Can I automate saving different combinations of layers?

Question

I have a source file for an icon. It has a base layer which is the icon background, and a number of layer folders, each of which contains layers for each individual icon. There are 20 or so of these folders. To save the icon set, I need to:

1. Make the base layer visible, and hide all other layers
2. Show the folder of the icon I want to save
3. Save the file, with an appropriate name (the name of the folder)
4. Hide that folder.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for every folder

I've played around with the scripting in Photoshop but haven't been able to make something that does this automatically (it's an annoyingly time-consuming operation). Is it possible?

Answer 1

Yes! Here's what you do. Open the Layer Comps window in photoshop. Click the snapshot button, hide your current layer, show the next layer, click the snapshot again. Create a layer comp snapshot for each state of your document that you want to have exported as individual files. Once you have all of those ready, go to File > Scripts > Layer Comps to Files. Set up your destinate folder and image settings, then export and you will have all of those layer comps as single images.

Answer 2

Photoshop Composition Composer will do just what you need. In your case use only a single top-level folder.

Usage

1. See the Example and the Preview below to learn how it works
2. Download and unzip photoshopCompositionComposer jsx-file
3. Open your project and navigate to File > Scripts > Browse...
4. Browse and load the downloaded jsx file

Note: use prefix __ (double underscore) for top-level group names to exclude groups from the composition composing process. E.g. __ignoreThisGroup

Example

Layers

Resulting Compositions