14 DAY TRIAL // When working with images, there is always the fine line between repeating the same step several times and making a script or batch job to go through them automatically. Sometimes, there are simply not enough images to warrant spending time on creating an automated solution, other times, there are so many of them that you wouldn't even consider doing it by hand. And then there are those in between times, when there are neither too many, nor too few, and setting up a batch would take just about as much time as doing them by hand. This is one of those moments when you usually lean one way or the other and go with what is most familiar to you, regardless of whether it is the better option. In times like these, I always favor small, third party batch programs that are easier to get up and going than normal batches but still take less time than doing things by hand.
Batch is such a program.
What it does Batch is a program that was designed to make batch-processing images as easy and straight forward as possible. And it has achieved this to quite a degree.
Everything, starting with locating the images to setting up the options for each batch group is intuitive and simple and very well organized, letting you just breeze through the entire process without things ever getting confusing.
Preparing the images Before actually getting down to make a batch, you first need the images for it. Browsing to the desired images is pretty simple using the browser located on the left of the main window. It can get messy depending on your folder hierarchy, but that is to be expected from the list browse mode. To avoid this, you can browse from the preview area, which is similar to the icon view in the Finder Once you have located the folder where the images are, you can open it, and take a look through the images. The program has both a slideshow and a full screen mode for this.
Now comes one of the great things about this program. You can mark the images as belonging to one of nine different groups, and then, you can set up the batch with different setting for each group, letting you process a huge number of files in one fell swoop, basically doing up to ten batch operations in one. To mark an image, simply select it and press the corresponding key, from 1 to 9, with 0 representing no group. To further help you along, the program lets you rename the groups to whatever you see fit, so you can better identify what group contains when setting up the batch.
Unfortunately, you cannot mark images when in slideshow or full screen mode, which from my point of view is a real shame as I make heavy use of the options in most image viewing programs. Another disappointment was when I found out that renaming the groups had no effect on the little badges that are displayed in the corner of the image. Once you have been using the program for some time, I am sure that you would no longer need this, however, when you first begin using it, it is hard to remember all the groups. Perhaps a list of all the group number and their respective labels would help.
Batch in 4 simple steps Once you have all the images marked out, you are ready to set up the batch and get the ball rolling. Pressing the batch button will bring out the batch options sheet, in which you set up the details.
On the top half, you select the source of the images, and the batch group you want to set up. Then, all settings can be found under the five tabs in the lower half of the window.
Under the Size and Format tab, you can select the destination format, and the quality of the compression, if appropriate. Then you can resize the image, either arbitrarily or keeping the proportions, specifying either the pixel count or the percentage value. You can also modify the DPI value here.
In the second tab, labeled File Name, you can set up a rule for generating new file names, which can contain prefixes and suffixes of user definable text, the date, or serial number of up to three digits. You can also include separators between the prefix, file name, and suffix, however, the program will always make use of the original name of the file and will not modify it.
Under the third tab, you can choose whether or not to embed a ColorSync profile, and then opt between the original one and any other.
The fourth tab, Other, is where you can make transformations to the image. Both flip and rotate are available here, as well as the option to add watermark text in either of the corner o in the middle of the image.
The last tab, labeled Raw is useful when dealing with RAW images, letting you choose how you want the white balance to be handled and allowing you to tweak the brightness of the image as well as the Red and Blue hue multipliers.
The Good Makes it easy to set up different batch groups and process them all in one go. Very simple and intuitively laid out.
The Bad Can only process images from one single folder. You should be able to add images from several sources into the window and be able to process them all.
The Truth A nice and easy batch processing tool which shows it has been very well thought out. It lacks a bit of power under the hood, not letting you make considerable changes.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
