Today’s Question: When I open an image in Photoshop, it’s always necessary for me to choose View > Fit on Screen from the menu to maximize the image size before I can proceed with anything else. Is there a way to instruct Photoshop to perform that step automatically every time an image is opened?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can have Photoshop always size images with the “Fit on Screen” zoom setting by creating an action that you activate to be run every time an image is opened in Photoshop.
More Detail: The first step to enable Photoshop to always zoom images with the “Fit on Screen” setting is to create an action for this purpose. Start by going to the Actions panel, choosing Window > Actions if the panel isn’t currently visible. Navigate to the folder (or create a new one) in the Actions panel where you want to create the action. Then “Create a New Action” button (the blank sheet of paper icon) at the bottom of the Actions panel to start the process of creating an action.
In the New Action dialog, type a meaningful name for the action, such as “Zoom Fit on Screen”. Confirm the desired folder is selected for the action, and then click Record to begin creating the actual action. Then click on the panel popup menu at the top-right of the Actions panel (it has an icon of a set of four horizontal lines) and choose “Insert Menu Item” from the popup menu.
When the Insert Menu Item dialog appears, go to the menu bar and choose View > Fit on Screen. Then click OK in the Insert Menu Item dialog. You can then click the “Stop Recording” button (the white square icon) at the bottom of the Actions panel to stop recording the action.
Next, go to the menu bar and choose File > Scripts > Script Event Manager. In the Script Events Manager dialog turn on the “Enable Events to Run Scripts/Actions” checkbox if it isn’t already turned on. Then choose “Open Document” from the Photoshop Event popup. Below that, set the option button to Action (rather than Script). Select the folder where you created the action, and the action you created with the Fit on Screen command. Click the Add button to add this event, and then click the Done button to close the Script Events Manager dialog.
At this point, every time you open an image in Photoshop (whether directly or via another application such as Adobe Bridge), the image will automatically resize with the “Fit on Screen” zoom setting.