How To Batch Process Images With Mac Preview

[@thomnom]

Random tip, when exporting, hold alt/option when clicking the file type dropdown for more file options... 😜 Thanks as always for great content!

[@loisskiathitis8926]

A very useful and informative video tutorial today! Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️

[@carolinebarlow4795]

Thanks very much, Gary, for this very informative and helpful video!

[@nidostar2013]

Thanks Gary. Even tho I was aware of these options I always watch your videos to the end in case there’s a little aspect I’ve missed. But what happened to your sound? Were you in the bathroom?? 😂

[@macmost]

Will be adjusting the sound over the next few weeks as I just switched to a new space. Thanks for noticing though.

[@gurlerium]

very useful vid. thx for sharing Mr. DOCTOR :).

[@jacksmith4266]

There's a bug with the preview, it saves only the first one as compressed HEIC and all the other HEIC files uncompressed.

[@johnmcclung4736]

Gary is there really no way to make batch adjustments to color, contrast, etc. in Preview? Is there a simple Mac app that will do that? Thanks, and I sure appreciate all your great videos!!

[@willardroad]

OUTSTANDING. Thanks for this super-useful video and the tips you gave us. Worth the price of admission. I hope everyone supports you on Patreon. You just saved me a bunnnch of time.

[@kevinleighuk]

Very helpful as usual. I notice that the setting in Preview to open all files in one window only works with jpg files. If you try this on PDF files or a mixture of jpg and PDF files then they all open in separate windows. I also discovered the other day the usefulness of getting Preview to put all open files together using the option under the Windows item of the menu "Merge all windows". When you have a lot of, say, PDFs open, by merging all the different windows you have opened to read or work on, the files stay in separate tabs but are all in one window accessible thru a tab for each one. You can't use it for batch file changes but at least you can jump between docs if you were cross-referencing etc. What I don't understand is how Preview decides to do this itself sometimes. I haven't previously discovered that setting you describe in your tutorial, but I was working last week and had open 20-30 documents. Some were open in individual windows but sometimes some opened in one tabbed window. When I opened more docs they opened in the same window with their own tabs. I could not see how to force something to open alone or in a tabbed window. This is how I found the"Merge all windows" option so I brought everything together. If I wanted something on its own on another screen, I just dragged its tab off.

[@svinsky21]

thanks dude that's very helpful

[@herotness]

Thank you! Just what I needed!!!

[@quicksite]

what about batch cropping? -- where I would have batch of images in one preview window, then use marquee tool to manually select the image area I want to crop to on that first one, then use some keyboard command to "perform" that same crop on all the images in my Preview window? If Preview can't do this, then what about Mac Photo? If not can you please recommend a dedicated utility app to do batch cropping? i don't want to have to use a dedicated Photo Edit suite application for that... thank you!

[@macmost]

Neither Preview nor Photos will do that. Photos may be able to do it in the next version.

[@harvey8571]

Thanks for the tips! I found a funny thing when bulk exporting. The quality setting is somehow only applied to the 1st image. I set it as the best quality, and the 1st image size is much bigger than the original file, but all the rest are still quite similar or even smaller. I tried to export the 2nd image only, it's then much bigger as well. Not sure if this is a bug or I missed any other settings.

[@frankkenna2456]

You probably forgot to select all the thumbnails in the sidebar first.

[@portschyszabolcs]

@@frankkenna2456 no. it is indeed some kind of a bug. happens to me too. Very frustrating.

[@EricHurner]

My Preview doesn't save all the changes automatically. It asks if I want to change each one and I can't close the window until I've clicked each file. How do I set preview to save them all the way you did?

[@macmost]

Look at: System Settings, Desktop & Dock, Windows, "Ask to keep changes when closing documents."

[@DeannaAllison]

Wow, I use Preview regualrly but never realised I could do batch processing! Thanks. Also interesting for me is that one of the images is of St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh (I used to live in Edinburgh).

[@andylopez9221]

I have a question how can you rotate an image let say 15%, 30 % or 45% with preview?

[@macmost]

You can't. But most image editing apps let you do it. Photos too.

[@JustinBrownGuitar]

this is the best thing since sliced bread! huge respect and thanks

[@IvanSavin]

Very cool!

[@firstlast-em2yq]

Thanks, very helpful!

[@pedropuckerstein4670]

Another learning day for this old goat :)

[@chokkychoc8552]

Hello, can you help me please, I need make an index on the .pages

[@macmost]

Do you mean you want to add an index to a Pages document (this video isn't about Pages so I'm not sure). There is no index function in Pages.

[@chokkychoc8552]

@@macmost Hello, yes I want to add an index to my Pages document. I thought you could help me, because you are doing such a big project. Sorry I men french, I live in France.

[@jemenfous9343]

You are the best! It worked:)

[@desertpatient]

Thanks bunches

[@bySterling]

PRICELESS!!🎉

[@NatiaMae]

hi there, I was hoping you could help me. I would reaaally appreciate it! 😀 So, I teach English on a software called ClassIn. I have a bunch of short sound clips on my MacBook (e.g. applause, victory sounds, trumpets sounds etc. each about 3 seconds or so) ... So what I want to do is, I want to create a keyboard shortcut, e.g. control+A and then the "applause" sound plays on my MacBook. The thing is, I don't want to have it play on my external speaker (because then the sound doesn't come through clearly on my students' end) ... I want it to play on my internal speakers (I guess that's what its called), so then it plays through the software, but I still want to hear it. I think this part is not the part I should worry about ... for now I just want to set sounds to play when pressing keyboard shortcuts. But how!? Please if there is a non-programmers way to do it, that would be amazing. Thanks!

[@macmost]

Good question, but since it has nothing to do with this video, ask it here: macmost.com/ask

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

Great info.. for some reason never knew preview could batch process. One question: is there a way to keep preview from directly altering/saving the file on the drive immediately? so many times I intend to just make a change to my master so I can save a copy and end up overwriting or downsizing my original!

[@macmost]

You can only turn it on or off for everything. System Settings, Desktop 7 Dock, Ask To Keep Changes When Closing Documents.

[@nekoDan]

Useful tips! If you’re comfortable with Terminal and command line, you can use the sips tool to process images. It even supports JavaScript for advanced options.

[@221b-Maker-Street]

Hi @nekoDan. I'm fairly comfortable with using Terminal. I was disappointed when Gary said (3:45) you can't batch-edit using 'adjust colour' settings, as it's a real pain if you find a setting that's just right for an image and want to apply that _same setting_ to a batch of images. Currently, I'm stuck with adjusting each one manually - c130 images - Christ alive. Do you know of a natty workaround using sips, or where I might find one? I've asked in Apple Communities, but one person has replied so far that it can't be done... 🥴 I'd appreciate your advice... 🙏🏼 I've recently invested in Affinity, where I realise much of this would be (relatively) easy, but I'm yet to scale the steep learning curve required to start _using_ it confidently!

[@Qbikowski]

great, i always wonder if I have to save each image one by one after changes, thx Can You tell me one more, if I move batch files and there is previous copy of that files in that folder Is there any way to always replace it without confirmation?

[@macmost]

I don't think so. But experiment and see.

[@Qbikowski]

@@macmost i try but always need to confirm that, if there is more than one file also need to check to apply that for all. I wrote because I wonder if there is a way to set always override if exist

[@Greg-fg1rd]

OK. now i hear it. The usefulness of the content blurs the temporary artifact that will be history soon enough. Wondering if there's a "best" way to separate the converted files from the original ones? I try and save them to a different location. Easier way?

[@leesimpson30]

Hello are base model m2 and m1 air ok for GoPro video editing please

[@macmost]

Depends what you want to do. For basic editing of vacation videos for home use, sure.

[@leesimpson30]

@@macmost hopefully yes just leaning to edit so be useing iMovie about 15 mins long for KZbin

[@blademan7671]

Why do all this in preview vs. Photos where you can revert?

[@macmost]

This is for if you want to batch process files, not photos in your library. Different use case.

[@ReyMartinez133]

It is possible on Mac Pro to listen to music via Bluetooth with the display closed. When I close it, the music turns off...Mac Ventura...Thank you

[@macmost]

I think you can do it by using the Terminal or a third-party app to prevent sleep. But I wouldn't do that just to keep music playing. Use your phone and play music through that instead.