DustMagic includes a Photoshop script, DustMagic Batch, that cleans dust, fibers and scratches without leaving Photoshop. It sends a flattened copy of your image to DustMagic and brings the cleaned result back, either as a new layer or flattened into the image. Your layers are never changed unless you choose to flatten.
There are three ways to use it from Photoshop, plus the DustMagic app on its own:
- One image at a time, cleaned automatically or opened in DustMagic to check and brush by hand.
- All open images in one go — the fastest way to clean a set of images inside Photoshop.
- A Photoshop action run by File → Automate → Batch, for cleaning a whole folder unattended, including layered PSD files.
- The DustMagic app — the fastest route of all for folders of TIFF or JPEG scans.
Setting Up
DustMagic installs the script for you; it takes about a minute, once.
- In DustMagic, choose Help → Photoshop Integration… and click Install Script. If an older script is installed, the button reads Update instead, and DustMagic also offers the update when it starts.
- On Windows the script goes inside Photoshop’s own program folder, so the first install can ask for administrator rights. If it does, close DustMagic, right-click it, choose Run as administrator, and install again.
- Restart Photoshop. Photoshop only finds new scripts when it starts.
- Check that File → Automate now lists DustMagic Batch…, next to Batch.
The script finds DustMagic by itself. If it ever says it can’t, run File → Scripts → DustMagic Configure Path once and point it at DustMagic (DustMagic.exe on Windows, DustMagic.app on a Mac).
The DustMagic Batch Dialog
Every run starts with one dialog, which remembers your last choices.
| Option | Choices | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Images | This image · All open images | Clean the active document, or every open document in one go. |
| Mode | Clean automatically · Open in DustMagic | Automatically: DustMagic cleans in the background with no window. Open in DustMagic: the DustMagic window opens so you can check, brush and save by hand. |
| Profile | Your default · Conservative · your saved profiles | The detection settings to use. The first entry is whatever you chose with Default in DustMagic, or Conservative if you haven’t chosen one. |
| Resolution | Quarter · Half · Three-quarter · Full | The resolution DustMagic detects at in automatic mode. Half suits most scans; the cleaned output is always full size. In Open in DustMagic, the window’s own Detection Res setting applies. |
| Result | Add as a new layer · Replace the image | Add the cleaned image as a DustMagic Cleaned layer on top, or flatten it into the image. See Layers below. |
DustMagic receives a flattened copy of the visible image, at the document’s own bit depth (8 or 16 bits; 32-bit is sent as 16-bit). Alpha and spot channels aren’t sent and stay untouched in your document.
With Open in DustMagic, only the images you actually save in DustMagic are changed. If you close DustMagic without saving, the document is left as it was.
Choosing a Workflow
For a few images you have open, use All open images. For a folder of layered PSD files, use an action with Batch. For a folder of TIFF or JPEG scans, use the DustMagic app.
| Workflow | Best for | Speed | Layers | Unattended |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DustMagic app | Folders of TIFF or JPEG scans | Fastest | Writes flattened files to a cleaned folder; can’t open PSD files |
Yes |
| All open images, automatic | A set of images open in Photoshop | Fast: one DustMagic run, images cleaned in parallel | Kept (or flattened, your choice) | Yes, once started |
| All open images, Open in DustMagic | Reviewing and brushing a set by hand | Your pace | Kept (or flattened) | No |
| This image, automatic | A quick clean while editing | About 2–3 s per image | Kept (or flattened) | Yes |
| This image, Open in DustMagic | Checking and brushing one image | Your pace | Kept (or flattened) | No |
| Action with File → Automate → Batch | A folder of files, especially layered PSD | Slowest: one DustMagic run per image | Kept, saved back in the file’s own format | Yes |
Cleaning All Open Images in One Go
This is the quickest way to clean several images inside Photoshop. DustMagic starts once and cleans every image in parallel, instead of starting again for each one.
- Open the images you want to clean (for example, select them in Bridge or Explorer and open them together).
- Choose File → Automate → DustMagic Batch….
- Under Images, choose All open images. Choose Clean automatically, a profile, a resolution and a result, then click OK.
- A progress window shows each stage: preparing the images, cleaning in DustMagic, then adding each result.
- A summary lists how many images were cleaned and any that couldn’t be. One problem image doesn’t stop the others.
- Save the images as usual. File → Close All asks about each one, or saves them all if you tick Apply to All.
To review a set by hand instead, choose Open in DustMagic. All the open images appear in DustMagic’s filmstrip. Brush and save the ones that need it, then close DustMagic; only the images you saved are updated.
All open images is meant to be run from the menu. Don’t use it inside an action for File → Automate → Batch: Batch keeps your other documents open, so each pass would clean them again.
Recording a DustMagic Action
Record the action once; the settings you pick are stored in the action step, so it plays back the same way every time.
- Open any image and show the Actions panel (Window → Actions).
- Click the folder icon to create a set, e.g. DustMagic. Then click + to create an action, e.g. DustMagic clean, and click Record.
- Choose File → Automate → DustMagic Batch…. Pick This image, Clean automatically, your profile, a resolution and a result, then click OK. Wait for the cleaned result to appear.
- Optional: to save each result in a fixed format, choose File → Save As…, pick the format (e.g. TIFF) and any folder, and save. You only need this for Batch’s Folder destination, below.
- Click the square Stop button in the Actions panel.
The step appears in the action as DustMagic Batch…. To change its settings later, double-click the step. To be asked each time instead, turn on its dialog toggle (the small box to the left of the step).
Play the action from the Actions panel to clean the active image, or assign it a function key in Action Options to clean with a single key press.
Test it after a restart. Before running a big batch, quit and restart Photoshop, open an image and play the action once. It should clean the image without asking anything.
Recorded your action before updating DustMagic? Record it again. Actions recorded with an older version of the script can stop working after Photoshop restarts: playing them opens Configure DustMagic Path, or asks where DustMagic is for every image. Update DustMagic, choose Update in Help → Photoshop Integration…, restart Photoshop, then delete the old action and record a new one.
Cleaning a Folder with File → Automate → Batch
Batch runs your action on every file in a folder without you there. It is the right choice for layered PSD files, which the DustMagic app can’t open.
Choose File → Automate → Batch and set:
- Play: your DustMagic set and action.
- Source: Folder, then choose the folder. Tick Suppress File Open Options Dialogs and Suppress Color Profile Warnings so nothing stops the run.
- Destination: one of the three options in the table below.
- Errors: Log Errors to File, so one failed image doesn’t stop the batch; the log lists any that failed.
| Destination | What happens | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Save and Close | Each file is saved back over itself, in its own format, bit depth and compression | Layered PSD files you want to keep layered, or flat scans with Replace the image. Work on a copy of the folder, since the originals are overwritten. With Add as a new layer, TIFFs get much bigger (see Layers) |
| Folder | Each file is saved to the folder you choose, using the format from your action’s Save As step | You want the originals untouched. Tick Override Action “Save As” Commands; the action must contain a Save As step (step 4 when recording) |
| None | Files are left open | Only a handful of images you want to check before saving |
Keep the action’s DustMagic step on This image; All open images doesn’t suit Batch (see above).
Layers: Keep Them or Flatten
Choose Add as a new layer to keep your layers, and Replace the image for flat scans where layers don’t matter.
| Add as a new layer | Replace the image | |
|---|---|---|
| Your layers | All kept; the result sits on top as DustMagic Cleaned | Merged into one; layers are lost |
| Undo a cleaned area | Paint on a layer mask, or lower the opacity | Use History, or undo |
| File size | Grows by the stored layers. A flat TIFF saved with layers can be about five times its original size | About the same as the original |
| Best for | Edited or layered files, and checking the result | Flat scans going straight to TIFF or JPEG |
Things to know when you keep layers:
- The cleaned layer is a picture of the image as it looked when you cleaned it. It covers everything below it, so later changes to layers underneath won’t show. Clean first and edit afterwards, or keep adjustment layers above the cleaned layer.
- Smart objects, adjustment layers and blend modes are all included as they look, because DustMagic cleans the flattened visible image.
- Saving decides what survives. PSD keeps every layer. TIFF can keep layers if you tick Layers when saving. JPEG can’t hold layers, so Photoshop saves a flattened copy.
- Batch with Save and Close saves each file in its own format, so layered PSD files stay layered.
- Layered TIFFs are large. A TIFF with layers stores the flattened image plus every layer, and Photoshop compresses the layers with RLE by default, which hardly shrinks photos. In our tests an 8-bit LZW scan of about 23 MB became about 125 MB with a DustMagic Cleaned layer added. The bit depth and image compression stay as they were. For flat scans, choose Replace the image and files stay close to their original size. To keep the layer in a smaller file, add a Save As step to the action with Layer Compression: ZIP (and Image Compression: ZIP) in the TIFF Options, and use Batch’s Folder destination.
Speed: Photoshop or the DustMagic App
The DustMagic app is the fastest way to clean many scans. Inside Photoshop, All open images is several times faster than Batch.
Each image going through Photoshop involves steps the app skips. Photoshop flattens and exports a copy, then reopens the cleaned file and adds it to your document. DustMagic’s own part is short: about 2 seconds per scan, including about 1 second to start.
That start-up time is why Batch is the slowest route. Batch handles one file at a time, so DustMagic starts once for every image. All open images starts DustMagic once and cleans the images in parallel. In our tests on 8 scans (2,658 × 1,753 px, 16-bit), DustMagic’s part took 15.9 s with one start per image and 6.2 s all at once. Photoshop’s own exporting and pasting comes on top of both.
The DustMagic app has no Photoshop steps at all and cleans on up to 8 processor cores at once. For a folder of TIFF or JPEG scans, clean it in the app first, then open the cleaned files in Photoshop to carry on editing.
License Notes and Troubleshooting
License. In the free trial everything works, but cleaned results carry a “DUSTMAGIC TRIAL” watermark. After a license expires you can keep cleaning one image at a time by hand, with no watermark. Automatic cleaning (including All open images, actions and Batch) needs a current license. With an expired license, DustMagic opens its window for each image instead, so you can clean and save it yourself.
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| DustMagic Batch isn’t in File → Automate | Restart Photoshop. If it’s still missing, reinstall from Help → Photoshop Integration… in DustMagic |
| “DustMagic’s location isn’t set” | Run File → Scripts → DustMagic Configure Path once and choose DustMagic |
| Playing an action opens Configure DustMagic Path, or asks where DustMagic is for every image | The action was recorded with an older script. Update DustMagic, update the script from Help → Photoshop Integration…, restart Photoshop, then delete the action and record it again |
| Files saved by Batch are several times bigger | The cleaned layer was saved inside the TIFF. Use Replace the image for flat scans, or save with ZIP layer compression (see Layers) |
| “The DustMagic profile … no longer exists” | The profile was renamed or deleted. Double-click the action step and choose another profile |
| “This DustMagic is older than the Photoshop script” | Update DustMagic to the latest version |
| The image wasn’t changed | DustMagic was closed without saving. Run it again and save the image before closing |
| A black command window flashes for each image | Normal: it’s how the script starts DustMagic and waits for it |
| Batch stops on an error | Set Errors to Log Errors to File in the Batch dialog so the rest carry on |
Next Steps
- Photoshop basics and other editors — 3.2: Photoshop & Other Editors.
- Choosing detection settings and saving profiles — 2.1: DustMagic Profiles Explained.
- Large folders in the DustMagic app — 4.3: High-Volume Processing Tips.