In the user forums at the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, we get many questions from users who are trying to batch process multiple images. Typically, the object is to convert a bunch of images – from several files to several hundred files. The conversions may be oriented to a specific file type, such as TIFF or JPG, or to a specific size, such as a low res output for proofs, email or web thumbnails, or to perform a specific action such as sharpening or adding a watermark.

The first place people tend to look when confronted with these sorts of tasks is Photoshop’s Batch processing capability. While the Batch command will allow you to perform all these activities, there is an easier way already built into Photoshop – and it is available from Bridge. It is a script, called the Image Processor.

The Image Processor script has several advantages compared to the Batch command. For starters, the Image Processor (we’ll call it “IP” for short) has a great deal of capability already built in, and you can get a lot of work accomplished without creating a single action at all! The IP will allow you to do all of the following easily:

• Create a new file in either JPG, TIFF, or PSD, or all three simultaneously.
• Places the output in a folder of your choosing, creating subfolders for each file type you choose.
• Processes any type of file Photoshop can open, including Camera Raw – use it to create JPG output from your raw files, including adjustments you’ve made.
• Resize your images to fit within a specified maximum boundary you set.
• Convert to sRGB color profile automatically for the web.
• Include Copyright metadata in the output images.

You can run an action as well, as part of the processing, if you choose!

You can run IP from Photoshop, or from Bridge. Running this script from within Bridge allows us another huge advantage over running it from Photoshop:

• Process any set of files you have selected within Bridge. This can include part of a folder, or the results of a search, or a collection.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the details of how we can put Image Processor to work. First, just for grins, we’ll look at the Photoshop implementation of IP. Then we’ll jump over to Bridge and see how it blows Photoshop out of the water.

In Photoshop, choose File > Scripts > Image Processor… and you will get the following dialog box (we’re just looking at the top part of it for now). Check out section (1), “Select images to process:”

As you can see, within Photoshop, we have several options:

• Use Open Images – if you have images already open in Photoshop, this option is active and you can choose it. Otherwise, it is greyed out.
• Select Folder… – This allows you to choose an entire folder of images from your hard drive. It will select every image in the folder.
• Include All sub-folders – checking this box this will select not just the selected folder, but every image in every subfolder beneath the one you’ve selected.
• Open first image to apply settings – check this box if you are opening a series of camera raw images and want to adjust settings, such as white balance, and have it applied to the entire group of images (not very useful, in my opinion).

Within Photoshop, that’s what you get.

Let’s now consider Bridge, and from here on out we will work with Bridge. We’ll take the IP script one step at a time, and make quick work of it.

Part 1 – Select the images to process

In Bridge, start the process by selecting the images first. You can use any means of selection at your disposal within Bridge. Control/Command click to select individual images, or use Ctrl-A/Command-A to select all with in a folder. Or, create a search and select photos from the results of the search. Or, go to your Collections panel and choose one, several or all files from a collection.

With Bridge, the sly is the limit. Any method of selecting files is fair game. Once you’ve selected your files, from the Bridge menu, choose Tools > Photoshop > Image Processor…:

Notice that Section (1) is now changed. Gone are all the options for selecting photos (you’ve already done that in Bridge). The only option left is the checkbox for opening the first image to apply settings. The rest is already done. Notice that the dialog is now hard-wired to “Process files from Bridge only” – that is exactly what we want.

On to the next step…

Part 2 – Select location to save processed images

In this part, we tell IP where we want the output files to go. You have two basic choices, one being to place them in the same folder, the other being to place them at some other location of your choosing.

In either case, IP will create a subfolder based on the type of file we ask to export (in the next step). Here is our dialog box showing part 2:

As you can see, we have our radio buttons with the two choices mentioned above. When you click on Select Folder, you get the standard system dialog allowing you to choose a folder for output, or create one on the fly. In this case, I’ve selected a folder called “To E-Mail” in my personal folders. We’re ready to move on to….

Part 3 – File Type

This third section is where the work happens, and this is the most complex part of the dialog. We’ll break it apart to see what is happening. Here’s what it looks like:

Under this section, there are three main areas separated by ruled lines. These three areas are activated by the checkboxes, and represent the three types of files that IP can create:

• Save as JPEG – this will create a sub-folder named “JPEG” and will save converted files in that subfolder. There are three options within the JPEG selection:

1. Quality – this is a number from 1 to 12 representing the JPEG quality setting.
2. Convert Profile to sRGB – Converts the color profile to sRGB on output. This is useful for web and email.
3. Resize to Fit – this will constrain the output image to a maximum dimension. Note that the image remains proportional, this will NOT stretch or distort your image. It simply defines the largest dimension that your final image must fit within.

• Save as PSD – this will create a sub-folder named “PSD” and will save converted files in that subfolder.

1. Maximize Compatibility – saves a composite (flattened) version of a layered image for compatibility with programs that can’t read layers (such as Lightroom).
2. Resize to Fit – same as above.

• Save as TIFF – this will create a sub-folder named “TIFF” and will save converted files in that subfolder.

1. LZW Compression – compresses the TIFF file on saving.
2. Resize to Fit – same as above.

Note also that these three file type are checkboxes – you can enable any one, two, or all three at once, and IP will create the output formats you choose!

Part 4 – Preferences

In this section, we have a few miscellaneous options that we can enable, some of which are quite useful:

Run Action – this is an option, it is not required, but can be useful. In this example, you can see I’ve set IP to have Photoshop run my watermark action.

Copyright Info – Here you can enter information which will be written directly into the Copyright field of the image’s metadata. Convenient! However, if you’ve followed my series of tutorials on applying copyright metadata automatically, you probably don’t need this

Include ICC Profile – this option will embed the color profile in the image as it is created. This is important if you are planning to use the image as part of a color-managed workflow.

Let ‘Er Rip!!!

Now, we’re ready to roll. Just click the “Run” button and watch Photoshop do its thing. Or better yet, go have a cup of coffee, or move along to the next job, because this one is taking care of itself! Here’s the dialog, ready to run. In this case, I’ve set IP to save a series of JPEG files for me, in a folder called “To E-Mail,” with quality 10 and a maximum dimension of 800 pixels on either side. They’ll be watermarked, copyrighted, and will be saved in a subfolder called “JPEG.”

Finally, notice the two buttons we didn’t cover? “Load…” and “Save…”? You may have figured out by now, that once you have all these settings the way you want, you can Save them off to a file, and re-load them again later… for an extra-speedy process.

It’s just that simple!

I hope you enjoyed and benefited from this little demonstration of some of the hidden power of Bridge, and the Image Processor script.

Well, here we go again! Another “Windows Patch Tuesday” has come and gone (Microsoft sends its Windows updates on the 2nd Tuesday of the month, if you haven’t noticed), and in this month’s batch we have a few interesting ones!

Microsoft has continued to plug holes in its Active Template Library (the coding widgets used by many software developers on the Windows platform), and this month’s updates included 5 separate ATL patches for my Windows XP SP3 machine. Additionally, there were two vulnerabilities fixed in remote service protocols, one in Windows Media handling, and an update for MS Office. Finally, there is an update to the Outlook Junk E-mail filter as well.

Make sure to patch your systems and keep them up to date! Remember, you are never bullet proof, but you can stay a step ahead of the rest by updating frequently!

If you’re interested, here is the list of patches that came through on my system this morning:

• MS09-043: Description of the security update for Office 2003 Web Components and Office XP Web Components in Office 2003: August 11, 2009
• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-044 – Critical – Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Connection Could Allow Remote Code Execution (970927)
• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-042 – Important – Vulnerability in Telnet Could Allow Remote Code Execution (960859)
• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-038 – Critical – Vulnerabilities in Windows Media File Processing Could Allow Remote Code Execution (971557)
• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-041 – Important – Vulnerability in Workstation Service Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (971657)
• Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-037 – Critical – Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) Could Allow Remote Code Execution (973908) (5 separate patches in Windows XP SP3)
• Outlook 2007 Junk E-mail Filter update: August 11, 2009
• Extended Protection for authentication
• Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool – August 2009

Late breaking update! As this went to press, I learned that WordPress has also issued a security update this morning, bringing their current version to 2.8.4. Update soon, this one’s a critical risk.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could automate some of this? I’m glad you asked! Photoshop has some very nice features that will allow us to completely automate this process – you’ll be amazed! Every image you open in Photoshop will automatically have your copyright data embedded, without you having to remember to do it!

Note: This is an intermediate level Photoshop exercise, but I’ve given you all the steps, and this is a one-time exercise – if you set this up once, you’re set for as long as Photoshop remains on your machine.

Without further ado, let’s begin this process, where we left off in the previous exercise. Recall that we have created a metadata preset within Photoshop, containing our copyright data (my preset is named MJH2009). In this next part, we will use two techniques to complete our automation wizardry:

1. Create an action that will apply our preset in one click;
2. Install an Event Listener to run our action automatically – with no intervention whatsoever!

If this sounds complicated – it isn’t! Follow these steps and you’ll fix it and forget it – all your images will be protected automatically, with nothing for you to remember. So, let’s get started:

Step 1: Record an action adding the metadata template to a document:

• With any document open…
• In the actions panel (Window > Actions), click the Create New Action icon:

• Name your action (i.e. "MyCopyright2009").
• Pick the Set in which you want to store your action (I used Mike’s Actions).
• Click Record.

At this point, the action is recording, and waiting for you to make a move… everything you do will be remembered until you stop recording, to be repeated at any time later.

Step 2: Walk through the steps we used in Part 1 to add metadata with our template:

• Select from the menu (not via keyboard shortcut) File > File Info…
• Choose your template from the flyout triangle just to the left of the OK button, as we did in the previous exercise.

• Click on the option to keep original metadata, but append matching properties from template.

• Click OK – You’re done!

Step 3: Now end the recording to complete your action

• Click the "Stop Playing/Recording" icon in the actions panel:

OK, our action is complete! At any time, you can open the actions panel and select your action, click “play” and it will add the metadata automatically.

I don’t know about you, but I’m too lazy to leave it at that – we need to take it to the next level, using an Event Listener to run this action every time we open a document… automatically, with no user intervention!

Here’s how we’ll add the Event Listener:

Step 1: Enable the Events Manager for the activity of your choosing (let’s start with the activity being a “New Document,” which means this will run whenever we use the command File > New…):

• Choose File > Scripts > Scripts Events Manager…
• Check the checkbox for Enable Events to run Scripts/Actions

Step 2: Set the options to run our action every time a new document is opened:

1. In the "Photoshop Event" dropdown, choose the event where you want to trigger the action: New Document in this case.
2. Click the radio button for "Action" and choose your action, i.e. MyCopyright2009 from the list
3. Click Add (don’t click "Done” yet!):

Notice that the event is added to the list.

Step 3: Now we’ll add another event listener for File>Open… you’ll have to add a second items to the list for Open Document. If you add it to Open Document, it will trigger every time an existing file is opened.

1. In the "Photoshop Event" dropdown, choose the event where you want to trigger the action: Open Document in this case.
2. Ensure the radio button for "Action" is still active, and your action, i.e. MyCopyright2009 is still listed.
3. Click Add as before.

Here is the Event Manager after adding the action to both New Document and Open Document events:

• Now, click Done, and… you are done!

At this point, if you’re still with me, Photoshop is now on full autopilot – appending your copyright metadata to all of your images, on the fly, behind the scenes, without you having to lift a finger (or even remember to do it). Now, that’s what I call productive laziness!

Today, we will take the first steps, in identifying ways to add copyright information to your images. If you aren’t already doing this, read on! If you are, I encourage you to read on anyway, as we will be looking at ways to speed up your workflow and automate things, so you can work harder on your image and not so hard on the maintenance!

When you open an image in Photoshop, and that image contains a copyright notice, Photoshop will recognize this and add a small © symbol to the title bar of the image, like so:

In order to view the copyright information, you can select File > File Info… from the menu, and you are taken to a rather large dialog box showing all the metadata for the file. Today, we’re going to focus only on the “Description” tab of the File Info dialog box; it is there we find the copyright section.

So, how do we go about getting this data into our image? We could use this dialog box, open it for each image, and type all the copyright information in each field, and save the file. But, there has to be a better way, right? That’s why we’re here… What we will do is to create a template containing all the copyright data we need, and save it so we can re-apply it to any image we wish. This template is known as a metadata template, and can contain lots of other information in addition to copyright data… but that is a lesson for another day!

Step 1: Let’s start with a new blank document (File > New…), and accept the defaults. Then, open the File Info dialog box as we’ve seen above. Notice how the copyright status is “unknown” and the rest of the copyright information is blank?

Step 2: Let’s go ahead and populate the fields like so:

1. Change the status to “Copyrighted",”
2. Add a Copyright notice (I’ve used “©2009 Michael J. Hoffman – All Rights Reserved”), and
3. Add the URL of our standard copyright notice on the web.

Then, click the arrow to the left of the “OK” button, and choose “Export…” from the dropdown list. This will allow us to save the copyright data to a template file, so we can import it again later.

Step 3: Now, give your template a name – I’ve called mine “MJH 2009.xmp".”

That’s all there is to it!

Now, open a new image that needs a copyright notice. Go to the File Info Dialog box, and pick the same arrow to the left of the OK button. This time, choose the name you gave your template (it should now appear in the list). Photoshop will import the metadata from the template, and will present you with the following dialog box:

Clear existing properties and replace…: This option is the most dangerous. ALL metadata will be cleared and ONLY the metadata from your template will be added to the file.

Keep original metadata, but replace…: This option completely replaces any metadata items that you have in your template, but keeps any other metadata intact in the file.

Keep original metadata, but append…: This option is safest – it will only update the metadata from your template if the corresponding field in the file is blank.

I prefer to use the last option in the general case, as it will preserve any existing fields (you don’t want to change an existing copyright notice!).

Now we’re done! Look at the title bar of the image, and you’ll see the little © symbol, indicating your image has been updated.

Now, you’re probably saying to yourself, “this is still too much work,” and you’re right! So, that is why, in the next installment, we’re going to take a look at automatically applying this metadata template to each image you open, on the fly. But in order to get that level of automation, you have to prepare, and do this work upfront – right here, right now.