Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Sharing Actions

When it comes to actions, folks love to share—there are tons of actions floating around on the Web. Most are free (though you’ll probably have to register with the website you download them from), but you have to pay for the more useful and creative ones. Sharing your own actions is pretty easy; the only requirement is that you save your actions as a set (see below) before uploading them to a website. This section explains how to load actions that other people have created, and how to save your own actions as a set so you can share ’em.

Note

For easy access to actions others have shared with the Adobe Photoshop community, pop open the new Adobe Exchange panel by choosing Window→Extensions→Adobe Exchange. This handy panel lets you locate, purchase, and install all manner of actions, brushes, plug-ins, and so on right inside Photoshop.

Loading Actions

Downloading and analyzing actions made by other folks is a fantastic way to learn what’s possible. That said, actions that are short and sweet—ones that expand your canvas, add a new layer and fill it with color, and so on—can be even more useful than more complex actions because you’ll use ’em more often.

One of the best places to find useful actions is the Adobe Photoshop Marketplace (www.lesa.in/psmarketactions). Others include Action Central (www.lesa.in/actioncentral) and ActionFx (www.lesa.in/actionfx). (These sites are also great resources for brushes, textures, and so on.) Most of these sites arrange their goodies ...