A Droplet is a miniature application that runs a Photoshop action on any files you drag onto it. Drag a folder of 500 images onto a Droplet icon, walk away, and come back to find all 500 processed and saved. It’s the simplest form of Photoshop automation, and it’s genuinely useful for repetitive production work.

Creating a Droplet

Go to File > Automate > Create Droplet. The dialog has several sections:

Save Droplet In: Choose where to save the Droplet application file. Your desktop is convenient for frequent use; a shared network folder works for team access.

Play: Select the Action Set and the specific Action the Droplet will run. This is the action that executes on every file.

Source: Typically set to “Folder” if you want the Droplet to process everything in a specific location. But when using the Droplet by drag-and-drop, the source is whatever you drop onto it.

Destination: Where processed files go. “Save and Close” overwrites originals (risky). “Folder” saves to a location you specify (safer). Choose a dedicated output folder.

File Naming: If saving to a folder, you can define a naming scheme using combinations of document name, serial number, date, and extension. “document name + serial letter + extension” produces filenames like “portrait_A.jpg,” “portrait_B.jpg.”

Essential Settings

Override Action “Open” Commands. Check this if your action contains an Open step. Without this checkbox, the action tries to open a specific file (the one you recorded with) instead of the file being processed. This is the most common source of Droplet failures.

Override Action “Save As” Commands. Similarly, check this if your action includes a Save As step. This forces the Droplet to use the destination settings you specified rather than the recorded save location.

Suppress File Open Options Dialogs. Check this to prevent Photoshop from asking about color profile mismatches, RAW settings, or other import dialogs for each file. Without it, the Droplet pauses on every file that triggers a dialog.

Suppress Color Profile Warnings. Same principle — check this for unattended operation.

Building Actions for Droplets

Not every action works well as a Droplet. Actions designed for Droplet use should:

Start with no assumptions about the open document. Don’t reference specific layer names, selections, or document properties that might not exist.

End with a Save and Close step. The action should save the processed file and close it, freeing memory for the next file in the batch.

Avoid modal dialogs. Any step that opens a dialog and waits for user input defeats the purpose of automation. Disable modal controls on all steps, or use fixed values that work for your typical files.

Handle errors gracefully. In the Droplet creation dialog, set “Stop For Errors” to “Log Errors To File.” This records problems without halting the entire batch.

Practical Droplet Workflows

Resize and sharpen for web. An action that resizes to 2000px on the long edge, applies web sharpening, converts to sRGB, and saves as JPEG at quality 80. Drop your selects folder on it after culling.

Watermark application. An action that places your watermark file, scales it to a percentage of the image size, positions it in a corner, and flattens. Process entire delivered galleries in minutes.

File format conversion. Converting TIFF archives to JPEG, or PSD files to flattened TIFFs for print. Simple but tedious without automation.

Contact sheet preparation. Resize to thumbnail dimensions and add a filename text layer. Process hundreds of images for client proofing.

Droplet Limitations

Droplets are tied to the Photoshop version that created them. A Droplet made in Photoshop 2025 may not work in Photoshop 2026. Recreate Droplets after major Photoshop updates.

Droplets can’t make decisions. They apply the same action identically to every file. If different images need different treatment, you need Photoshop scripting, not Droplets.

Performance depends on your hardware. Processing 500 high-res files means Photoshop opens, processes, saves, and closes each one sequentially. On a fast machine with an SSD, expect 10-30 seconds per file depending on complexity. On slower hardware, batch a large folder overnight.

Organizing Droplets

Keep your Droplets in a dedicated folder with clear names: “Resize 2000px Web JPEG.exe” tells you exactly what it does. Create a shortcut to this folder on your desktop for quick access. Group related Droplets together — all your output Droplets in one place, all your correction Droplets in another.