Can I use these actions on web-sized photos? How can I make sure that my framed photo is a particular size, such as 8 x 10? How can I make the frames and mats wider or narrower? My mats and backgrounds are slightly larger at the bottom than at the top. How can I make them symmetrical? Will these actions work on photos I've upsized for making really large prints? I recently loaded an update. When I run an action, why do I see an error message saying that one of the other actions is not currently available? Why do I see this error: "The command "duplicate" is not currently available?" Why do I see this error: "The command "set" is not currently available?" Why don't I see textures when I run textured frame or mat actions? How can I get a preview of what frame or mat an action will produce? How can I remove a frame or mat and try another? Will these actions work with Photoshop CS? Will these actions work with Photoshop Elements? The action is behaving strangely, and none of these questions and answers help. What now? Can I use these actions on web-sized photos?The frames will be too large for web-sized images, and in the case of very small images, the Big Frame actions will generate error messages. You can, however, run a "Big" action on a high-resolution image and then resize the framed image for the web. We recommend that you do most of the sharpening of the image before adding the frame, although you can do a small amount of sharpening after framing and resizing.Bear in mind, though, it takes Photoshop longer to frame a large image than a small image. If you want to frame images that are already web-sized, check out AC's Flexible Frames. Back to Top How can I make sure that my framed photo is a particular size, such as 8 x 10?
How can I make the frames and mats wider or narrower?To make the actions run without your intervention, we created several standard widths, but if you want to change them, you can.To do that, scroll down near the bottom of the action set, where it says "Changing Sizes." Below that are several actions that start with the word "Expand." These actions are called by the various frame and mat actions to control the size.
The Expand steps have been precorded to make the mats and frames that use them a certain width. In the screenshot above, which shows the expansion action used by all "wide" mats, you can see two Expand steps, each of which expands every "wide" mat by 60 pixels, for a total of 120 pixels. Why two Expand steps? Well, Photoshop limits expansions to a maximum of 100 pixels, so to get 120 pixels, we needed to use two steps. If you want to change the width of all "wide" mats in the future, you can re-record the Expand steps inside the expansion action named "ExpandWideMatte." To re-record an "Expand" step:
Back to Top My mats and backgrounds are slightly larger at the bottom than at the top. How can I make them symmetrical?Some actions make mats and backgrounds slightly larger at the bottom than at the top, for aesthetic reasons and to allow room for titles. However, if you want all sides to be the same size, you can set up the actions to do that.
Back to Top Will these actions work on photos I've upsized for making really large prints?The frame actions are designed for the size of image produced by the camera. If you plan to upsize the photo to a larger size for printing, frame it first. That way, the frame will get upsized, too.Back to Top I recently loaded an update. When I run an action, why do I see an error message saying that one of the other actions is not currently available?If you have more than one version of the same frame action set visible in the Photoshop actions window, Photoshop can get confused when it tries to find an action. Deleting the older version of the action set from the Actions window should solve the problem.Back to Top Why do I see this error: "The command 'duplicate' is not currently available?"Your image mode is probably not compatible with the actions. Examples of incompatible modes are indexed color and multi-channel. Convert your image to one of the other modes, such as RGB, CMYK, Lab, or Grayscale before running the actions.Also, if you are using Photoshop 6 or 7, make sure your image is in 8-bit mode. 16-bit mode is fine for Photoshop CS. Prior to version 08.03, the actions changed images to RGB and 8-bit automatically. To allow Photoshop CS users to keep their images in 16-bit mode, and to allow more flexibility for everyone, the actions no longer make these changes. Back to Top Why do I see this error: "The command 'set' is not currently available?"Your image mode is probably not compatible with the actions. Examples of incompatible modes are indexed color and multi-channel. Convert your image to one of the other modes, such as RGB, CMYK, Lab, or Grayscale before running the actions.Also, if you are using Photoshop 6 or 7, make sure your image is in 8-bit mode. 16-bit mode is fine for Photoshop CS. Prior to version 08.03, the actions changed images to RGB and 8-bit automatically. To allow Photoshop CS users to keep their images in 16-bit mode, and to allow more flexibility for everyone, the actions no longer make these changes. Back to Top Why don't I see textures when I run textured frame or mat actions?You probably didn't load the style file that was included in the ZIP file.To load a style file, go to your Styles Window in Photoshop. If you don't see the Styles Window, you can make it visible from the Photoshop "Window" menu. In the Styles Window, click the little arrow in the upper-right corner, and select "Load Styles." Browse to the location where you extracted the files, and load "ACBigStyles.asl." Back to Top How can I get a preview of what frame or mat an action will produce?We don't have unique examples of every separate action, but you can see sample images showing most frames and mats, either separately or in combination on our frame action webpage, and more individual actions here.Back to Top How can I remove a frame or mat and try another?Before a combo, frame, or mat action is run, a snapshot is added to the History window. To return to a previous state, you can go to your History window and click one of those snapshots.If you've run more than one action of the same type (two frame actions, for example) on an image, the history snapshots will take you back to the state before the last one. If you need to go back farther, your best bet may be to select "Revert" from the Photoshop File menu. This will reload the image from disk, undoing all the changes you made since you opened it. This is one reason why it's always a good idea to save your file before adding frames :) Back to Top Will these actions work with Photoshop CS?Yes, these actions work with Photoshop CS, as well as Photoshop 6 and 7.Back to Top Will these actions work with Photoshop Elements?No, these actions will not work with Photoshop Elements. We do have frame actions especially designed for Photoshop Elements.Back to Top The action is behaving strangely, and none of these questions and answers help. What now?Some suggestions:
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