HELP: Image Processor Pro & Automate outcome suddenly different

[coccinelle13]

Hi there,

I really hope someone can help me bring some sense into the following issue I encountered since it has driven me nuts all weekend and I have officially no clue how to solve it:

I have a bunch of jpg images in high res and different sizes for which I wanted to do the following:

1. Resize them, so that their width is always 750px (height should adjust proportionately)

2. Add a logo to the bottom right (the logo should always be the same size on all pictures, regardless of the size of the picture)

3. Save for web

4. Add an extension to the file name so it's easily visible this picture has been edited already

I had set up the following action:

The above should: 1. Change the image size to a width of 750px, 2. Place the logo.psd file and resize it, 3. Select both layers (logo & image) 4. Align logo to the right of image 5. Align logo to the bottom of image

Then I used Image Processor Pro to save it for web and add the extension to the file name as follows:

[Since I already resized the images in the action step, I don't use resize to fit in Image Processor Pro]

The above worked without any problems for 30 folders of different sizes of images, everything turned out exactly as I wanted it to and I made no changes (the action is saved, the image processor pro step is also saved).

Now suddenly as I continue with the above (all I had to do is change the name of the folder in Image Processor Pro), and the logo is off! Depending on the size of the image, it sometimes appears huge in the middle of the image, or it varies in size at the bottom right, without there being any error message whatsoever. If I didn't keep opening and double checking the generated files, I wouldn't have known that it stopped working the way it should.

I have not made changes to the logo.psd file, neither to the action or the image processor pro step, they are all saved. The only thing I am aware of doing is I restarted my computer (mac) at some point, but I am also not sure whether it stopped working right after that. I am using Photoshop 2020 if that is of any value.

I am obviously very hesitant to start a new action and redo all the steps because I have already gone through a lot of files with this setup, and if I set it up again, the outcome will not be 1:1 like what I had programmed earlier.

Does anyone have any ideas what might have caused the logo.psd file to act out all of a sudden? Honestly I was so happy when I finally figured out this setup and it worked like a gem, so that now I feel extremely lost and don't know what to do 😞 Thank you in advance for any pointers!

[Stephen Marsh]

@coccinelle13 

Compare the resolution PPI of a successful conversion vs. a failure. Are they different?

I understand your hesitation, however, I would recommend duplicating the action and making three minor changes.

Your action screenshot isn't wide enough to view all details, so the following is a guess...

Set an explicit resolution PPI value. This is because the place command uses this in sizing to the target document. If different document have varying PPI values the place command would be at different sizes.

Remove the background layer selection step, keep the logo layer active.

Add a select all command and align the logo to the selection.

[coccinelle13]

@Stephen Marsh 

Thank you so much, very smart. That was spot on the problem my setup encountered, when the PPI was different (which hadn't happened so far, by coincidence most images I had converted so far were set to 72ppi), it would throw off my logo position and size.

Here is the full size screenshot of my original setup for reference:

And this is what I changed it to according to your kind suggestions (I hope I implemented it all as you had suggested):

I have one follow-up question if you don't mind. I tried playing around with the settings for the logo size by looking at my previous settings (I was hoping I didn't have to redo all the images that I have already done so as to have the same logo size and position throughout all images). In the original (wrong) setup, I had it set to a width/ height of 62.7% OR length of 1.57cm. I tried to replicate the % value in the new setup, but it was far too big compared to the original. I then tried using the cm value, but that was far too tiny compared to the original. Am I missing something or is there no other way but to redo all the images with a new eyeballed logo size?

Thanks a lot for pointing out the mistake of not accounting for PPI, much appreciated!

[coccinelle13]

My apologies, I have one more follow-up. I compared the two screenshots I just sent once again and realized that although in the new setup, I typed 750px for width in the image size window (as I did in the original setup), it shows up as a cm value in the action box. I tried several times and it keeps doing this, is this another potential problem? It was much more reassuring when it said 750px...