How do I Batch Convert JPEG to PNG files?

Report · Feb 24, 2014

Any idea how I would convert a large number of jpeg's to png files in Photoshop CC?

Report · Feb 24, 2014

File > Scripts > Image Processor

Report · Feb 24, 2014

Nope, no JPEG to PNG option there.

Report · Feb 24, 2014

Sorry about that, but I am surprised that option is not there.

Anyway, before we had Image Processor, there was Irfanview. I just opened mine and it definitely outputs to PNG

http://www.irfanview.com/

Apparently there is a Mac version as well.

Report · Nov 14, 2014

Image processor doesn't "convert" from one format to another. It just saves your image in the chosen format.

Report · Dec 15, 2021

Yes. It doesn't "convert" nor does it have the option for "png" so, he's right and I really wish Peter you were. Sadly. Seems like Adobe Bridge might be able to do this...Nope. Only DNG.

Report · Feb 24, 2014

You could do it like this: http://www.santoshgs.com/blog/189/how-to-batch-convert-png-to-jpeg-using-photoshop-cs2/

But can I be honest? I'd do that with a more efficient and far faster conversion utility like IrfanView. Photoshop is incredibly slow for this type of work. For example, I did a quick test to demonstrate the difference in performance:

folder with 10 images in jpg format, 5600px by 5600px. Simple jpg to png batch.

Photoshop: over six minutes.

IrfanView: one minute and 40 seconds.

That's a rather big difference - and with large numbers of images I just do not have the time to wait for Photoshop to finish the job. It's too slow.

Another issue is that during the conversion process Photoshop cannot be used - while with a simple conversion utility you can leave it running in the background, and continue to use PS for other work if required. This matters if you have hundreds of images to convert.

Btw, Irfanview (windows only) is free to download @ http://www.irfanview.com/

The batch processing you can find under File-->Batch Conversion <b>

ImageMagick is also free and open source. It is a command line tool, and easy to use for conversions.Will also work on a mac. But it is much slower than IrfanView, a tad faster than PS.

http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php

http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/batch-convert-image-formats-imagemagick/

Report · Feb 24, 2014

I did Google Irfanview for Mac before uploading post #3, and saw a few links that suggested it was doable. After a closer look, it appears there is native version and you have to jump through a hoop or two.

http://answers.informer.com/9511/can-i-use-irfanview-on-mac-os

Report · Feb 24, 2014

I would look at Russell Brown's Image Processor. It has a lot more option than the one in PS.

Report · Feb 24, 2014

Curt Y wrote:
I would look at Russell Brown's Image Processor. It has a lot more option than the one in PS.

That's useful Curt and news to me. Thanks.

RB says it works with CS5 CS6 and CC

http://russellbrown.com/scripts.html

Report · Feb 24, 2014

After some more testing I have to partially retract the words I have written above. I ran RB's image processor on the same list of images as before, and was surprised to see it converted all the JPGs to PNGs in a matter of ~10 seconds. Much faster than IrfanView.

Then, however, I noticed the reason for this: no compression is applied at all by PS, and the resulting PNG files are huge, this being the nature of uncompressed PNGs. Next, I checked the "save for web" option - which resulted in the long wait times again, because it seems PS automatically sets the compression rate to one of the highest (8 or 9). This takes about 33 seconds compression time per image with my benchmark images. That is too long. It also explains why IrfanView is so much faster and still produces nicely compressed versions.

In IrfanView and ImageMagick we can control the quality setting from 0 (uncompressed) up to 9 (max compression). A compression of 5~6 gives the best time versus file size yield. (in the case of my benchmark images the uncompressed version is 91,898mb, the save for web version is 23,699mb, and IrfanView's version at a quality setting of 6 marginally larger at 24,188mb. But because of IrfanView's control the wait is less than a third of the time that PS takes to process these. That can be a showstopper indeed.

So my question: can we control the quality setting for PNG output in Photoshop, or are we limited to either completely on (max compression) or off (no compression)?

As far as I can tell and know, PS does NOT allow us to choose a custom compression setting. Please tell me I am wrong.

Report · Nov 14, 2014

One of the best multi-platform converters is XNConvert, and it is free for non commercial use. Very, very fast and has a whole slew of conversion formats, as well as resizing capabilities and more

MK

Report · Jan 18, 2022

super idea ! couldn't believe the speed of it ! and it's true I don't need to see the image process 😉

Report · Nov 13, 2014

You can do this batch conversion through the native Preview app on Macs. Open the selected images in Preview or drag and drop them onto the Preview icon, highlight all the images, export selected images, and from there you can save as PNG or, alternatively, you can downsize the JPEGs if you want.

Report · Sep 24, 2020

Worked perfectly! Thanks for the quick tip.

Report · Sep 05, 2022

So easy and quick. Thank You.

Report · Nov 27, 2017

Create a Photoshop Droplet, which is a mini-app that you can drag and drop your JPG files onto to do the auto-convert to PNG. To create the Droplet app, you need to create an Action in the Actions Panel first. So open one JPG file and record an action of saving that file as a PNG. In the Action Panel, create a new Action. It will ask you to name it, try something like "PNG Convert". When you hit ok, it will begin recording. Now just save that file (Save As) a PNG. It should be set to save it in the location it was originally.

Hit Save and it will save as a PNG with the PNG file extension.

Now stop the recording in the Action Panel and close that file and any others you might have open. Now go to File > Automate > Create Droplet.

Select where you want the Droplet App saved - probably the destination folder of the files you want to convert, and name it. In the Play box, set your Set and Action. Your Set is probably the Default Set unless you created a new Action folder and the Action should be the action that you created - it may default to the one you created already. One other thing to set is the Destination to at least: Save and Close, because it is going to open each file, do its action and if you don't set close, you may end up with hundreds of open files, which will slow things down. You can see here that there are a bunch of other settings if you want to get into the weeds, but these settings will get you running.

Click OK.

Now, go to your folder that includes the jpegs and the Droplet. Select all the jpeg files and drag them onto the Droplet.

That's it. It does not overwrite the jpegs, so you may want to trash them, but you might want to open up a converted PNG just to make sure it worked ok before you do.

That's it. Hope that helps!

Report · May 03, 2018

Using Apple script (not Photoshop CC) to automate duplicating and changing other image formats to png:

Right click the folder

Choose "Folder Actions Setup...".

Choose "Image - Duplicate as PNG.scpt".

Click "Attach".

Drop files in the folder.

Outputs will be in "Original Images" (non-PNG files) folder or "PNG Images" (outputs) folder.

Note, if a file is misnamed ".png" and is not a .png, you can use Automator to rename .png something else before dropping them in the folder. Otherwise, the script won't pick up on .pngs that are not .pngs.

Report · Dec 15, 2021

Thanks for that. Tried the preview mode. Works. But I'm doing 3000 to 10k at time. Keyboard Maestor folder action. Not the same...though, it is. Thanks. Hazel works too.