This is just a quick guide on how to use the Action file in Photoshop.
If you haven't already prepared your images then check out these two guides on how to prepare your images before turning them into a logo:
Starting with Vector Format .ai/eps files
Starting with jpeg/gif/png Files
The only real change from FM08 is the small logos in FM09 they are now 25x18 pixels, however the only time you now need to use the small-wide action is when the width/height ratio of your logo is greater than 1.388, if it is less than this use the standard action.
There should be four actions included in the file:
All_standard - will create the background_left, background_right logos as well as standard sized logos for the normal and small logos.
small - will create the new FM09 sized small logo (handy for when you just need to update the small logo from FM08)
Wide-Normal - will create a wide version of the normal logo, for logos that are wider than they are tall.
Wide-Small - will create a wide version of the small logo, to be used when the width/height ratio is greater than 1.388.(25/18)
1. To open the action file just drag and drop it into Photoshop, whilst Photoshop is open. Or double-click it and it should open Photoshop.
2. Next you’ll need to pick somewhere to save the created graphics to on your Hard Drive, I’d select somewhere that can easily be found.
3. Once you have picked a location, create four new folders and call them background_left, background_right, normal and small. One for each type of logo. (For FM09 the huge and normal logos are from the same image, but with different config files).
4. Now you’ll need to edit the action file so that the export location corresponds to your chosen location.
5. First open any image in Photoshop, something small but it’s not important what.
6. In the actions panel Click on the small arrow > to the left of the action All_standard, so it expands the action, now scroll down until you find the first Export Command.
7. Double click on the Export Command and the Save For Web Dialog box should appear, now the file type you have to select is PNG-24, and also tick the Interlaced and Transparency boxes, click save and then select the location for the background_right folder you created earlier.
8. Now repeat for the other three logo types, next one will be the background_left logo, then normal and finally small.
9. You’ll also need to fix the Export command for the other 3 actions.
10. Now to run the action, open an image in Photoshop, select the All_standard action and tick the green arrow at the bottom of the actions panel. Photoshop will now create and save each of the logo types to the folders you picked earlier.
11. Alternatively if you have a complete folder that you want processing goto File -> Automate -> Batch. Under Set select FM08_standard and under Action select the action you want to perform. Under Source select Folder (unless you have opened all the images you want), then select Choose and browse to folder that the logos are located in. Select OK to run the action. Now just wait for the action to finish.
12. After the action has finished, browse through the completed logos to make sure they turned out fine.
13. For any image that is wider than it is tall you’ll have to run the Wide-Normal Action after running the All_standard action to replace the Normal logo. (You don’t need to replace the background logos).
14. For any image that has a width/height ratio greater than 1.388, you'll need to run the Wide-Small Action after running the All_Standard action to replace the small logo.
15. And that’s it, now all you need to do is make the config files, and put them into you User Data Folder.
DOWNLOAD THE FM2009 STANDARD LOGOS ACTION FILE