Recording and playing Actions in Paint by Zaweba
The Actions panel in Paint by Zaweba records commands, filters, adjustments and even brush strokes, with stops, conditionals and Button Mode for one-click jobs.
If you do the same sequence of edits more than twice, it belongs in an action. The Actions panel in Paint by Zaweba, opened with Alt+F9, records what you do and plays it back on any document. It captures menu commands with the values you typed into their dialogs, filters and adjustments with their settings, and, since version 0.3.2, brush strokes and other tool use too.
Recording a first action
Open a sample image and start recording in the Actions panel. Do the steps you want to repeat: resize, add a curves adjustment, sharpen, add a border, whatever the job needs. Stop recording. The steps appear in the panel in order, each with the settings you used.
Now open another image and play the action. The same steps run with the same values. A routine that took two minutes takes a second, and it is done identically every time, which matters when a set of product photos or headshots has to look consistent.
Controlling playback
You don't have to run the whole thing. Play from a step starts partway through. Unticking a step skips it without deleting it, which is useful when one photo doesn't need the border or the sharpening.
Shortcuts can be assigned to actions, so a favourite routine sits on a single key. Button Mode turns the panel into a set of large buttons, one per action, for when you are running actions rather than editing them.
Making actions smarter
Insert Stop pauses playback with a message. Use it for steps that need a person, such as "Now paint over the blemishes" or "Check the crop", and playback continues when you're done.
Insert Conditional lets an action make a choice, so one action can handle different cases instead of keeping several near-copies. Ask When Played makes a step open its dialog during playback so you can set a value for this image, while everything else runs automatically. A sharpen amount or a crop size are good candidates.
Because brush strokes and tool use can be recorded, actions can also capture things like a signature painted in a corner or a recurring retouch on a fixed area of a template.
Saving and sharing
Actions load and save as .ptactions files. Keep your sets backed up and share them with colleagues so everyone produces the same output. Paint by Zaweba also comes with bundled sets, including Image Effects, Frames, Production and Text Effects, which are a good way to see how actions are built and a quick source of ready-made looks.
Tips that save trouble
Record on a typical image, not an unusual one. If your sample is portrait and most files are landscape, size-dependent steps can go wrong. Use Ask When Played for steps that depend on the picture.
Keep actions short and focused, then chain them. A "web export" action and a "watermark" action are easier to maintain than one long action that does everything.
Test on a copy. Actions do exactly what they were told, including saving over files if a save step is recorded.
Where actions lead
Actions are the building block for the rest of the automation in Paint by Zaweba. Batch processing runs an action across a folder, Droplets put that batch on your desktop for drag and drop, and Script Events can run an action automatically when you open, save or export. Once you have a handful of good actions, a lot of routine work simply disappears.
