring a solid understanding of the basics while also exploring all the new features the UXP environment provides. Among the rest, you’ll learn about:
► The history of Photoshop extensibility and how UXP compares with/can be ported from previous technologies.
► All the tools (and tricks) that make the UXP Development Environment fast, productive and enjoyable.
► The new Photoshop DOM and why it has become more powerful and reliable.
► ActionJSON (aka BatchPlay, née ActionManager), in all its glory and excruciating detail.
► A deep dive into the new & amazing Imaging API, possibly the greatest invention after agriculture.
► Implementing Machine Learning models, Rust Web Assembly and Hybrid C++ Plugins.
► User Interfaces, multi-panel plugins, dialogs… and much more!
The Code
More than thirty fully commented UXP Scripts, UXP Plugins and code snippets; everything's thoroughly discussed in the book.
Pricing
If you are a solo developer, get the single-user version. If you own a company or work for one, please ask your accounting department to choose the enterprise option.
👀 Use promo code BF2023 until November 30, 2023 for the ♠️ Black Friday deal 👇
SINGLE USER
325 pages PDF
+ demo code
$170
$ 170 140
Licensed to Solo Developers
Enterprise
All the content
+ 10 seats
$340
$ 340 290
Licensed to Companies
*4% VAT be added to EU customers. Registered EU companies will have VAT fully reimbursed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does this compare to "Adobe UXP Plugins development with React JS"?
Two main components make up Photoshop extensibility:
► UXP API: the architecture that provides the runtime environment for creating scripts and plugins, integrated seamlessly into various Adobe Creative Cloud applications. Learning it involves understanding how plugins are structured, their lifecycle, commands, how to build their user interface, how to use shared features like Network and FileSystem modules, etc.
►Photoshop API: the interface allowing direct access to the automation of Photoshop features at the core of Scrips and Plugin alike. It includes the Scripting Document Object Model, ActionJSON, Imaging API, and everything else the UXP API uses to interact with Photoshop as its host application.
Think about the UXP API as an office: it has a well-defined architecture, internal operational rules, processes and control systems, as well as features standard in every other workplace—like restrooms and hiding places. The Photoshop API instead is the team of people doing their job there—in our case, they are processing images. The InDesign API may inhabit the same office yet perform different tasks. To get stuff done, you must know about both the office and the people.
► Adobe UXP Plugins development with React JS is primarily about the UXP API and uses some Photoshop API for demonstrative purposes. It also teaches you ReactJS from scratch—one of the most popular JavaScript libraries, incredibly useful for building UXP plugins' User Interfaces.
► Professional Photoshop UXP is primarily about the Photoshop API and uses some UXP API for demonstrative purposes.
They are specular in their approach and complementary at the same time. Reason why they’re available as a bundle, too.
Who is this course for?
You must have at least some familiarity with JavaScript (the more, the better) and a bit of HTML—you don’t need to be a Web developer ninja.
Sample Content? Sure!
I’ll send you a 70-page excerpt for free.*
* it redirects to Brevo.com for the content delivery