Mat & Frame Action - Updated 8/18/07

Updated 8/18/2007 - I've updated the RAD Mat & Frame Action, you should find a little better color/shade balance on the frames from top to bottom. I've also added three new action, two mat & frame actions (one includes a new moulded frame action that is pretty sweet, check out my post in the PNWNP forum to see one version of the moulded frame. With one new action , you can generate the mat and frame an just have on or the other, or both. Full descriptions are on my website.

I've also added a 35mm slide action that I think works quite well.

Visit http://www.ryandesjardins.com and click on the Photoshop Actions link.

Actions are FREE, although the purchase is appreciated (its not expected or anticipated). I enjoy being able to share these actions with fellow members of this great site!

Ok, I'll try it.
Pete D.

Tried to download it. Didn't work too well. Got mostly gobbledygook with some intelligible words. But then, I've got a Mac. Maybe you could put it in pdf form to download for those of us who took the road less traveled.

pdf. Everyone with Acrobat reader can open them, regardless of their brand of computer.

I tried to open it in a number of ways and then just gave up.

I tried opening it in CS1, maybe I'm not familiar with actions...can you not just apply the frame to an image? It comes up as just a bunch of directions...

Benjamin, you will get some instructions. They are there to allow customization of the mat and frame. If you just want to run it with the defaults, and not have a choice, you can just click on the "modal button" within the action next to each line that reads "stop" or "canvas size". Once those are clicked off, the action will run straight through with just the defaults and no instructions. Also, I am not sure about its compatibility with CS, as I wrote it using CS3. I couple guys on my regional forum (with Mac's and PCs) have been able to run it using CS2 and CS3.

Steve, I'm aware of the advantages of a .pdf, but I've only used them for printed documents and not files like this before. Do I just need to re-name the file extension, or is there a particular method for converting an action to a .pdf?

I've made an alternative .zip file that should offer some more compatibility for downloading across platforms available on the web page. Let me know if that helps.

I also added some standardized html to the page code so it might help as well.

Ryan,
very cool, works like a charm.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with actions, download Ryan's action (the .atn file) and save it somewhere on your hard drive, perhaps the Photoshop Actions folder.
You'll need to load the actions into the Action Palette before you can use them. In the upper right corner of the Actions Palette click on the little arrow and choose Load Actions. Then navigate to where you saved the downloaded actions and double click. Now they're loaded and ready to use.

On PCs there are two folders where you can store actions that Photoshop will easily find them:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Actions

or

C:\Documents and Settings\Ryan DesJardins\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Actions

However they can be saved anywhere, when you use the fly-out menu in the Actions Palette, and then Load Actions, you just have to browse to the folder where it is saved. If you saved it in one of the two folders above, it should actually appear at the bottom of the fly-out menu (in CS3 anyway) and can be loaded with one click. After it's loaded, it is ready to play. You must have an image open before running the action. It also should be sized for the web before running the action.

Oh, sorry, Ryan, I assumed this was a written document containing nothing more than written instructions to follow.

I downloaded your new zipped file and couldn't open it. Is it supposed to be incorporated into Photoshop in some way without opening it first? I have CS2. I'm probably just too computer challenged to make this work.

It works like a charm in CS3, Ryan. Thanks for sharing this neat tool.

I simply downloaded the atn file to my CS3 actions folder. Opened PS and loaded the action through the action tab. Fast, easy and customizable. Way cool!

I tried it. I like it. Thanks for sharing!

On the Mac platform, place the .atn file here:

~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Actions

Works like a charm!

--I've made an alternative .zip file that should offer some more compatibility for downloading across platforms available on the web page. Let me know if that helps.--

Ryan, I used the above in CS2 on my Mac. The result is now in Photo Art. It worked great!

Steve, you might contact one of the Mac users who have responded here to get some instruction on its use. I see Walter shared the Mac file location, so if you place the .atn file there (if you downloaded the .zip, it needs to be unzipped first), you should be able to load it into your Actions palette.

Thanks, Ryan, It had automatically unzipped on download, so I just placed it in the actions palette.

Ryan, From the time I read this thread to trying it out with no problems was no more than 4-5 minutes. Very nice.... good timing too as I was just searching around for something like this. I wasn't able to find just what I wanted and made up my own action but it's not as nice as this one. If I find that I can modify the frame color and use it I'll be making a "donation" for sure! Thanks.

Ryan, never having done anything like this in CS2, I appreciate you helping me cast around and find my sea legs. Once downloaded into the actions palette, I took a minute to use the CS2 help feature to find out how to actually engage an automated action, never having done that before, and it worked slick as could be.

Thank you. I made a donation, too, because you have developed a useful product, and expecting to use someone else's product for free is just as bad as a magazine or Web site asking to use our photographs without payment. It's not a huge donation, but if everyone who downloads and uses this automation paid as much as I have, you'd be a happy man.

I've spread the word on a couple other forums, as well.

Decided it will serve my needs and went ahead and made that donation. One suggestion for additions might be for a color tint for the frame as an option if that's possible. Even without that it's just what I needed. I also posted the link on another forum where I had asked for suggestions for just such an action.

Steve and Jim, thank you so much, and thanks to others who have tried the action. I've put the latest version 1.5 on my web site. It has some useful additions and slight tweaking. Version 1.6 should be available later this weekend.

As always, I'm open to suggestions for improvements and modifications.

See the original post above for what is included in the new version.

Ryan

Another note. There was an incorrect hyper link this morning when I updated the version. That has been fixed and version 1.6 is online.

Ryan, should I trash the original from my actions palette before adding the upgrade, or will it just add what's not already there and leave the original options intact?

Steve, trash the original, it would just be duplicated in the latest version. I've been working quite a bit on this, so there will probably be some additional updates over the next week.

Ryan, Thanks so much for sharing, very clean and easy to use actions

David, your welcome.

Nice job with the additions Ryan! Thanks.

Several updates for anyone who is interested...see the opening post for details.