Photoshop or other graphics gurus, how to batch crop?
 

I have thousands of images that need to be manually cropped, not "auto" cropped. What i mean is that i have to look at each image and crop it appropriately, because they are all different. But i cant figure out how to automate the rest of the process such as opening each image, saving it (after cropping) to another folder in a specific format, etc. I have played around with actions but i need it to stop at each image so i can do the crop manually. If not ps, is there other software that will do this? Seems like this would be a commonly used function and i remember a post on this same subject here last year (with no solutions). I will have to do this on a regular basis, probably 1-2 thousand at a time. Any suggestions?

you can set up an open action.. (as one action)

Then, create a selection (save the selection) then, creat a crop, close and save action (as another seperate action).

Then all you do is run the first action ONCE, and paste your selection, adjust your selection position, and then run the second action ONCE.

Actions do not have to be run on entire folders, you can run them per action, per photo.

I belive this wil work, once you start recording an action and open something, highlight "Open" and then click the ">"arrow at the top of the box (below "X") and click "Insert Stop..." then you will be prompt with a window where you can enter a message, but be sure you select the Allow Continue check box

See what I mean?

open a sample image and select it like you would to crop it and the others,

then start record on the action

crop / edit / whateva
save file (in another folder)
close file

stop record


open the files in groups of 25-50 or so, select and hit ur function key bound to the action, select and hit ur function key bound to the action, select and hit ur function key bound to the action, select and hit ur function key bound to the action, select and hit ur function key bound to the action, etc

it sounds like you'll only be able to use an action for a portion of what you are trying to do. I would set up an action for the stuff before the crop and then after you manually crop, set up an ending action.

BETTER YET! do what I did, hire an intern from some local college to do it for you. Hey, it's experience and they'll go for it. Put an ad in the local paper. You'll get some calls.

:Graucho

Arles Image Creator

Even better yet, go to HomeDepot, and hire a mexican to do it for you. Some will even take beer as payment. That's how I got into this business.

Mmm, this sounds like the answer for ps. But i assume you mean i will be prompted with a window to crop (not "where you can enter message")? Will try this tommorow. Thanks.
I still dont understand why this isnt a common requirement for some folks.

Aint no mexicans near where i am sitting right now. But anyway its exclusive content and i dont trust anyone else with it, if you know what i mean.

:thumbsup

Arles will (semi) automate this? You sure? I use smaller animals thumbnailer and have wondered if i was missing something not trying arles.

Arles will do it.

Compupic Pro will do it also

and the best:

Webgraphic optimizer pro ( plenio.com) will do it plus compression and a bunch of goodies.

Photoshop is tops in graphic creation, but for other task, other proggies rocks....

what is arles URL? i lost it again

DF
Not so! I use compupic and was playing around with it earlier today trying this. It does have an auto crop function, but thats not the same thing as manually cropping each pic. Automating the opening and saving afterwards is what i am looking for. In other words, manual crop/click, manual crop/click, manual crop/click, etc. Its really just a simple action to make in ps except that it has to stop in the middle so you can do the crop manually. Maybe the insert stop method bryany suggested will work, havent tried it yet. This is why i am seriously thinking of abandoning photoshop. Sure it will do 87 million different things, but figuring out how can be a bear sometimes. And seems i usually end up finding that some other prog will do it better/easier anyway.
Again, i would think that anyone who produces content images by the thousands would appreciate this type of automation.

yup!

Easiest way to batch crop, if you don't like the Photoshop method..

Try Debabilzer.. It is a batch oriented program that does many batch processes well.. and it's easy to use

www.equilibrium.com

You can't batch a crop as it doesnt know where you want to crop at.

So what you do is you create actions to automate everything other than the crop.

The crop is simple, used fixed width crops, use your enter key and setup your action on a hotkey like f12 then just use a droplet to open, crop by hand, f12 to run the rest of your action and save.