Installing required software

Make sure you are connected to the Internet.

Updating macOS

  1. Ensure you are running the latest version of macOS. You can check the latest versions of macOS on the Apple website. 

Installing the required Adobe software

  1. Install the Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop app from the Adobe website. 
  2. Open Adobe Creative Cloud and sign in. 
  3. Install the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic. 
  4. Open the Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic apps at least once, then clear any popups or activation dialogs to prevent them from interfering with the Procyon photo editing benchmark. 

Installing the Procyon photo editing benchmark application

  1. Install Procyon:
    Procyon-macos-installer-x64-PhotoEditing-<version>.pkg
  2. You may be prompted to install Rosetta to continue the installation unless Rosetta is already installed in the system. It can be installed with the command:  
    softwareupdate --install-rosetta 
  3. Follow the prompts to complete the installation. 

Note:  
UL Procyon is installed to the ‘/Library/UL/Procyon/PhotoEditing’ folder. 

Registering your Procyon license 

  1. Open Terminal. 
  2. Go to installation folder:  
    cd /Library/UL/Procyon/PhotoEditing
  3. Register your license:
    ./UL_Procyon --register <license key>


First time setup

We recommend that in order to correctly set up the required macOS security permissions, you first run the “photo editing first time setup” process, then accept the requests for security permissions that appear in the first few minutes of the process.  

Usually on a system that has not any special permissions configured the Photo Editing Benchmark first time setup process goes as follows: 

  1. Using Terminal, run the configuration tool in the Procyon install directory:
    ./UL_Procyon -d photo_editing_first_time_setup.def
  2. Accept the macOS permission requests that appear during the first-time process.   
  3. The last prompt will take you to Security & Permissions in the Settings app.   
  4. Check the box next to “java” (on macOS Monterey) or “Terminal” (on macOS Ventura) 
  5. The first-time setup will end and show a prompt to retry the first-run setup if it did not have all necessary security permissions. 
  6. Click ‘Retry’ in the first time setup dialog. 
  7. Accept a couple of more permission requests. 
  8. Necessary security permissions will have been set up once the first-time setup ends successfully. You may have to run the setup several times to achieve this.


Notes:   

  • In case you accidentally deny a permission instead of accepting it, you can go to Security & Permissions in Settings app to check boxes in Accessibility and Automation tabs 
  • If it all fails, you can start over by resetting all permissions by issuing the following command in Terminal:
    tccutil reset All
    • Some enterprise security systems may require you to first add Terminal app to have Full disk access in Security & Permissions 


Required Permissions 

MacOS 12 Monterey 

On macOS 12 Monterey, the required permissions are: 

Accessibility: 

  • Adobe Lightroom Classic 
  • /Library/UL/Procyon/jdk8u292-b10-jre/Contents/Home/bin/java 

    Automation: 

  • Adobe Lightroom Classic
    • System Events 
  • /Library/UL/Procyon/jdk8u292-b10-jre/Contents/Home/bin/java
    • Adobe Photoshop 2023
    • System Events 


MacOS 13 Ventura

On macOS 13 Ventura, the required permissions are: 

    Accessibility: 

  • Adobe Lightroom Classic 
  • Terminal 

    Automation: 

  • Adobe Lightroom Classic
    • System Events 
  • Terminal
    • Adobe Photoshop 2023
    • System Events 


Running the Photo Editing Benchmark 

Once the benchmark is installed and permissions configured properly, it can be run as follows: 

  1. Open Terminal. 
  2. In Terminal, navigate to the installation folder with:
    cd /Library/UL/Procyon/PhotoEditing
  3. Run the Photo Editing Benchmark:
    ./UL_Procyon -d photo_editing.def -o “<output path>/<output file>.procyon-result” 
    Example:
    ./UL_Procyon -d photo_editing.def -o “/Users/ProcyonTestUser/Procyonresults/PhotoEditingResult.procyon-result” 

Note:

If the output path has whitespace, it must be escaped (note quotation marks and backslash).  
Example:
for output folder “/Users/Steve/result files/“ :   
-o “/Users/<username>/result\ files/PhotoEditingResult.procyon-result” 


Additional Permission prompts

The system may request additional permissions that may halt the benchmark run. We recommend running a trial run to ensure all permissions are accepted.  These additional permissions include permissions such as: 

    File & Folder access 

  • java
    • Documents (Face detection workload, around the half point) 
  • Adobe Photoshop
    • Documents 
  • Adobe Lightroom Classic
    • Documents 

    Automation

  • java
    • Adobe Photoshop
    • System Events 
  • Adobe Lightroom Classic
    • System Events   


Viewing your results

The best method to process benchmark result data is to use the photo editing benchmark with Testdriver Cloud.  

If you chose to not use Testdriver Cloud, you can extract the information from the results file using either of the following processes.  

Exporting with command line switch

Option 1:

  1. Use -export-csv or -export-xml command line switch to export results as an XML or CSV file:  
    ./UL_Procyon -d photo_editing.def -o <Export File Name>.zip --export-csv <CSV File Name>.csv
    Example:
    ./UL_Procyon -d photo_editing.def -o ZipPhotoEditingResult.zip --export-csv PhotoEditingResult.csv

Option 2:

  1. Use the -export-simple-CSV command line switch to export results as a single CSV file:  
    ./UL_Procyon -d photo_editing.def -o <Export File Name>.zip -l 2 --export-simple-csv <CSV File Name>.csv
    Example:
    ./UL_Procyon -d photo_editing.def -o ZipPhotoEditingResult.zip -l 2 --export-simple-csv PhotoEditingResult.csv

Extracting Result.xml from the .procyon-result file.

(This is essentially the same as using –export-xml command) 

  1. Unzip the .procyon-result file to extract the contents. Your benchmark results are available in the ‘Result.xml’ file.  

Once you have the CSV or XML file, you can process the data with your preferred tools.


Uninstalling the UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark 

The benchmark can be uninstalled as follows: 

  1. Open Terminal. 
  2. In Terminal, navigate to the installation folder with:
    cd /Library/UL/Procyon/PhotoEditing
  3. Run the uninstallation script:
    sudo ./uninstall.sh

Note:   

It is not recommended to uninstall just by removing the installation folder, as it will leave the Procyon app installed in the operating system registers. This can cause issues when installing Procyon again later.   


Troubleshooting

“The Lightroom catalog cannot be used because the parent folder <file path> does not allow files to be created within it.” 

  • Please try reinstalling Procyon. If the problem continues, please contact support at: https://support.benchmarks.ul.com/support/home