Shortcuts¶
Shortcuts is an app on your Mac that lets you create powerful task automations called shortcuts. You can use Shortcuts to automate and script Acorn with a variety of actions.
Example Shortcut for Exporting Images¶
We're going to make a droplet using Apple's Shortcuts app where you can drag and drop images to it, and it will make a web optimized version of that image.
First, open an image in Acorn and choose the menu item. This will bring up the Export window. To the right of the image format pulldown is an action menu, where you can save presets or load presets. In this example we're going to use the existing JPEG Web Optimized preset, but if you'd like to make your own preset, you would do so from this window.
You can close the Acorn window and image.
Next, open up the Shortcuts application from your Applications folder. Choose the ⌘N menu item. This will bring up a window similar to the one below. Next add a Repeat with Each action from the catalog on the right. (Searching for "Repeat" will narrow down the results).
Next you need to tell the shortcut where we expect the images to come from, and you can do that by clicking in the Items placeholder in the Repeat action, and selecting .
The next step is telling Acorn to export the image with our chosen preset. Drag and drop Acorn's Export Image Using Preset action into the shortcut, change the preset to , and change the Returning: option to from under the "Show More" options. You can ignore the Destination Path option for now.
Search for the "Save File" action, and add that to the shortcut. There are more options under the "Show More" expansion, but keeping the defaults as they are is fine.
Lastly, add a Close All Images action to the shortcut. This will have Acorn close any open files. This will be useful if you ever decide to export 100 images at once, and it keeps Acorn from opening them all at once.
Now we have a shortcut, and if you want you can rename it to something like "Export as PNG" like in this example.
The final task is to add the shortcut to the Dock, which you can do by selecting the menu item from Shortcuts. This creates a droplet in your Applications folder which you can now drag and drop images on. It is also added to your Dock.
List of Acorn Shortcut Actions¶
Apply Filter Preset¶
Places a filter preset on the image. You can read how to create a filter preset in our Filters documentation.
Auto Enhance Image¶
Use the Auto Enhance feature in Acorn to automatically adjust and enhance an image.
Call Filter¶
Pick from a list of filters and apply it to an image using default values.
Change Color Profile¶
Select from a variety of color profiles to assign or match to your image.
Close All Images¶
Closes any and all open images.
Close Image¶
Closes the image.
Crop Image¶
Crop an image based on width and height, and assign where it's cropped from (such as "top left" or "center").
Export Image with Preset¶
Export an image out of Acorn using the given preset name. The preset must already be defined in Acorn's export window.
Flip Image¶
Flip an image vertically or horizontally.
New Image From Clipboard¶
Create a new image from the clipboard. You can then pass this along to other shortcut actions or save it to a file.
Open Image¶
Open the image in Acorn.
Overlay Image¶
Overlay an image on top of another, possibly as a watermark.
Replace Text¶
Finds and replaces any text boxes with the assigned text. This is useful if you have a template image and you want to make multiple images out of it. (Only works with native Acorn documents)
Resize Image¶
Resize your image to a given width or height. A number of scaling options are available such as using a percentage, exact size, or longest edge. You can also choose the specific resizing algorithm, including Acorn's Super Resolution AI scaling algorithm.
Rotate Image¶
Rotate your image by an assigned number of degrees.
Set Text Contents With Scripting ID¶
Similar to the Replace Text action, but instead of find and replace, it will assign the entire contents of a text box with the given Scripting ID. You can read more about this powerful feature in the Data Merge documentation. (Only works with native Acorn documents).
Take Layered Screenshot¶
Have Acorn take screenshot of all the open windows on your Mac, and make every window its own layer. This feature requires you to grant Acorn "Screen Recording" permissions from the System Settings.
Trim Image¶
Trim your image by transparent pixels, or by detecting the edge color in the top left corner.
Undo¶
Undo the last operation on an image in Acorn.
Use Command Bar¶
Fills the current layer (or selection if there is one) with the current fill color.