Graphics Zone - Photoshop Thumb Actions

CE CASH 3.0

Photoshop Actions to make thumbs at the press of a key!

by BarryHilton, Adult NetSurprise

In this tutorial we'll be making two actions to produce thumbnails for both vertical and horizontal pics at the press of a key! First you'll need two images, a horizontal and a vertical format photo... you can download two sample images here... [Horizontal] [Vertical]

We'll start with the horizontal image, open it in Photoshop. We'll be using the Action Menu, so if you can't see it on your screen go to the Windows menu at the top of the screen and select 'Show Actions', if you see 'Hide Actions' then the Action menu is visible on your screen somewhere :o)

Go to the Actions Menu, at the bottom of the menu you'll see a row of icons... click the one that looks like a 'Folder' to create a new folder for your actions, name it 'Thumb Actions'. Next, click the icon that looks like a white square with the bottom left corner triangle... it's next to the Trash Can icon. This will make a new action... change the Function Key setting to F2 and name it 'Horizontal'.

Now we need to start recording our action, so click the Black Round icon, it will turn red to show you're recording! From now on everything you do will be recorded in your action...

1) Press Alt i, then i again to bring up the 'Image Size' menu. Make sure the 'Constrained Proportions' box is ticked, then enter a value of 600 in the Width and click OK.

2) Press Alt i, then i again to bring up the 'Image Size' menu. then enter a value of 400 in the Width and click OK.

3) Press Alt i, then i again to bring up the 'Image Size' menu. then enter a value of 300 in the Width and click OK.

4) Press Alt i, then i again to bring up the 'Image Size' menu. then enter a value of 200 in the Width and click OK.

5) Press Alt i, then i again to bring up the 'Image Size' menu. then enter a value of 100 in the Width and click OK.

6) Go to the Filters Menu at the top of the screen and select 'Sharpen', then 'Sharpen' from the pop-out menu.

7) Click on the Black Square icon at the bottom of the Actions Menu to stop recording.

We make the size reduction in steps because of the way Photoshop reduces images by averaging the pixels in a block to produce the smaller image. By making this 'block' smaller we keep a better quality image. Sharpening the image also increases the quality and reduces the blur caused my shrinking the image.

Now we'll make our Vertical Thumbnail Action... Load the vertical image into Photoshop. Then, click the icon that looks like a white square with the bottom left corner triangle at the bottom of the Action menu... it's next to the Trash Can icon. This will make another new action... change the Function Key setting to F3 and name it 'Vertical'.

1) Click the Round Black icon at the bottom of the Actions Menu to start recording (it will turn red)

2) Press Alt i, then i again to bring up the 'Image Size' menu. Make sure the 'Constrained Proportions' box is ticked, then enter a value of 600 in the Height and click OK.

3) Press Alt i, then i again to bring up the 'Image Size' menu. then enter a value of 400 in the Height and click OK.

4) Press Alt i, then i again to bring up the 'Image Size' menu. then enter a value of 300 in the Height and click OK.

5) Press Alt i, then i again to bring up the 'Image Size' menu. then enter a value of 200 in the Height and click OK.

6) Press Alt i, then i again to bring up the 'Image Size' menu. then enter a value of 100 in the Height and click OK.

7) Go to the Filters Menu at the top of the screen and select 'Sharpen', then 'Sharpen' from the pop-out menu.

8) Click on the Black Square icon at the bottom of the Actions Menu to stop recording.

Now, close the two images, without saving the changes... and load them up again to test our actions... Select the Horizontal photo and press F2 on your keyboard... the image will shrink to a 100 pixel wide thumbnail image! Now, select the Vertical image and press F3 on your keyboard... the image should shrink to a 100 pixel high thumbnail image :o)