Some situations call for individual attention to files during the retouching process– but Creative Force understands that there are also times when retouching has repetitive processes that can hamper productivity. With the Bulk Actions Panel, you can automatically apply actions to related task files en masse– saving time, effort, and sanity.
Getting Started
Once a task has been initiated from Hue, each related file will be opened in Photoshop. If at first you dont see the Bulk Action Panel, head to Plugins → Hue → then make sure the bulk actions panel is enabled ✔
Customize Panel
The placement of the Bulk Action Panel can be customized to however it fits best in your Workflow. To modify the physical dimensions of the panel, hover over the corner, then drag the selection horizontally and vertically to resize. The panel can also be dragged to float anywhere within your active screen.
If you ever find it is in your way, you can close it out with the x at the top left, or use the << & >> icons on the right to minimize and expand it back to and from a smaller element.
Panel Components
The Bulk Action Panel is separated into various sections, which can be expanded or minimized as desired. In the table below, you'll find a brief overview of the types of actions found within each section. And in the following sections of the article, we will cover them in more detail.
Panel Section | Overview |
Tasks | Perform general bulk actions related to the tasks assigned to you. |
Actions | Run available Photoshop actions for all open files. |
Fan Out | Execute fan out for all open files. |
Export | Export all open files. |
Upload | Upload all exported files and complete the tasks. |
Task Bulk Actions
The Task section of the Bulk Actions panel contains general actions that can be applied to your selected tasks. This is helpful when working on many simultaneous tasks from Creative Force that may require similar editing.
Bulk Open |
When the bulk open action is selected, Hue will check for all tasks you currently have picked and assigned to you and open the relevant files in Photoshop:
Bulk Close |
When the bulk close action is selected, Hue will close all files currently open in Photoshop that are related to tasks you currently have picked.
Bulk Restart |
When the bulk restart action is selected, Hue will take two actions: first, Hue will close all asset tabs currently open in Photoshop related to your picked tasks. Then, Hue will reopen them with freshly generated workfiles.
Actions
In the Actions section of the Bulk Actions Panel, HUE directly reads from your Photoshop Actions panel. This means any actions you are used to applying to your files in Photoshop can be directly applied to assets related to your Creative Force tasks as well.
After having selected the action to apply, you will be brought to a new menu where all files related to your currently selected tasks will appear. Here you can manually select or unselect them.
⚠️ Alert: If there are files that have not yet been fanned out, these will be noted in red and cannot have the action applied.
At the bottom of the panel, there will be a callout letting you know how many total files will have the action applied to them. To have the actions run on your files, hit 'Run Action.'
📝 Note: Actions are applied to files sequentially rather than simultaneously. This means that, depending on the complexity of the script you are running and the number of files, it may take some time to complete the applications.
Fan Out
Using the Bulk Fan Out action, you will be brought to a menu similar to what is shown in the Actions panel above. A selection menu will show all currently open tasks, their main assets, and their variants. Select which files you would like to generate, then select the fan-out method.
Fan-Out Method | Description |
Duplicate | Copies your current work into each new variant. Edit effects, color profile, bit depth, DPI, etc., are all preserved. Only the dimensions change to match the variant's preset spec. |
Blank | Starts each variant on a fresh, empty canvas– your edits do not carry over. Only essential technical specs are inherited: color profile, bit-per-channel, and DPI.) Dimensions follow the preset (exact pixel/height-width specs transfer; ratio or N/A falls back to the main file's dimensions). |
When selecting the duplicate method, there are two additional settings that can be configured via the settings gear.
Duplicate Setting | Notes |
Scale to Fit Canvas | Resizes your actual image content so it fills as much of the variant canvas as possible without distorting or cropping. The fit is driven by the tighter dimension: if the variant is proportionally taller, the image is scaled so its height matches the canvas height; if proportionally wider, its width matches the canvas width. The remaining side will then have leftover space. This is a resample of the pixels– content is scaled up or down to the new size, so extreme upscaling can sometimes soften detail. |
Center on Canvas | Controls the placement of that content within the new canvas dimensions. A taller variant centers the content horizontally; a wider variant centers it vertically. Without this, the content lands in a default (non-centered) position, and the retoucher would reposition manually. |
📝 Note: These only auto-fit and auto-position– they never stretch, crop, or distort. Any empty canvas area left by a mismatched aspect ratio still needs manual work (extend background, reframe, etc.)
Export
After fanning out your variants and applying edits, it will be time to export them. The Bulk Export action allows you to export all open files for tasks assigned to you at once. You can use the quick-select filters to select all, deselect, select only files that have not yet been exported, or select only files with active QA warnings.
Having selected the files you want to export, hit 'next' and you will be brought to the pre-export review screen. Any files that do not currently meet the Auto QA specifications set in the Preset will be flagged orange, with their specific failing spec attributes listed in the expanded details.
Also, in the expanded export settings, you will see a number of export settings that can be further configured manually. The options are explained in the table below.
⚠️ Remembered Settings: When you land on the review screen, HUE first looks for a remembered setting tied to that specific preset/task context. If found, it pre-selects those settings.
The memory is stored locally on the retoucher's machine and persists across Photoshop sessions, but it's per-user and per-machine– it's not shared across teammates or synced from the server.
If there's no remembered setting for that context, it falls back to the default selections as the hardcoded default.
Export Option | Notes |
File Format | A dropdown to pick the output type: JPG, PNG, PSD, PSB, TIF. Note that some "advanced" formats only appear if your account has advanced file types enabled. If the chosen format doesn't match what the workflow's delivery preset expects, a warning icon appears next to the field. |
File Extension | The specific extension for the chosen format. Most formats have one option, but some offer a choice– JPG gives |
Quality | A percentage dropdown from 10% to 100% (in 10% steps), defaulting to 100%. It sets JPEG compression quality: higher = better image, larger file. This only shows for JPG, or for TIF when its compression is set to JPEG. |
Progressive | Controls how the JPEG loads/renders: when on, the image is saved so it appears in progressively sharper passes (useful for web); when off, it's a standard baseline JPEG rendered top-to-bottom. Purely a JPG option. |
Embed Color Profile | When checked, the file's ICC color profile is written into the exported file so colors are interpreted consistently downstream. When unchecked, no profile is embedded. If the work file has no color profile, this option is greyed out and forced off. The review screen's Document summary line reflects this– it'll show the color profile only if this is embedded, and flags a warning if the result won't match the preset's expected profile. |
After configuring and reviewing your export options for each spec, hit 'Export' to apply and export all the selected files in bulk. Once complete, you will return to the file selection menu. You can reselect and export again with new export settings, or hit 'back' to return to the main panel.
Upload
With your variants fanned out, your files edited, and exported to the desired formats, you can move on to the final bulk action to complete your retouching task. How the next screen looks and what you're able to do depends on how Auto-QA is configured in the settings Workflow.
Auto QA Enforced
When a tasks Workflow has 'Auto QA Enforced' enabled within its Workflow, upload can not be completed until the related files meet all of the specification requirements outlined in its related Preset.
The files that do not meet the requirements will be flagged along with their failing attributes. The Upload button at the bottom right corner will be greyed out, and you will be unable to move forward until the flagged issues have been corrected.
Auto QA Override
When a tasks Workflow has Auto QA Override enabled, any failing specifications for the files will be flagged, but the Upload button will be selectable.
After selecting Upload, you will be shown a final warning and need to confirm you intend to upload the files even though they do not meet technical specifications.
Once the Uploads have been processed, the related tasks will be complete, and you can return to Hue to pick more tasks or end your session.