As many of you know, Photoshop Actions are the best way to ease the pain of the multi-step tasks you have to do again and again in Photoshop. The most useful one (arguably) in my arsenal is the Flatten/Select All/Copy/Undo Action I’ve created. F-SACU, as I like to call it is easy to create, and will save you tons of time when dealing with the realities of PSDs that have scores (or even hundreds) of layers.

What it does:

  • Flattens all the layers you have going in your crazy-huge PSD (the new flat image only shows the layers you had visible).
  • Selects the entire canvas.
  • Copies the canvas to the clipboard.
  • Undoes the flattening so that your work is back to normal.

Why do it:

  • What’s in the clipboard is nice and small (talking filesize, folks) version of that behemoth of a PSD you have going on there.
  • You can paste the new mini-file into whatever will accept a graphic (a new Photoshop file, Illustrator, even Flash and Word to name a few)
  • If you create a new PSD and paste the graphic into it, you can print that WAAAAAY faster than you could the behemoth (only a fraction of the info needs to be processed for printing vs. the behemoth).

So here’s how to do it:

Take your awesome Photoshop file with it’s bazillion layers (this examples only has a few layers, but it’ll do), make sure the Layers Palette and the Actions Palette are up, then…

 

Step 1: Click on the “new action button” at the bottom of the layer palette.
(These thumbnail images can all be clicked on to reveal a full-sized version)

 

 

Step 2: Name your action and give it a keyboard shortcut (I chose the name “F-SACU” and the keyboard shortcut [SHIFT]+[F12]).
(That particular key command my trigger Exposé for some of you… I’m not a big fan, so I’ve disabled my Exposé)

 

 

Step 3: At the top-right of the Layers Palette, click the “options button” (the lil’ arrowhead in a circle).
Notice that the name of your action is now in the Actions Palette and the “record button” is highlighted.

 

 

Step 4: Select “Flatten Image”.
Don’t worry, Gollum… all your precious layers won’t be lost.

 

 

Step 5: Select your entire canvas by hitting [CMD]+[a].
The “marching ants” will show up around the edge of your canvas.

 

 

Step 6: Take a step back in your history [OPT]+[CMD]+[z].
Should undo your “select all” command.

 

 

Step 7: Take a ANOTHER step back in your history [OPT]+[CMD]+[z].
Should undo your “flatten image” command.

 

 

Step 8: Click on the “Stop Recording button” at the bottom of the Actions Panel.
That’s it! Everything is back to normal.

 

Now I’ve got a kick-ass action that, in my case, can be called up just by pressing [SHIFT]+[F12].

Magically, a flat, easy to paste version of my crazy-humongous PSD is now in my clipboard.

Warning:

Slow down there, Mario! The action ain’t instant. It takes a second or two, so don’t go hitting your F-SACU keyboard shortcut and immediately got clicking around somewheres else. Let the action play out. You can actually see it working if you have the Actions Palette open (funnily enough, that “slow down, Mario” comment will mean different things to different people… for the young’uns out there, it’ll bring up visions of a Nintendo plumber, while for the older types (like me) it’ll make you think of an Indy Car racer from back in the day… but I digress).

Pretty simple, and pretty useful. Enjoy, folks.

TF

Less desirable alternatives to the F-SACU are the “‘Save As, then fish for where that file is’ method” and the “‘take a screen shot and take the time to trim away all the excess that comes with it’ method”. F-SACU allows you to have what you want, at the size you want in your clipboard to paste into whatever you want.