Using Photoshop Actions – Part 1

Posted: Mar 22, 2011 |Comments: 0 |

Let Photoshop do your daunting tasks for you while you are having your coffee. Actions enable you to automate just about any task, so you spend more of your work time actually creating. This Photoshop Tutorial shows you how.

OK. Have you ever done the same task repeatedly in Photoshop? Let us presume that you wanted to scan and create a PDF from the crossword every day. To scan it, you would follow the similar steps every day in the same order without fail. Soon, you might ask yourself, "Hey, here this computer should be able to automate this set of tasks for me somehow."

Well, with Photoshop you can do just that with Actions. You will sail in troubled waters if you use Photoshop for any production-oriented task without using them. In addition, you are being a dummy.

Photoshop Actions allow designers and photographers to edit photos quickly in a specific way. The right action can save time as opposed to doing all of the work manually. Photoshop Action is a series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files menu commands, palette options, tool actions, and so on. Sometimes, editing pictures could eat up hours especially if you are a beginner in photoshop. From this, we can conclude that an Action is a series of Commands in Photoshop to which you apply a name. Afterward, you can play that recording back on a different file and have Photoshop do your work for you like:

  • Capturing repetitive tasks that need to be applied to a series of files.
  • Walking a person through a technique in a systematic fashion.

The First Step

Working with Actions starts at the Actions palette. The first thing is creating a new Action, simply click the Create new action button at the bottom of the palette.

Making a Set

All Actions need to live in a set—even if that set contains only the one Action. If you don't create your own, Photoshop will create one called Set 1 (or 2 or 3...).

For creating a set:

1.     Select the Create a New Set button on the Actions palette.

2.     Give the set a brief, award-winning name such as Oracle or Optimum. Try something that helps you in understanding what the Actions in it are likely to do.

Creating a New Action

For creating and starting recording a new Action, Click the New Action button. The New Action dialog box flashes to let you name it. In the New Action dialog box, you also do the following:

  • Assign it to a particular set.
  • Define a function key, which allows you to apply the Action with the push of a button.
  • Apply a color, which will be visible when using Button mode.

Record an Action

After clicking Record to create a new Action, Photoshop starts to record, the steps you take. So, just start doing stuff, and it will be recorded. Do not worry about making a mistake as you can fix the Action later.

To complete the recording, click the Stop button at the bottom of the Actions palette.

Testing the Action

After creating an Action, look it over. Some things to notice about the Action include the following:

It lives in a Set.

  • It has at least one Command listed under its name. Each step you took after creating the action is listed here.
  • Each Command has settings associated with it. You'll need to click the little triangle next to the Command to see them.
  • Each Command has a checkmark next to it (to the left), and some have a little square. Never mind about these. We'll get back to them later.

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