Photoshop Action. Help Please.

**Bygaspo** · 01-03-2004, 09:21 AM

Many of us use Shouchen's Double Matt frame action.

See here http://www.photozo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=194

I have tried to rewrite this with the following changes

1. Does not resize photo
2. First matt is 26 pixels, and always white
3. Second matt is 50 pixels and again always white
NO STOPS UNTIL THIS POINT THEN
4. Frame is 26 pixels, stops to ask for colour as now.

I have tried but just can't seem to get it to work for me, espcially adding pixels rather than % to picture for matts. Grateful for help.
Regards Bygaspo

**photoshopabuser** · 01-03-2004, 02:27 PM

I'm not all that familiar with putting actions together. I have only made a few up for everyday stuff like image sizing and lab sharpening so I can't be of much help other than to bump this one up to the top for awhile. Sorry.

**Bygaspo** · 01-03-2004, 02:52 PM

It's the resize is the BIG problem

**photoshopabuser** · 01-03-2004, 02:59 PM

Well then...the action I have just sizes the resolution. I did that because I resize the pixels for various reasons. I always size one for my website and then there are a few other sites I post on just to see if they elicit a response.

I will do a little looking around and see if I can come up with an answer for you. May not be today but I will look into it.

**photoshopabuser** · 01-03-2004, 03:06 PM

I have an action that I use to put a border around my image so I can add a drop shadow to it. All I did for that was add .05 inches to the height and width and checked the Relative box. I never tried it with a pixel adjustment though. Could you use a fraction of an inch though? I know that works.

**ap.** · 01-03-2004, 05:18 PM

Bygaspo
can you post the action file as an attachment, or a link to the action you're using?
I'll see if I have time to take a pass at it later today.

My initial guess is that parts of the action assume conditions you're trying to change, like the imagesize.

**Bygaspo** · 01-04-2004, 08:17 AM

ap The original actions, for portrait and landscape are here.

http://www.photozo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=194

**ap.** · 01-04-2004, 02:00 PM

Bygaspo,
I'm looking at the action right now, it still runs when you uncheck the image resize step at the beginning, but when running it on a huge source photo the frameing effects (like drop shadow and bevel) look very small. Is that what's not working for you?

The only way to make it work for you would be to hard code it for your particular image size. That is, increase all the layer effects values to look good at the larger size.

**ap.** · 01-04-2004, 02:20 PM

Well, this should do what you want, assuming you're adding frames for web sized images. The plus side is that this one action works with any size ratio (protrait, landscape, panorama, doen'ts matter).

The trick was checking "Relative" in the "Canvas Resize" steps. This adds or subtracts the canvas size by the amount you want, regardless of the dimentions. Because of this the action only works with Photoshop 7 or higher.

**Bygaspo** · 01-04-2004, 02:43 PM

ap you are a hero it's perfect. Thanks a lot. Bygaspo

**photoshopabuser** · 01-04-2004, 03:31 PM

Thanks for figuring that one out!

So nice when a story has a happy ending!

**Ralph Newman** · 01-04-2004, 04:28 PM

Thanks for the action and nice to see it all work out.
here is a sample of what the end product looks like

**jboyd** · 01-04-2004, 06:39 PM

I just tried it - it does work great! Thanks!!

Jackie

**ap.** · 01-05-2004, 01:08 PM

FYI - I didn't delete the steps in Shouchen's action, just unchecked the ones that got in the way. You can always expand the action (little triangle next to it) and turn on just the "Stop" actions if you want to set your own colors. You could also double click on each of the 3 "Canvas Size" steps to set your own sizes (you have to have a image or blank canvas open to make changes, and the resize steps go in order from inner matte to outer frame).

Good luck!