How to process images in bulk

[tpb101]

I will be importing around 5,000 picture galleries with around 15 images in each gallery. Galleries were started in 2008 and they get added until now, but the images there don't have the same parameters / sizes. Some of them are ok for a website, and some of them would need to be compressed for less bandwidth usage over time. The good ones are like 150KB, and the other ones go to like 500KB so the difference is big. This is a total of around 75,000 images, so this disk space adds up.

I am familiar with Linux and I can import it to the server with a script that I am using and try to do it with Imagemagic on there, but I've never tried it yet. I am wondering if there is any better way of doing it, and this would be on Windows probably. I can buy a good program for downloading images from galleries to separate folders from a cvs list, and then I could go over them, and compress whatever would be needed on Windows in some way.

I am not sure what would be the best way to do it... Linux can be good, but I can get better results with some Windows solution too...

[localfame]

there is a free program for windows - Radical Image Optimization Tool (RIOT) - very handy with image optimisation on bulk. Does whatever is needed on bulk - change resolution, convert to different format, compress, etc. Not quite sure if it can handle all images at once... but you can try :)

[iwrconsultancy]

IrfanView is quite good for this kind of thing.

Or you could do it with php's GDImage lib, which I find is quite good at preserving quality. Only thing about using php is that you would have to run it from the commandline since a webserver script would time out with so many to process.

Mara CMS has a gallery which tolerates images of varying pixel dimensions better than most - [maracms.com...] - the contact sheet creation is automatic, basically you just upload the files to a defined gallery folder and the system does the rest. You would still need to preprocess locally before upload to deal with non-optimal compression, but at least it eliminates the need for cropping, thumbnail creation and registration. The next gallery version is under development, and will feature control by keyboard or tap-zones as well as the usual buttons.

[zulu_dude]

I've used jpegtran to successfully optimise & compress thousands of images on a linux box. It took a bit of fiddling about with a test set of images to get it right, but it was the best way that I'd found.

For what it's worth, this is the command I used (although it's a while ago now, so I can't remember exactly what bit does what!):
find 2015/01 -name "*.jpg" -exec sudo jpegtran -optimize -outfile "{}" "{}" \;

[devkit]

can't you do it with photoshop actions?

[martinibuster]

As the previous member suggested it can be done with Photoshop using a function called Actions. The Action function works exactly like a tape recorder. You hit the record button and carry out the editing function you wished accomplished, such as reducing an image in a particular way. Then you hit the Stop button to stop recording. After that you hit the play button on a batch of opened images and it'll keep repeating your recorded action. You might need a lot of ram to process 75,000 images in one batch with Photoshop though so it'll probably best be accomplished in several batches.

[tangor]

If Windows, then look to Thumbs+, has a batch function that can iterate folders upon folders ... set your desired res/quality and walk away. Can do in place (which means your images get changed and there's no going back) or can set a new location for each change. This is a commercial product.