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Using Blow Up with Photoshop Actions
Blow Up can be recorded and played back in a Photoshop action. An action increases efficiency and maintains consistency. It lets you apply the same resizing to a batch of images. For basic information on how to record an action and then apply it to batches of images, see Photoshop’s documentation.
If you are familiar with how Photoshop's Image Size command is recorded, then using Blow Up with actions will be very familiar to you. Blow Up behaves just like the Image Size command.
Recorded Information
The following are always recorded in a Blow Up action:
- state of Constrain Proportions checkbox
- state of Duplicate Image Before Resizing checkbox
- Sharpen Amount slider value
- Add Grain slider value
In contrast, Pixel Dimensions or Document Size information is only recorded if you edit Width, Height, or Resolution.
Constrain Proportions
As mentioned in the previous chapter, Constrain Proportions should remain selected most of the time. When Constrain Proportions is selected, only the last dimension you edit will be recorded in the action. This means that if you edit Width and then edit Height, only Height will be recorded.
If you change a dimension when Constrain Proportions is cleared, it will be recorded in the action. If you change both Width and Height, then both will be recorded.
Units
When recording an action, it is important to carefully choose the parameters you edit. If you edit a Pixel Dimensions parameter, the action records the change in pixel units. If you edit a Document Size parameter, the action records the change in the selected physical units such as inches or picas. This choice will have a large impact on the action output. If the action is recorded in physical units, then the resolution of the image will be taken into account.