ACs Big Special Chiseled Mat Actions for Photoshop -- FAQ

AC's Big Special Chiseled Mats for Photoshop FAQ

by Adrienne Cleveland

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How can I make sure that my matted photo is a particular size, such as 8 x 10?
My mats are slightly larger on the bottom than on the other sides. Can I change that?
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?"
Can I use these actions on web-sized photos?
How can I remove a mat and try another?
Will these actions work with Photoshop CS?
Will these actions work with Photoshop Elements?

How can I make sure that my matted photo is a particular size, such as 8 x 10?

For Relatively Thin Mats

If you want your image itself to be as large as possible, with the matted image being a specific size, you can use this method.

Crop your processed, unmatted image to the correct size: for example, 8 x 10.
Add your mat.
Resize your image to be close to 8 x 10. Your image won't be in an exact 8 x 10 ratio: it might be 8 x 9.774 or 8.185 x 10. This may be close enough, depending on your situation. If you need it to be exactly 8 x 10, you can uncheck the "Constrain Proportions" box in your "Image Size" window when you resize, and then set the width and height to exactly 8 x 10. This will alter the proportions of your image slightly, but may not be noticeable, depending on the image.

If you don't want to distort your image at all, you can use the "For Exact Sizes" method below, or you can do some math. If you want to do the math, we have a calculator and step by step instructions to help you.

For Exact sizes, or Larger or Asymmetrical Mats

If you want your image to be considerably smaller than the mat, with the mat filling out the image to a particular size, or if you want an asymmetrical mat, this method will help.

Size your image as you like, making it smaller than you want the final, matted image to be, and setting the resolution to the print resolution you intend to use.
Add your mat using one of the "ExtraWide" mat actions.
When the action stops at the "Canvas Size" step, input the size that you want your matted image to be. Your final matted image will be ever-so-slightly larger, because of the outer edge added to the mat, but you can crop it if it has to be absolutely correct.

If you want your finished mat to be asymmetrical (for example, with more room at the bottom or side for text), specify a canvas size larger than you need, and crop it as you like later.

My mats are slightly larger on the bottom than on the other sides. Can I change that?

The mats are intentionally a tiny bit larger on the bottom, to allow space for a title. However, if you want all sides to be exactly the same width, you can set up the actions to do that:

In Photoshop, open the action set and scroll down near the bottom, where it says "*** Add Bottom Space ***."

Just below that line, you will see three actions that add different amounts of bottom space.

Click the checkmark to the left of each of the three actions. This will remove the checkmarks, and will essentially "turn off" those actions. From now on whenever you create a mat, the bottom will be the same size as the other sides.

By the way, you can ignore Photoshop's warning about the step being undoable.

Unchecking the actions that add bottom space.

Why do I see this error: "The command 'duplicate' is not currently available?"

Your image mode is probably not compatible with the mat 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 mat 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.

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Why do I see this error: "The command 'set' is not currently available?"

Can I use these actions on web-sized photos?

The mats will be too large for web-sized images, and in the case of very small images, the Big Mat actions will generate error messages. You can, however, run a "Big" action on a high-resolution image and then resize the matted image for the web. We recommend that you do most of the sharpening of the image before adding the mat, although you can do a small amount of sharpening after matting and resizing.

Bear in mind, though, it takes Photoshop longer to mat a large image than a small image. If you want to mat images that are already web-sized, check out AC's Special Chiseled Mats (for web-sized images).

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How can I remove a mat and try another?

Before a 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 the snapshot.

If you've run more than one action in a row 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 mats :)

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Will these actions work with Photoshop CS?

Yes, these actions work with Photoshop CS, as well as Photoshop 6 and 7.

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Will these actions work with Photoshop Elements?

No, these actions will not work with Photoshop Elements. However, we do have actions specificially designed for Photoshop Elements.

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