Using Batch Automation in Photoshop

When it comes to automation in Photoshop, you’re certainly not limited to actions alone. There are also a series of useful automate commands that are accessible under the File --> Automate submenu. In this section, we’ll take a look at the commands that are most useful to print designers and production artists, including Batch, Crop And Straighten Photos, Contact Sheet II, and Create Droplet.

One of the most powerful ways to automate Photoshop is to apply the Batch command. Doing so allows you to run an action on a group of images all at once, and then instruct Photoshop to do one of the following:
- Save the images as new files
- Keep the images open in Photoshop
- Save and close the images, overwriting the source files

For the most part, applying this command is fairly simple; however, you should be aware that the settings in the Batch dialog box are particularly counterintuitive. You can access the Batch dialog box from Photoshop as well as from Bridge. To access the Batch dialog box from Photoshop, choose File --> Automate --> Batch. From the Set pop-up list at the top of the dialog box, choose which action set (of the currently loaded sets in the Actions palette) that you’d like to select an action from. Then from the Action list, choose the action you’d like to apply to the images. You can then tell Photoshop where to access these images:
- To apply the batch action to images as they are imported from a scanner, choose Import from the Source list (a scanner must be hooked up to your system to access this option; otherwise, it will remain grayed out). Then select the scanner from the From list.
- If you’d like to apply the batch action to all images that are currently open in Photoshop, choose Opened Files from the Source list.
- If the images are located in a folder somewhere on your system, select Folder from the Source list. Note that Photoshop will apply the action to every image in the folder; therefore, if the folder contains additional images that you do not want to apply the action to, you should place the source images in their own folder before applying the Batch command. When working with a source folder, several more options become available in the Batch dialog box:
-- Click the Choose button to open the Choose ABatch Folder dialog box, and browse to the
folder on your system.
-- Enable the Override Action “Open” Commands option only if the action you are applying contains Open steps. The Batch command automatically opens images for you, so if there are any Open commands in the action, they will confuse Photoshop and stop the automation. To use Open commands that are saved in the action, be sure to turn this option on. If the action does not contain any Open commands (most of the built-in actions do not), leave this option turned off.
-- Enable the Include All Subfolders option if there are subfolders of images in the source folder that you’d like to include in the batch.
- Unless you plan to monitor the batch automation and respond to various stop dialog box commands, always enable the Suppress File Open Options Dialogs and Suppress Color Profile Warnings options. The next step is to tell Photoshop what you’d like to  do with the images after the batch action has been applied:
- If you’d like to keep the images open in Photoshop, choose None from the Destination list. If you plan to save the images in different file formats, you should choose this option and save each one manually.
- To allow Batch to save and close the images, choose Save And Close from the Destination list. In order for the automation to run uninterrupted, a Save step must be included in the action, and the Override Action “Save As” Commands option must also be enabled. Note that Photoshop records both the preferred file format and the file destination in the step. If you do not include a Save step in the action, Photoshop stops the automation, displays the Save As dialog box for every image in the batch, and awaits your input before continuing. To overwrite the source files, be sure to include a Save As step with the same file format chosen as the original, or include a Save step (rather than Save As). Note also that the Save And Close destination option is not available when applying the batch action to images that are imported from a scanner.
- To save the images in any folder other than the source folder (and avoid overwriting the original source files), choose Folder from the Destination list.

Choosing Folder as a destination also gives you access to the File Naming options that are located underneath. Select your preferred naming convention by choosing from the options available in the lists provided or by typing in the available fields. I generally like to keep my document names short and simple, and therefore usually choose Document Name in the first field and extension (lowercase) in the second field. However, if you’re working with hundreds of images as part of a large production team, you may want to include a serial number, serial letter, or date information to keep better track of them. Photoshop allows you to include and display all this information in either lowercase or uppercase and in any order that you like. To ensure maximum compatibility when saving images with Batch, be sure to check both the Windows and Mac OS options available at the bottom of the dialog box.

After you’ve finished entering all of your preferred settings, click OK to batch-process the files. Don’t be surprised if something unexpected occurs and the automation stops abruptly. It’s easy to make a mistake when setting up a batch action. When this happens, double-check the action to make sure all the necessary Open, Save, and Close steps are included, and then reopen the Batch dialog box and make sure all the settings are correct. Keep running the action until you’ve worked out all the kinks.