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Quick Tip: How to Set Illustrator Actions
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Quick Tip: How to Set Illustrator Actions

on Nov 15th 2010 with 7 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Program: Illustrator CS +
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Length: 4:32 min

Actions are a type of recording that, when played, can perform repetitive tasks, on a single file or an entire batch. Take a little time to set up some Actions, and let the computer do the boring work while you spend your energy on something more creative.

 
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Cheryl Graham trained as a traditional artist in drawing and painting. These days she spends more time in front of the computer than the easel. She's been using Adobe Illustrator for over 15 years. Her Illustrator work has been featured in the "The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book" and "Real World Illustrator."  

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  • http://www.duvieusart.net Nicolas

    Great stuff, I knew about actions in Photoshop but never stopped to think about if they existed in Illustrator.. The place action is really smart!

  • http://www.astutegraphics.com Nick

    An excellent, clear overview of what’s possible with such an underrated feature within Illustrator… congratulations!

    One downside of Actions is its immediate stubbornness towards recording Effects. You can use the “add menu item” method shown in the video, but this always brings up the Effects dialogue window regardless of the menu icon setting within the Actions window. I found a good alternative for repetitive applications of a certain style is to first make a new Graphic Style based in the desired Effect(s) and then record this Graphic Style being applied to selected artwork. The application of a Graphic Style does get automatically recorded by the Actions system.

    Hope this is of help.

    • Cheryl

      Excellent tip, Nick. Thanks!

  • Vinay Bhat

    Great tip Cheryl! Thanks!

  • http://kishkoosh.com Ron

    Thanks. Great tip. I’m always too lazy to record actions, though I know I should…

  • http://www.antcreations.co.uk Nathan Shelton

    That was clear, concise and extremely useful! Fantastic!!

  • Santiago

    Very nice and usefull tutorial.
    Thanks