Part 3 (see Part 1 and Part 2) of my exploration of Mac OS X options for budget ($100 or less) image browsers/batch processors. I basically want something to make it easy for me to generate the watermarked full size/thumbnail pairs I post here in my blog. The premise is that, with a better tool, I’ll spend less time processing and will post photos more often as I’ll avoid that “I don’t have time” roadblock.
My criteria, again:
- Quick rendering in the browser
- Batch creation of copies of the images
- Watermarking
- Sharpening
- A nice simple, clean, elegant UI
Without further ado, and in no particular order:
- EasyBatchPhoto
- First Impression: According to the web site description, this should be just what I’m looking for. Launching the application brings up a window for setting up your batch rules. It is fairly straightforward, though I had to look up what some of the options meant (for example, “Fit to rectangle” means “scale to this maximum size maintaining proportions”).
Usage: Watermarking using my .png file worked as it was supposed to. The way it popped up dialogs for things I’d already set was a little strange, but I’m sure that after using it a few times I’d get used to that.
Conclusion: There really isn’t much to this app – it does what it says and that’s about it. I’d have to compare the output closely, but from my initial usage I’d put it right behind miniBatch for a batch processor.
Price: $25
- DropWaterMark
- First Impression: Hmm, from the web site I’m guessing this may be developer-itch-scratch-ware. We shall see.
Usage: Well, this isn’t the easiest software to use… I didn’t even understand the ittle tutorial that popped up on first launch.
Conclusion: This only seems to watermark, not resize. I’ll pass on this one.
Price: $16.50
- Batch
- First Impression: The web page is the “higest form of flattery” to Panic. The VersionTracker listing says:
Batch is the easy, yet very powerful image viewer/editor/batch processing solution for digital images…
Sounds perfect! Let’s try it out.
Usage: Hmm, you have to double click an item in the tree view to get it to show images – that seems a little awkward to me. There is an “import” function for bringing in photos from an outside source like a digital camera – an intersting choice to include that.
Conclusion: Finally, a combination image browser and batch processor. Unfortunately, I feel that it falls a little short of the best of breed options for either image browsing or batch processing.
Price: $15.95
- ViewIt
- First Impression: Sounds like an image browser first, with some other options added via plugins. I’m intrigued.
Usage: Very quick thumbnail preview, slick little control for moving between images in single image mode. The ‘Create Web Pages’ option will do an export in 2 sizes, very nice. There doesn’t appear to be any watermarking functionality unfortunately, though there is a ‘Launch Shell Script’ option – would writing a PHP script for doing all this be a fool’s errand?
Conclusion: This is a very well executed program, if it had watermarking support it would be very close to a solution for me. I’d also like to see the integration of a folder tree pane into the image browser window.
Price: $20
I haven’t yet found a perfect solution… when my new machine shows up I’m going install miniBatch, Batch, Caffeine Browser and perhaps ViewIt and try them out for a while. Please let me know in the comments if you know of a software package you think I’ve overlooked.
Please note: All versions reviewed were the latest available at the time this review was published. Software changes with each release, so these reviews may become outdated at any time.
i too have undertaken this quest and here’s what i use:
photoshop CS2 (CS):
i know photoshop is out of your budgeted pricerange, but as of CS it is fully scriptable with javascript which is truly awesome; resizing, adding layers (ie watermarks), setting transparencies cropping, exporting, no problem…
iView Media
http://www.iview-mul[...]a.com/media/
i use iviewmediapro but that too is out of your price range, but they did just announce a $50 consumer version which i have to check out. the pro version is pretty great, totally applescriptable, etc… let’s just say that i have used iphoto once (to check it out) and that was it…
CocoViewX
http://www.stalkingw[...]e/cocoviewx/
image browser that i use to do some quick folder browsing, picture sorting when not using iviewmediapro
GraphicConverter
http://www.lemkesoft[...]graphcon.htm
ui takes some getting used to but does batch processing and is applescriptable
hope this helps somewhat…
I’m already a Photoshop user and I finally stopped using GraphicConverter a couple years ago due to the output filesize/quality combinations – neither of those do what I consider lightweight batch processing. Besides, this is an easy problem that many small apps are trying to solve. 🙂
I have friends that use iView, but don’t have great things to say about it – I’m looking for a browser (and will check out cocoviewx), not a catalog-er.
i hear you on the graphicconverter issues; i too stopped using it a while ago but went back to it recently and found the my issues with it were gone. i find it’s good for windows/mac icn bmp fun.
as for photoshop, since you already use it, i know you’d be comfortable writing some javascript 😉 actually if you haven’t done already, it’s actually way easier than writing javascript. there is a listener plugin that stores all your actions to a logfile which is all javascript (think of photoshop’s actions but on steroids). then you just call the script and it can do all your tasks at once (crop, resize, add a watermark, export to gif/jpg, rename from an array) and it works in batch mode. pretty amazing stuff…
regardless, good luck and i am more than interested to see what your final workflow ends up being.
Photoshop is just such a bear to launch… maybe when I get my new machine I’ll be more willing to consider it.
I already have Photoshop actions for watermarking and resizing, the point of this is really to stay out of Photoshop to make the photo processing faster and less involved. As soon as I open Photoshop, I cannot resist the urge to crop, sharpen, color balance, etc. and for throwing a few photos up with a post, that is unnecessary.
Personally, I like easybatch photo alot