Photoshop: Export As does not support Actions and does not react to them

Image Processor is built into Ps itself, but the Pro version is a separate download since it's considered a non-necessary extension (i assume). 

This is STILL a very real issue! 3 years later! That it was an intentional omission, but with no explanation as to why such an obviously useful feature would be intentionally omitted is difficult to hear from someone who has used Adobe's products for 15 years and needs to be as productive as possible. In my case the smaller file size and amazing quality of 8 bit pngs in "Export As" is SO much superior to the "Save for Web" 8 bit pngs. It was an amazing, game changing development and I'd love to hear the reasons why we can't use it when batching files. Anything! Such as: It was really difficult to get that to work in actions, and we didn't want to spend any more time on it because hardly anyone uses it, or whatever the reason is. Better than letting this much time go by without any word on this important topic. This feature alone in my particular case would save me several hours a month. I'd appreciate an update on the "progress" that has been made in the 2 years since this post.

It is a TERRIBLE problem that Export As is not Actionable. Please prioritize and fix. 

We didn't remove any features. Actions weren't ever a feature for Export As. Actions still work fine with Save for Web and Save As operations.

It really should be implemented though, Jeff. I'm trying to design an end to end workflow for a client at Microsoft next week and being able to add Export As to an action would work perfectly for what i'm trying to accomplish.

Fortunately, Image Processor Pro is still functioning, but it hasn't been updated in ages and i'm left wondering if the day is soon arriving when this tool to will be no longer supported.

I agree. I'm not saying it shouldn't. Just clarifying that it was never implanted by the team that created Export As.

I think a lot of the confusion and anger around this comes from the fact that 'Export As' was advertised as the replacement to "Save for Web" which was named to "Save for Web (Legacy)".

In doing so, Adobe implied that "Save for Web" would not be supported moving forward and we end users are trying to figure out how and when to make the switch over. It would be nice to have a single solution, but "Export As" is lacking some core functionality that was relied upon for workflows and asset pipelines.

I appreciate that changes take time and look forward to the next release in the hopes that this and other feature requests will be addressed.

@Max Johnson is spot on. The issue here is that "Export As" was pitched as the replacement for "Save for Web". 

The use case for "Save for Web" is pretty clear - you are generating a one-off file that then goes somewhere else (i.e. online etc).

"Export As" on the face of it is a much more powerful alternative and that is why people who routinely used "Save for Web" in actions/batch workflows were super excited to see it come in. (It is 2017 -- we should be able to export a standard/retina/svg/'whatever else we want' image in one go - right?)

The frustration in this thread is that (a) you guys didn't even consider this use case in putting together the replacement for Save for Web (b) there has been no acknowledgement that this is an issue for people or that something is in the pipeline to fix it ... 

Totally agree with @Max Johnson and @Tom Hole.

The 'Export As' feature is great as far as it goes, but there is a real need for using actions to batch process. Adobe are basically giving us a choice of saving a single image at different sizes and resolutions (essential for responsive web design) in 'Export As'; or saving multiple images at a single size using 'Save for web'...

Neither of which address the need that we have to save multiple images in different sizes and resolutions.

And we've been asking for a year or more...

Agree wholeheartedly with both Max and Tom above. Furthermore, by not facilitating 'Export As' in actions, there's an implicit devaluing of the importance and power of automation and batching in a key new(er) feature of Photoshop. Power users want power features. And feature parity.

I pay a monthly subscription for a 'professional' product, and I'm used to relying on processes and features which aid repetitive, iterative creation and output. I've always thought that's what marks PS out from the competition.

If batch functionality is siloed to an older, slower and less efficient process (Save for web, versus Export As) that sends a message that professional needs are less important than new but unrefined features... and that valuable customer feedback is not being taken onboard.

We've had several major (version) and many minor (point) updates since 'Export As' was introduced and there's no sign action functionality has even been considered. And as Max indicates, the suffixing of Save for Web with (Legacy) suggests that's not the prefered route, and could even be mothballed in a future release.

@Jeffery Tranberry What can we do to make the system work for us... and for Adobe to hear the experience of real-world customers? Is there a mechanism in place to actively petition for product improvements which the users on this thread could use to better make the case for this feature? I'm sure most of us would happily state our case in more detail if we thought it would add weight to the demand to implement action support for 'Export As'. Thanks.

This is the best place to add me toos, and comments. This is a top issue and I've been after the Export As team to try and get this in.

I add my loud voice to getting this fixed and implemented. 

Now, I have to do this the manual, tedious and stupid way -- without Actions. 

You can add a "save as" to your action, it works the same as long as you convert the image to 8 bit first (both those commands can be recorded into your action.

I'm not following you. What's missing from CC that you have in CS 5.1?

I have a bunch of PSDs I want to convert to PNG files.

In CC, I can't record "Export" in an action, and all my attempts to record a "Save as" action failed: Photoshop CC seems to take the file name I used for "Save as" in the recording literally, and saves all the PSDs in the folder... overwriting that one target file thirty times. I've tried 30 minutes now but can't get CC to perform the simple job of converting a bunch of files to another format. (If there's a way, I'd appreciate the information for the next time this comes up.)

In CS5.1, I created a new action, recorded an "Optimize for web" action, and ran it. I was done in 3 minutes.

I use Image Processor Pro for that sort of thing. Works every time. 

Jeffrey Tranberry - that's an odd comment in this thread, the whole point of this thread is the lack of parity in CC's new (at the time) Export As feature.  If you'll note, it's 2 years old and we're all still having the same issue(s).  No offense, but you might want to brush up on the products you manage.

@pekka "In CS5.1, I created a new action, recorded an "Optimize for web" action, and ran it. I was done in 3 minutes." Save for Web is still in Photoshop CC (File > Export > Save For Web...) and it should work the same as it did in past releases such as CS5.

@Johnny_n See above. ^ He's referring to Save for Web in CS5 and conflating it with Export As, which wasn't introduced until CC 2015.

Fortunately, there are better ways than Export As to batch jpg and png.

Image Processor Pro in CC does a fine job.

@eartho You mentioned this before... Do you mean the File->Scripts->Image Processor?  Because that is not the same as being able to record an action with the Export-As or Legacy Save-For-Web with recorded settings or scriptable settings.

It also does not support .png or complex format options.

It's not "better" it's just different. It's really great at batch processing a folder of images into JPEGs with an optional action applied. It's not a panacea for export.

Image Processor Pro definitely does support png and and save for web... How do you think we managed to do everything before Export As? You can also tell it to run multiple scripts/actions during the conversion process. Are you not using this tool?

That is *definitely* not the same as the File->Scripts->Image Processor that ships with Photoshop. Looks very useful and I will have to google it. Thanks!

That said, it looks like a 3rd party tool that requires some kind of installation. We are talking about fixing the built-in native photoshop export processes that worked in a certain way before and should have parity with the features they are replacing.

That's Image Processor Pro from xbytor.

Jeff, it'd be really wonderful if you all could ditch the old IP and replace with IPP. I've recommended the pro version hundreds of times over the years and it's changed lives!

I'm really worried that at some point, this tool will break and support from xbytor will be dropped... many of us would have a very difficult time coping with that loss.

Hello Adobe Product Managers, with the ever increasing cost per month of Adobe CC here in Australia, I am disturbed to find out, having wasted hours on this, that Export As is not able to be included in actions, and that we apparently have to find by ourselves a third party open source addon to do the job, while reading constantly from Adobe how great all the new things are that we get with our subscriptions. How hard can it be for a billion dollar company to employ some programmers to make this work? If it is technically impossible, then please put a section in the user guides about what actions are not available for recording, and why. It's really shoddy and disappointing for such a tool, supposed to be for professionals.

Can we please have this made to work?

Another customer here stumped by being unable to record Actions when it comes to the Export As... functionality.

(And who lost time not understanding why actions wouldn't record, since they obviously should).

I use use the Image Processor for this:

- create new action
- File > Scripts > Image Processor (may be different path on the mac)
- choose your desired settings
- stop recording
- use and click Enter.


I use this to batch save psd and jpg with copyright mjetadata and my personal border style in one time.

Hello,

Unfortunately, the Image Processor cannot change the dimensions of a pic without having both the width and height. So using it to make a 500px-wide image is only feasible if one knows beforehand the exact resulting height this width would result in.

Well, unless I missed something. Which is entirely possible, I've had to cut down on coffee.

(Also the .jpg quality is on a 1-10 rather than on a 1-100 scale, but that bit is more of an UX curiosity).

Sorry, but this is not correct.

1/ The image processor justs need to know the maximum size you want for width and height. If you fill in, say, 600px wide and 600px height it will not 'square' your image but look at the largest dimension, reduce this to the desired width and adapt the other size appropriately.

2/ The jpg quality goes up to 12. 9 or 10 are best quality settings for web (I see no other use for jpg anyway) .

I searched a video for you. Here's Julieanne Kost, without any doubt the Queen of Photoshop:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/processing-batch-files.html

A VERY important part of this conversation is that "Export As..." was *supposed* to replace "Save For Web..." and it is the opinion of this thread that the replacement should at least have parity of features with the old version.
An essential part of a professional pipeline is the ability to automate processes to boost productivity.
Image Processor does not support the .png filetype. This is a show-stopper for modern web and mobile development.

>Image Processor does not support the .png filetype.>

A reason we have kept asking Adobe to license or buy Image Processor Pro. Might be time to ask again?<G>

And yes, I agree about the need to keep SFW at least until Export As has parity with it. I use SFW far more than Export As currently.

I agree, has there been any movement on this - it makes Photoshop completely useless as a tool for exporting a large volume of images where automation is vital. 

it's looking like Adobe has abandoned both Export As and Generator... which is a shame because both these tools have so much potential. 

Oh man... I really hope Generator isn't dropped like "Device Preview". Generator is an essential part of the workflow at my company since it let's us pre-set layer names in photoshop templates that artists just "Turn on" and it auto-exports.

SFW and Save As can be scripted with Extendscript. Export is not listed in the scripting documentation, though.

My suggestion would be to use Image Processor Pro (which must be manually installed, BTW. Extension Manager is obsolete.)

Yeah Max, i certainly hope they don't. There was a job i did for Google/Nexus a few years back which would not have been possible without Generator. 

I'm only guessing that they're abandoning based on the lack of updates and refinements. I'm not sure what Adobe's focus is these days, but it seems like they're not paying much attention to those of us who make our living using this product.

> I'm only guessing that they're abandoning based on the lack of updates and refinements.>

Boy do I hope you're wrong, Earth. I know they do put a lot of features on the back burner, some for so long we can barely expect it to stay supported in its current state, but that's an awful lot to leave behind that is obviously pretty popular, judging from so many comments about the features.

Generator is  essential to me since I depend upon Doco, as do many others. But the loss of goodwill if they drop support for Export As and Generator is even more significant than Doco is in my life, I would think.