How to batch change GIF to JPEG files?

[joseph motto]

My workflow involves doing most of my processing in LR6 followed by opening the file into PS6, completing the work, then saving as a TIF file, and finally creating a JPEG from the TIFF. Somehow following a power outage on my Save for Web step I unknowingly began saving as GIF files rather than JPEGs. I then found that although the files in Explorer were in the correct folders I could not bring them up in LR. It is only now after processing a huge number of GIF images that I figured out the error. Is there a mechanism to change an image from GIF to JPEG and, more importantly, is there a way to batch them and do many at once as there are too many images to go one by one.

[rayek.elfin]

Yes, it is possible to batch process GIF images to JPEG, but I would recommend against such a conversion, for one simple reason: GIF supports only up to 256 colours.

This means that all your photos have been converted to low-colour images, and the quality suffers quite dramatically due to heavy dithering (depends a bit on the image, though: a blue sky isn't that terrible in GIF). And that dithering won't convert well at all to JPEG (GIF and JPEG compression algorithm are kinda opposites).

It would be much preferable to convert the original TIFF images to JPEGs.

My advice is to avoid converting your existing GIF to JPEG at all means if possible - it will degrade the quality drastically - and instead convert the full-colour TIFF files instead.

[joseph motto]

Is there a way to batch creation of JPEGS from TIFFs while retaining the integrity of the TIFF?

[rayek.elfin · Accepted solution]

Sure, you can use the Image Processor in Photoshop to do this for you.

Process a batch of Photoshop files​

TIFF is a non-lossy format, while JPEG is a lossy format. This means that you will lose some quality in JPEG no matter what you do (the nature of the beast). Best you save your JPEGs at a quality of 10 or higher if you require very high quality JPG files. But I would test a bunch of files with various quality settings first, and then decide.

[joseph motto]

I appreciate the help here. However, I cannot find Image Processor in PS6. Can you direct me to it?

[rayek.elfin]

I believe in CS6 you'll find it in Bridge.

[rayek.elfin]

Wait, do you mean Photoshop 6 or CS6?

[joseph motto]

Photoshop 6

[joseph motto]

I was able to track down Image Processor in Bridge and then PS6. I highlighted 10 GIF images and set up to create JPEG images but the message came up that it couldn't accomplish the task. I do not know why.

[rayek.elfin]

As I stated before, it is a Very Bad Idea to convert GIF images to JPEG.

Aside from this, I have no idea why your Image Processor doesn't want to convert the files. I never use Image Processor myself for image conversions, because it is just much too slow. Instead, I use the batch processing option in IrfanView. IrfanView - Official Homepage - One of the Most Popular Viewers Worldwide

Free and efficient. File-->Batch Conversion. Select all the files, then set an output folder, and done. And IrfanView's jpeg processing gives more control as well.

[joseph motto]

Thank you for all of your help; much appreciated. I decided to total up the number of GIF images I inadvertently created and it seemed manageable so I simply went back to my original TIFs, created a new JPEG from each, and replaced the GIFs. Took about three hours but now I am set going forward and hopefully will never make that mistake again.