Shrinking picture files

[kitchen_kink]

Dear Livejournal,

Say I had a bunch of picture files. Say I wanted to take a bunch of them at a time and shrink them from, say, 1-2 MB apiece to 50-100K apiece.

What would be a relatively fast and painless way to do this, on a Mac?

Comments

[jessejames21.livejournal.com]

In Photoshop it's quick and simple, if you already have it. If you don't, it's a small amount of added pain-in-the-ass: you can go to Adobe and download a free trial that's good for a month, but you will have to register (for free). The download will take some time.

Once you've got it, just choose Image--Image Size and it'll open up a dialog box where you can change the size.

If you're not going to use Photoshop on a regular basis, I would reccomend uninstalling it once you're done, since it eats up so much memory.

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

I wrote a quick Automator script for my mac earlier this week for just this sort of thing. It also re-names, I could send it to you if you would like.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes please!

[thorn-plutonius.livejournal.com]

You might also look into the GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/

It is free, cross-platform, open source image manipulation software.

These folks provide a Mac binary: http://wilber-loves-apple.org/

You need to install the X11 option for OS X. It comes on your original OS X install media.

Less involved options:

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Graphics/iResize.shtml
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Graphics/Graphic-Converter-X.shtml

Disclaimer:

I use PhotoShop 7 on one of my Macs. I've instaleld GIMP and fiddled with it a bit, but have not used it much. I've not investigated the other software beyond doing the search and reading the web pages.

Just remember to work on copies of the files, not the originals, so you don't accidentally destroy something you want to keep.

Good luck!

[dda.livejournal.com]

You might try this (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32838); I haven't used it myself but it seems to be what you want.

[macthud]

Graphic Converter is the one I'd use. There are several ways to achieve the size reduction you want -- from the JPEG "fidelity" setting, to the number of colors used in the picture file, to the resolution of the image...

I'd experiment on a few images, and see which strategy gives the best results to your eye, and then use *that* to build a batch conversion.

I've been using GC for a LONG time. I don't remember when I first downloaded it. I've paid for it, too -- but you don't have to. It'll work as nagware for years, if you need it to.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Can you do image editing, adding text, making banners, things like that, with GC? I have it, but I'm having a hell of a time figuring out how to use it.

I've just been using iPhoto for batch size conversions.

[macthud]

You can do all of these things with GC. They're not all as easily found as in Photoshop, but they're there.

There's a manual available, definitely as PDF, possibly printed/bound. Probably worth the purchase.