Considered difficult to master, actions are often overlooked by most Photoshop users. It’s true that actions are not as simple to use as layer styles or even as Photoshop plugins, and that the concept of automation has always be beyond the scope of most users.
But if you take a closer look at Photoshop actions, you will find that they are easy to understand and can help you automate your hard work, such as applying a series of repetitive changes to a group of images, for example.
An action no more than a recording of a series of tasks performed in Photoshop. Once created, you can apply that action on an image or a series of images. You can even make an action to create an image from scratch.
The following list is a gallery of free special, color, photo and text effects actions ready to download an use in Photoshop. Although these Photoshop Actions are free, please read the terms of use in each download page.
Click on each image to go the download page
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Designer’s Apprentice: Automating Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign in Adobe Creative Suite 3 |
Al Ward’s Photoshop Productivity Toolkit: Over 600 Time-Saving Actions |
|
» Photoshop Support Actions Directory
One of the best Photoshop actions page available. It gathers links to some Photoshop actions tutorials and links to lots of other actions not featured in this article.
» Adobe Exchange: Photoshop Actions
Directly from Adobe, a Photoshop actions repository. Thousands of actions here.
» Deviant Art Photoshop Actions Section
What can I say about Deviant Art that hasn’t been said already. There are so many actions here that you will have to spend a lot of time to check them all.
Hi:
I submit the following Photoshop Action for your review:
Watercolor Tinted Drawing Action
The URL for samples and action download is: http://www.bmcphotoart.com/tinted-drawing-samples.html
Posted by Ben Morales-Correa on May 14th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
[…] photo effects and text effects actions for Photoshop to download. Some really nice effects there!read more | digg […]
Posted by 40+ special effects Photoshop actions. | White Sands Digital on May 15th, 2008 at 9:09 am
[…] The Photoshop Roadmap has a gallery of 40 free special effects Photoshop actions available for […]
Posted by Friday Link Love on May 16th, 2008 at 7:11 am
This is a great list you’ve compiled here! I’ll definitely be using some of these in the future.
Posted by Bryan on May 16th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
[…] Effect in Photoshop - ganz einfach per Knopfdruck. Wer so etwas gerade sucht, der ist mit der »40+ Special Effects Photoshop Actions« Sammlung bestens bedient. Wieder einmal präsentiert die Photoshoproadmap eine Ihrer […]
Posted by Colurz Blog » Special Effects: Photoshop Aktionen on May 25th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
The first time I made my own action was to resize, crop, and save multiple photos. A very handy and often overlooked tool. By the way, I love your site and have been referencing it since I first started learning PS. Keep up the great work.
Posted by Doug C. on June 23rd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
[…] 40+ Special Effects Photoshop Actions […]
Posted by Personal Edge Insights - Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach » Archive » Make Money with Photoshop - 107+ Free Photoshop Tutorials, Photoshop Filters, Photoshop Actions and more! on June 30th, 2008 at 6:16 pm