Batch Image Edits in Photoscape |

Photoscape has well earned the title of the Swiss Army Knife of photo editors. Recently, more clients have been asking about a tool that does batch editing of files for resize and quick fixes. Photoscape, a free program available for both Windows and Mac, has one of the most versatile Batch Editors. This tutorial describe how to use the Batch Edit Feature of Photoscape.

Getting Started

Although Photoscape is available for both Windows and the Mac, the Windows version came first and has a broader feature set then Photoscape Mac. And the operations of the two versions though similar are different with Mac having blend and combine features beyond the Windows version while Windows has many more photo edit features than the Mac. But both versions have a good set of Batch Edit commands.

This review will feature the Windows Batch Edit. So lets get started by downloading the program:

Once you click the right download button, the install process is straight forward and Photoscape starts with the following screen:

Clicking on the Photoscape Batch Editor brings up the following screen:

Now here is how to get the editor working for you. Use the lefthand treeview sidebar to switch to the directory containing the files you want to batch resize and edit. In this example, pix is the directory containing four files that need to be resized. In the treeview window you drag and drop the thumbnail up into the top listview. Users could also type out the individual filenames in the listview ; but dragging and dropping the selected files from the treeview is faster. Finally, the righthand sidebar shows the Add button which is the third way users can add/insert photos to be batch edited.Now we a ready to Resize and do other batch edits.

Resizing

Note just below the Add, Convert All, Convert Batch Edit control tabs- Home, Filter, Object. Each of these.tabs have the controls for batch editing all four files contained in the top listview.The Home tab for example has all the Resize options:

As one can see users can adjust either of the image dimensions – width or height – and Photoscape will automatically change the other dimension proportionally. Alternatively if images are mixed portrait and landscape, users can adjust the longer length with other auto-adjusted proportionally. By the way the dimension adjustment can be longer or shorter. But there are n limits in the case of making the overall picture bigger. Adjusting more than 100% will result in an image that is less sharp and slightly blurred.

There are additional options to consider. Stretch will literally stretch the image by not auto-adjusting the image’s other dimension.But all of the is retained just “stretched” in one of the dimensions. In contrast, Crop crops out a portion of the image in order to fit it into the new container size.

Finally, the little proportional adjustment icon to the right of the resize dropdown allows user to specify exactly how to change the longer dimension in pixels. It is a convenience which some users will want to utilize.

Frame and Margins

Under the Home tab users can also adjust the frame and margin around all the images.

The Frame option allows the user to put a frame around the image. The choice of frames is extensive as the screen shot only shows the first of 16 frame styles available to Photoscape users in Batch Edit mode.

The frames available can be divided into the following categories:

Antique styled frames
Black Line
Blank fill space
Book page format
Border outline
Calligraphy styling
Christmas decoration style
Paper clip format
Edge curl format
Dot border styling
Film edge
Fold border
Folio stack of images
Gradient fields
Instant Polaroid film
Notebook folder format
Paper in leather binder
Pattern – many styles
Pocket edge widgets
Stamp edge
Taped format
Transparent

Users should really explore Frames along with the Object tab which allows users to add icon and text to every image.

The example shown below demonstrates frame and Object text overlay with photo EXIF data displayed:

Note the frame is Instant Polaroid Film, the image has been changed from color to grayscale, the image width has been resized to 800px from 4800px and the EXIF photo data is displayed at the bottom right of each image. One can use it also to apply a copyright statement. Impressive! And we have yet to consider the photo editing filters.

Filtering for Photo Edits

The last Batch Edit command tab to consider is Filter:

Again Photoscape provides a rich set of photo editing filters that can be applied to a batch of images:

Auto Levels – be careful as Photoscape is limited to 3 levels
Auto -Contrast – same problem few contrast values available
Sharpen generally works well
Backlight Correction requires trial and error
Use Contrast rather than Contrast Enhance
Use Contrast rather than Deepen
Use Bright rather than Brighten
Use Contrast rather than Darken
20 Bright values
20 Contrast values
Decolor works reasonably
Use Bright rather than Bloom
Film effects approximates films like Agfa, Velvia, etc
Vignetting varies widely
Truly antique photo looks
Sepia & Grayscale work well
Blur is too strong, Negative okay
Dilate and Erode are brightness opposites

Applying photo edit filters across all of a group of photos can be dangerous because not all of the images have the same exposure profile. So becareful when using these filters. Note also the best filters are the ones that enable several gradual up and down values.

The Icing on the Cake

Photoscape Batch edit allows users to save a configuration file that remembers all your current settings. Next time you are doing a batch edit just Open Config the saved settings and Photoscape can apply them to your new batch of images. Yes you may have to shift some of the setting but the time saved can be considerable.

Summary

Once again, Photoscape proves to be one of the best free photo editors available. Its Batch Edit features are versatile and work particularly well for Frames, Margins, copyright watermarking, and resizing. The ability to save several different Batch Edit configuration files is another time saver. In sum, you wil find Photoscape so useful, you really wont begrudge the recommended $25 donation to the project.