tutorial: batch processing
Note: This Photoshop® tip assumes a basic knowledge of photoshop. I have found that this time-saver has worked over the last 3 versions of Photoshop.
This TIP is one of my most used, and has saved me hours of computer time.
If you have to do the same thing to a great number of files use your ACTIONS palette to record the changes and then BATCH process either an entire folder of images the same way or just one at a time. Either way it’s a great time saver that I have used for watermarking, resizing, adding effects or whatever to large or small groups of images at the same time or – since the action is saved – at a later date. You can even export the actions to transfer to other computers.
HERE’S AN EXAMPLE:
You have thirty CMYK EPS files and you need to change to thirty 800-Pixel wide RGB JPEG files.
Step One:
Open you ACTIONS Palette (Option/F9 or Window > Actions)
Open one file and select “New Action” from the palette options… name it “800 Pixel RGB” and click “Record”
Perform the following steps on your image:
a) convert to RGB
b) change image size to 72pixels/inch and 800 Pixels wide.
b) go to File > Save As > JPEG
c) Close
Stop recording (click the square button at the bottom of the Actions Palette).
Your actions palette should now look like this:
You can now delete your new JPEG file as the BATCH processing will create another.
Step Two:
In Photoshop choose the menus:
FILE > AUTOMATE > BATCH
Set up your options like the following image, all you need to do for yourself is to choose your source and destination folders.
Notes Re Options:
1) Always Click “Override Action “Save As” Commands” This allows you to keep the original filename of the image with only the new .jpg extension and gives you the option of adding a notation to the filename as I have done here with “_800pix”.
2) If you have an “Open” command in your recording you will need to click “Override action “Open” Commands”
3) Never use the same folder as your source and destination. Use separate folders to keep things organised and to avoid over wrighting files.
4) The destination folder can only be within (but not the same as) the root folder if you do NOT click “Include All Subfolders”.
Your batch dialogue should look like this:
david
