Photoshop CS4 Batch Resize Images

So today I found myself with a few hundred photos of varying dimensions. Ideally I wanted them all to be quite small but maintain their aspect ratio. This is well easy to do in CS4.

  • Open Photoshop CS4 and do File->Scripts->Image Processor
  • We start in the first stage. Select the radio option next to the “Select Folder” button and then click the actual button.
  • Navigate to the directory with images inside and then tap OK to close the browse dialog.
  • In the second stage we can choose a new directory for the images. If you choose “Save in Same Location” which is the default then it will create a new directory inside the one we chose during the first stage. The new directory/directories are based on the image type(s) you pick in the 3rd stage. The directory names are JPEG, PSD and TIFF. It only creates the relevant directory for the type(s) you chose to output.
  • In the third stage we pick the file type we want to output. I wanted JPEGs so I ticked that option.
  • I set quality to 8 as I don’t really see a difference between 7 and 10 except for the file size.
  • Tick the “Resize to Fit” option. Inside the W and H boxes enter your maximum desired width and height. I used W:400 and H:600. This does not mean all the images will be resized to those dimensions. What it means it that it will scale the images down until both axis fit within those limits. The gist of that is that it maintains the aspect ratio which is exactly what I want.
  • I unticked everything in the fourth stage as I didn’t want any of that.
  • Note: Make sure everything is now set as you want it since once you start the processing there appears to be no way to stop it besides forcing Photoshop to close!
  • That’s it, Now when I tap “Run” in the top right it will start processing each of the images.
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  • Ivan Mervillie
    Ivan Mervillie

    Hi,

    Since upgrading to PS CS4 I can no longer enter numbers in the W and H boxes of the Fit Image… command in FIle > Automate. This used to work flawless in PS CS3.

    I’m on an Intell Mac running Mac OS X 10.6.2 and using a AZERT keyboard. I would appreciate it very much if you could help me out on this.

    Cheers,
    Ivan

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous

    I’m not sure what to say, I don’t use a Mac and it seems to work fine for me. Are you sure the image file hasn’t been set to read only? Why not just use the Image->Image Size popup instead? If you set it to constrain the proportions then it’s just a case of picking the right value to alter. The File->Fit Image command just takes out the bit where you have to work that last bit out.

  • Andrea Farrell
    Andrea Farrell

    Thank-you David Millington! I have been trying to do this for ages, and these are the first instructions that I have found that have made it work! Hooray!

It’s all for nothing if you don’t have freedom.

— William Wallace