How To Create Photoshop Actions

Photoshop actions save time and make you more productive. They speed up repetitive tasks.

1. OPEN THE PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS PALLETE

The actions palette typically shows up as a tab on the history palette, but this may vary depending on how you have set up Photoshop. If you cant see it you you can activate it under the “Window” menu. If you haven’t made any photoshop actions yet it will just show default photoshop actions.

While you are practising making new photoshop actions we will begin by creating a new set (folder) in which to save your new photoshop actions.

Click on the little arrow at the top right of the actions palllete and select new set.

new photoshop actions set

Give it a name eg. web graphics and click ok. Your new set will appear in the actions pallete. You are now ready to create your first photoshop action.

2. CREATE A NEW ACTION

For the purpose of this photoshop tutorial we will prepare an image for flikr. Before we can record a photoshop action we need to create a new one in the actions pallete.

creating photoshop action set

Pull down the action menu and click on “New Action…”. Give it a name (I have chosen flikr) and you have created an empty photoshop action.

create new photoshop action

Note you only have the option here to cancel or record. We are not ready to record until we have an open image so for now click record and then stop recording by clicking the stop button at the bottom of the pallete. You have now created an empty photoshop action.

stop recording action

3. CREATE A FOLDER IN WHICH YOU WISH TO SAVE YOUR WEB GRAPHICS

This will save you time looking for the exported graphic later!

3. CREATE YOUR FLIKR ACTION

Open an image you want to save for the web.

4. BEGIN RECORDING THE ACTION

To begin recording the action, simply select your action in the palette and click on the “Record” icon in the lower action menu or select “Start Recording” from the pull-down menu.

record photoshop action

Once you click this button, every event you perform will be recorded. This includes menu items, adjustments, layer selections, and any of the Photoshop tools.

I. If neccessary flatten the image, - choose> layers> flatten image, if not go to step 2

II. Resize image, from main menu - choose > image> image size - fill in width 800, tick constrain proportions and choose Bicubic Sharper - click ok

III. Next choose ‘Save for Web and divices’ from the file menu, and make sure the preset is ‘jpg high’ and click save - navigate to the folder you made earlier for your images and click save.

IV. Stop recording your action.

stop recording photoshop action

5.REPLAYING ACTIONS

Open another image. Select the action called flikr in the web graphics set of your actions pallete and click play. - MAGIC

play photoshop action

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