From the docs:
Raw Mac::AppleEvents method

        use Mac::AppleEvents;
        use Mac::Errors '$MacError';

        $evt = AEBuildAppleEvent('aevt', 'odoc', typeApplSignature, 'M
+ACS',
                kAutoGenerateReturnID, kAnyTransactionID,
                "'----': obj{want:type(prop), from:'null'()," . 
                "form:prop, seld:type(macs)}"
        ) or die $MacError;
        $rep = AESend($evt, kAEWaitReply) or die $MacError;

        AEDisposeDesc($evt);
        AEDisposeDesc($rep);
[download]

        use Mac::AppleEvents::Simple;
        do_event(qw(aevt odoc MACS),
                "'----': obj{want:type(prop), from:'null'()," . 
                "form:prop, seld:type(macs)}"
        );
[download]

        use Mac::Glue;
        my $glue = Mac::Glue->new('Finder');
        $glue->open( $glue->prop('System Folder') );
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
`osascript -e 'say "All glory to the hypno-toad!" using "Zarvox"'`;

Quoting can get a bit hairy, and AppleScript has many problems, but it is the most direct way of getting access to UI elements, etc., under OS X.

This gets my vote for the 2005 "Best line of AppleScript" prize

I'm not sure, whether or not, this will help, but maybe osascript (man osascript) is something you could use to couple perl and PS (or any scriptable application).

osascript can take any Applescript source and can execute it. So if your perl generates applescript, it can manage scriptable applications.

For example:

open (OSASCRIPT , '| osascript -');
print OSASCRIPT <<OSASCRIPT;
    tell application "iTunes"
        if the player state is playing then
            pause
            return "Pause"
        else
            play
            return "Play"
        end if
    end tell
OSASCRIPT
close OSASCRIPT;
[download]

Neither Photoshop nor Perl are dependent on this platform. Furthermore, there is a mammoth open source competitor to photoshop, called The Gimp (Gnu image manipulation program). If you look at the list of sources, these include a Gtk+ toolkit. So even if the ready-made CPAN modules (see CPAN:Gimp) miss something, you probably can hand-roll anything you need via CPAN:Gtk+. The Gimp can read all the formats Photoshop is capable of creating (but not vice versa for the Gimp internal formats).

Update: Gtk stands for Gimp Toolkit and is widely used (directly or indirectly) for about all graphics manipulation in the open source community.

It's not a red herring .. the OP asked about Mac.

Nor is the GIMP any use to graphics professionals. It may be of use to interface designers, but without a calibrated CMYK mode, it's not much use.

This doesn't go near the fact that it's clunky and needs a major overhaul before it's going to rival Photoshop for usability.

I know it's not related to the poster's question, but I take issue with your statement that gimp is useless for graphics professionals. The studio I work for uses FilmGimp (for 16bit per channel color) extensively for processing frames for cinema. CMYK isn't an issue if it doesn't go to print.

To clarify my meaning, none of the software under discussion has platform dependency - there is no compunction to seek a specifically Mac-based solution so the Mac itself is a red herring in this context that the OP and some subsequent posters may or may not have been chasing.

We are talking about using perl to do the manipulation, not the gimp or photoshop user interface. By the same token, the issue of presentation on the screen or paper (RGB is the colour scheme for a screen versus CMYK the colour scheme for inks in a colour printer) is also irrelevant to the op - such "calibration" only has meaning in tuning the relevant colour scales for your printing ink, not for manipulation from perl of the foregoing image which may or may not have gone through CYMK calibration phase of the process (as you please).

Your suggestion that the Gimp does not support CMYK is in this context misleading: Although the Gimp's own interface may be lacking in CYMK manipulation, as I already made abundantly clear, such gaps can be filled in using cpan gtk+ directly.

The OP can still use photoshop to test the final product of his Perl/Gtk+ implementation if he finds the Gimp interface inferior - I never suggested he use Gimp to replace photoshop entirely.

Finally, if the requirement were to specifically relate to programmed manipulation of CYMK, perl/Gtk+ could achieve that and as far as I know, there is no obvious way with Photoshop - and that's no CYMK herring.

-M

Free your mind