The Ultimate Collection Of Useful Photoshop Actions
Saving repetitive tasks as Photoshop actions can save you a lot of time, allowing you to automate your work and improve workflow efficiency. A Photoshop action is a recording of a sequence of commands and operations that you can save and access later on.
We’ve searched for the best downloadable Photoshop actions that can help you improve your workflow and perform complex techniques with the push of a button. In this collection, you’ll find more than 350 free hand-picked Photoshop actions that you can use to speed up your graphics creation.
Note: It’s important to check the license of each action set you download and use.
Quick Introduction to Photoshop Actions
For those unfamiliar with Photoshop actions, they’re simply pre-recorded tasks that you can save and reuse anytime. Photoshop actions commonly have an .atn file extension. Installing a Photoshop action for more recent versions of Photoshop is easy: simply drag the .atn file onto the Actions palette or place it directly inside your Adobe Photoshop\Presets\Photoshop Actions folder. For a more comprehensive discussion of Photoshop actions, check out this complete guide to Photoshop actions.
Image Effects and Graphic Creation Actions
Cross-processing ATN
Simulate the Cross-processing (Xpro) photography technique using this Photoshop action.
1 action – Download
Lomo
Give your images a “Lomo” look and feel with this excellent Photoshop action.
1 action – Download
Lomo Cross-processing
This Photoshop action is a combination of two popular photography effects: Lomo and Cross-processing.
1 action – Download
Polaroid Generator
Automatically frame an image in a Polaroid border with this set of Photoshop actions.
5 actions - Download
Hand-Colored Vintage Photo
This is a handy Photoshop action set for giving images aged, dirty effects.
4 actions – Download
Vintage
Aly’s Vintage action set is a nice collection of six vintage image effects that you can use on modern digital photos.
6 Actions – Download
Vintage Wash
Give your images an old, vintage effect with this set of ten different actions.
10 actions – Download
Old Parchment
Easily create aged paper with this free Photoshop action.
1 action – Download
Simple Stamp Generator
Automatically create a stamp graphic with this action.
1 action – Download
Pseudo HDR
Mimic the “HDR” photo effect without having to use multiple exposures of the subject.
1 action – Download
HDR For Dummies
Here’s another easy-to-use Photoshop action set for giving photos the “HDR” effect.
3 actions – Download
IR Actions
Give your photos the popular infrared effect using Dave’s IR Photoshop action.
1 action – Download
IR Effect
Here is another method for faking the infrared photographic effect using a Photoshop action.
1 action – Download
Photo Effect Action
This Photoshop action can be used for grunge designs.
1 action - Download
Comics Photoshop Action
Give your image a comic book look and feel using this Photoshop action.
1 action - Download
Retro Love
Achieve a retro-colored image effect using the Retro Love action.
1 action – Download
Soften Skin Effect
Smoothen skin and remove blemishes with the Soften Skin Effect action.
1 action – Download
Burnt Edges Vignette
This action gives your photos burnt and high-key effects (available for low- and high-resolution images, see the “Try Me”-section).
4 actions – Download site, check the “Try Me”-section
Edge Effects
This set of actions allows you to give your images different types of edge effects.
8 actions – Download
B & Big Picture
Create a three-dimensional collage effect using one source image with the B & Big Picture action.
4 actions – Download
Photo Enhancement and Processing Actions
Black and White Photoshop Actions
This is a set of useful actions for processing black and white images.
8 actions – Download
TLR B&W Toning
TLR B&W Toning is a large action set for enhancing and processing black and white images.
30 actions – Download
Photoshop Postwork Actions
Here is a ton of excellent post-work Photoshop actions.
25 actions – Download
TLR Sharpening Toolkit
This is a useful Photoshop action pack for sharpening RGB, CMYK and monochrome photos.
33 actions – Download
TLR Tone Enhance
Enhance the tone and color of your images using this Photoshop action set.
30 actions – Download
Color Enhancing Actions
Here is a variety of actions, such as “colorboost,” “softlight,” and “contrastboost.”
10 actions – Download
Photoshop Color Actions
A nice collection of color actions to process and enhance your photographs.
10 actions – Download
Cross Coloring Tools
Here is a set of actions for dark, mid-range, and light cross-coloring of image tone.
4 actions – Download
Image Enhancing PS Actions
These are ten brilliant image-enhancing Photoshop actions.
10 actions – Download
Watermark Photoshop Action
Automate the watermarking of your images with this set of Photoshop actions.
9 actions – Download
Photographers Toolkit
A wonderful set of actions for photographers to enhance photos.
9 actions – Download
Assorted Sets of Actions
Photoshop Actions – 53
This is the 53rd set of Photoshop actions by =night-fate of deviantART.
9 actions – Download
Productions Action
This is a set of useful actions that will simplify your workflow for common Photoshop tasks.
20 actions - Download
Photoshop Automator Actions
This is one of the biggest sets of useful actions to cut down on repetitive tasks such as watermarking images, scaling images, and fitting images in the canvas. You need to register before being able to download the set.
90 actions – Download
Photography Action Set
This is an excellent collection of popular photo effects, such as HDR, Lomo, Velvia, Xpro and more.
8 actions – Download
Rather Large Set of Actions
This is a large collection of useful Photoshop actions.
40 actions – Download
Photoshop Actions – 62
Another beautiful set of assorted Photoshop actions by =night-fate.
8 actions – Download
(al)
Erick
November 4th, 2008 3:01 amGreat list. Just a word of caution. Many actions among these don’t yet work with CS4. Only with CS3.
israel20xx
November 5th, 2008 8:31 amAwesome, I love this site
kikebill
November 8th, 2008 7:30 pmthanks
Kira Wynne
November 9th, 2008 8:22 pmThis is awesome. I love ps actions and this is a great collection of some amazing actions!
april greer
November 15th, 2008 1:18 amwunderbar!! sehr vielen dank
srikanth
November 16th, 2008 10:22 amyour action are so beautiful and i like very much.ok bye
marcah
November 20th, 2008 4:33 amExcellent. Thank you.
carlos
November 23rd, 2008 8:36 amSo awesome! Thanks so much!
govind
November 28th, 2008 10:49 pmNice creative collection
Nate
December 6th, 2008 11:07 amI love it! But I feel like I’m cheating…. nahh
Jagdish Shinde
December 7th, 2008 9:20 pmExcellent. Thank you.
Folio
December 8th, 2008 12:02 pmAwesome great actions, reaaaalllyyy great!!!
P.S There’s more at deviant art, and at eCoverSuiteElite
and at http://designreviver.com/freebies/400-time-saving-photoshop-actions/
Jess
December 19th, 2008 3:12 amAWESOME!
Glenn Mitchell
December 22nd, 2008 8:55 pmThank you for including the action sets form The Light’s Right in your list. I’m honored.
The URL has changed. The site has become a community site for the digital photography community.
The three action sets can be found here:
http://www.thelightsright.com/TLRBWToning
http://www.thelightsright.com/TLRToneEnhance
The TLR Sharpening Tolkit has been completely redesigned and extended. It is now called the TLR Professional Sharpening Actions:
http://www.thelightsright.com/TLRProfessionalSharpeningActions
Best holiday wishes!
Mitch
gallex
December 27th, 2008 6:14 amwill those actions work with PS 7.0?
Jessica
December 28th, 2008 4:33 pmThanks for the actions! I am hooked.
Chrissy Merrell
January 23rd, 2009 4:04 pmI first started using actions while editing my bridals for my wedding reception. I absolutely love them! I got so many compliments I’ve started edited photos for other people and cannot wait to get started with these new actions. Thank you so much for making these available to everyone! How generous of everyone involved.
Kelly
May 2nd, 2010 7:47 pmi downloaded all of these actions. Now how do i use them. I put them in the presets folder
godzalli44
January 27th, 2009 9:51 pmWhoaaaa… YOU ARE GREAT!!!
thank you very very much… mmmuuuaachhh…
Just Joe
February 2nd, 2009 4:38 pmwhere do i find the actions panel in ps 4
Wrench Pilot
February 3rd, 2009 2:18 pmJust Joe, find the actions panel under the ‘window’ menu.
Thanks to everybody. Such useful stuff here. -M
DaveWR
February 3rd, 2009 7:59 pmI LOVE this website! Thank you so much for these they will help me be faster at retouching in no time!
vreny
February 5th, 2009 12:41 amwow thanks for these fantastic action scripts. They great for retouching – saving time!
clumzycaffein
February 9th, 2009 7:36 pmthanks a lot!!
really useful
Nosh
February 10th, 2009 10:47 pmThank you-Cant wait to try them!
Charlie
February 11th, 2009 3:52 amTHANK YOU!! Now i can edit my wedding photo’s with ease….YAY!!!
maudg
February 27th, 2009 7:26 amthanks for all resources !!! great !!!
RISurfer
March 4th, 2009 5:41 amBrilliant collections. Great to demo w/ my students the amazing effects you can get w/ Photoshop.
Joris
March 8th, 2009 5:09 amGreat stuff, thanks a lot!!
pranav
March 11th, 2009 5:02 amvery useful……thanks dude
Ho Dinh Huy
March 16th, 2009 2:53 amusefull actions! Many thanks.
Ho Dinh Huy
alberto
March 20th, 2009 11:08 amMuito obrigado! Farei bom uso de todo este conteúdo!!!!
surya
March 21st, 2009 12:12 amedan coy !!
vincent
March 25th, 2009 3:16 amExtremely useful. Thank you!
Bahamut
March 25th, 2009 9:34 pmThis made my life easier! Thank you for this, and don’t stop making people happy! :)
zoha
April 8th, 2009 9:31 amohhhhhhhhhhhh my gosh oooooh my gosh ohh my goshhhhhhhh!
i die for these
Ashley
April 18th, 2009 1:18 pmAmazing thanks so much!!
Pablo Renauld
April 27th, 2009 1:31 amohhhh amazing! thanks for this!
covalic
May 2nd, 2009 8:44 amGreat job..
Melissa
May 3rd, 2009 12:28 pmThese are so awesome, thanks for sharing!
Wecostumizedweb
May 4th, 2009 10:46 amgotta try them all :)
pangeran_ditz
May 9th, 2009 1:08 ammantab nih…makasih yaaa(indonesian photoshoper)
Vincent
May 13th, 2009 8:06 amYou guys rock!!!!!!
Natalie
May 18th, 2009 6:21 pmI have the action icon, but cant get this to open in CS2… can someone help?? these actions look awesome!
Carolyn
July 1st, 2009 7:37 amthey are all really awsome, am going to spend a whole day trying them all out. Thank you so much
Kimberly Petty
July 16th, 2009 6:21 amTHANK YOU SO MUCH! THESE ARE AWESOME!
PicMarkr Pro
July 22nd, 2009 9:56 pmTo protect your photo you can add digital watermark by the watermark software picmarkrpro.com .
If yoh have an flickr account you can replace your Flickr photos with their watermarked copies.
Gillian
July 29th, 2009 6:33 pmAWESOME collection! Thanks so much for sharing! :D
catie
August 4th, 2009 4:35 pmthank you so much : )
you’re awesome!
Benny Blanco
August 21st, 2009 6:05 amlegit.
alex jo
August 29th, 2009 10:32 pmTHANK YOU!
Patrickv
September 2nd, 2009 5:54 amwoohoo I appreciate the colection bro, keep em coming !! very nice
Huia
September 8th, 2009 6:14 amThanks for all of these they are awesome. Now off I go to confuse myself…am only new to it all
theries
September 12th, 2009 10:50 amnice work, thanks
AnggaRifandi
September 17th, 2009 8:35 amFinally I found great Photoshop actions here. Very useful list, I’ve download all of actions
Greets AnggaRifandi
net-toxic
September 23rd, 2009 5:28 amthnak you for these actions .. They are so helpfull
Fran
October 4th, 2009 4:54 amMuchísimas gracias por el aporte. Gracias.
Suzanne
October 11th, 2009 6:29 pmThanks so much for the actions. They are great. I did find some of them not available: Vintage, Vintage Wash, IR Actions & Edge Effects. Would love to have them. Thanks, Suzanne
angel01
October 27th, 2009 9:19 pmTHANK YOU SO MUCH!
deethaja
November 1st, 2009 2:17 amthank you very much! i really love it!
theequshimuet
November 30th, 2009 9:13 pmwaw, this was so helpfull 4 me n others to Many thanks for you…
Indra Budi
January 7th, 2010 1:01 amWaw Mantaaaap!?
Amazing!!
Karin
January 17th, 2010 12:11 pmI think this is a waste of time. I tried to download some of these but the first ten are MISSING.
Wendy
January 17th, 2010 3:02 pmGreat stuff. Thanks so much!
Amjad
January 18th, 2010 5:13 amU have such a nice effect i never seen in my life.I m pakistani. There is no many collection bcoz we dont have graphic market tht y shortage well thankss Smashing u give me mind of creation
simin
January 23rd, 2010 12:04 amty. very goooood
jamzy
January 23rd, 2010 5:59 pmexcellent stuff – very nice – thanks
Jennifer
January 24th, 2010 8:12 amawesome…just simply awesome!! thank you so much!
Jon
January 25th, 2010 5:34 amThank you, the first time try actions and really love it! Will explore 1 by 1…. whoaaa…
Emily
January 31st, 2010 3:42 pmThere are a lot of dead links on this page, FYI! Especially within the first dozen actions.
can
February 5th, 2010 11:15 pmthanks u very much..!
:D
claudio
February 8th, 2010 8:29 amthank you, muchas gracias.
RAJENDER
February 10th, 2010 1:21 amactions r really gr8 and userfriendly
Antwuan Wyatt
February 15th, 2010 5:57 pmThanks Bro!!!!!!!!!
arash
March 5th, 2010 5:47 pmtanx very nice – thanks
Marita
March 18th, 2010 10:13 pmWoW!! Thanks for sharing all these amazing actions! Much appreciated! :)
Louise
March 22nd, 2010 11:28 amthank you!!
Allen Kharbosh
April 6th, 2010 1:12 pmreally thanks For sharing .. good collection
ISUR
April 20th, 2010 8:01 amGenial!!! todo es muy bueno, gracias por com partirlo!
chau!!
Tee
May 2nd, 2010 5:09 pmAwesome stuff here! I wish there was more time in the day so I could try it all now! Thanks!
James Leahy
May 13th, 2010 5:34 amI know this is a late comment, but did you know that actions are only the tip of the iceburg for Photoshop tools? Scripting starts where actions end. Using JavaScript, VB, XML, and XMP, extends the capabilities of Photoshop (After CS3), far beyond actions. Actions are great, but barley getting started in comparison.
Savannah
May 29th, 2010 6:31 pmThis might sound stupid but do any of these work with Photoshop Elements? Thanks. :]
James Coleman
June 1st, 2010 7:49 amThnaks a mil for sharing, I just know some of these are going to make my life alot easier.
Thank You !!!!!
Bianca
June 21st, 2010 5:37 pmFantastic set! Thanks for this.
TwitterBackgrounds
July 15th, 2010 4:36 amThanks for those useful photoshop actions. They will surely come in handy very soon :) They really could give our Twitter backgrounds that special touch.
I am eager to try the lomo and HDR effects. Until then we already have a fair amount of great backgrounds in our collection on viuu.co.uk .
psactions
July 22nd, 2010 6:08 amHere’s another very useful action. It transforms a photo into a sketch:
http://filesforflash.prowebmedia.net/sketch-action/
Juan
July 22nd, 2010 2:02 pmThanks :)
Astrox
July 23rd, 2010 1:08 amThankyou. Some of the links are dead now [July-2010], but you still made my life a lot easier by making this list. (I never leave comments, so think yourself lucky ;) )
FunkyPhotography
July 30th, 2010 8:06 amHi there a few of the action links aren’t working anymore!
tataji
August 2nd, 2010 11:36 pmreally excellent action thank you
idontknowanything
August 18th, 2010 1:11 amwow! this makes it easier than having to look for all the actions one at a time! thanks a lot!
Ed
August 20th, 2010 12:00 pmI cannot seem to download the actions. The download links are broken.
Ramesh Vishwakarma
August 21st, 2010 12:59 amgreat collection of action script… :)
Gabriele Franceschi
August 24th, 2010 2:40 amVery good! Thanks
Sorin
August 30th, 2010 1:47 pmWhy do I keep getting the feeling this site’s intended audience is home users (most of which don’t even use legally acquired software)?
No offense, as it must’ve taken quite some work to get such a collection of links put together, but either only list those actions that can (also) be used commercially, or save your readers the work of having to check out every single action they deem interesting by adding some info on restrictions.
Adenrele Adebowale
September 1st, 2010 12:43 pmIt’s nice actions in here. Thinks Guys
DANNY
September 2nd, 2010 5:07 amI am looking for some wedding actions …..
please help me… which one i should use…
channy
September 8th, 2010 7:52 pmheey..it is a good look…really interesting :)
Fatima
September 18th, 2010 11:56 pmHuge list of cool actions, thanks SM it will more great if you will make more list of actions by category.
Carlinhos Lehn
October 16th, 2010 3:15 amWOO, nice collection, i like this ;)
safwan
October 28th, 2010 4:07 amthanks 4 this… (^_^) i like it