Friday, July 20, 2018

How to Convert Photo Files in Bulk

If the thought of saving a huge folder of photo files in a different format makes you tired, perk up. You can do them all at once, and you may not even need expensive software.

Q. I have hundreds of TIFF-formatted photos. Is there an efficient way to convert these photos to JPG all at once?

A. Just as you can rename multiple photos at once through “batch processing,” you can convert a large collection of images from one file format to another in one step. The TIFF format, common in print production, generally makes for much larger file sizes than images stored in the more compressed, web-friendly JPG format.

Popular image-editing programs like those in Adobe’s Photoshop family include commands to convert files from TIFF to JPG, and the program’s help guide should be able to give you specific conversion instructions for your version. But you have plenty of alternatives if you do not use such photo-management software.

The Mac and Windows app stores host several relatively inexpensive utility programs for converting file formats, resizing and optimizing images in a batch. When shopping for a suitable program, read the reviews and make sure the software does everything you want it to do.

On the Mac, the $10 PhotoBulk from Eltima Software does batch jobs and can add watermarks and date stamps to your pictures. Windows users have plenty of programs to browse as well, including the free IrFanView or the $35 Pixillion Plus Image Converter. While a bit more technically demanding, the cross-platform, open-source GIMP software can also handle batch operations.


No comments:

Post a Comment