Batch Processing and Droplets
Wouldn't it be cool if you could just select a bunch of images in your file manager and convert them all to a different format, resize them all to a specific size, or even apply a series of filters? Photoshop already allows you to do this by way of a powerful (and strangely named) feature called a "droplet". While droplets have been around since Photoshop 6, surprisingly few people use them or even understand their power and versatility.
Doing droplets
Simply put, a droplet is a Photoshop batch process or action that has been saved as a stand-alone executable file.
Regardless of whether you choose a Batch or Create Droplet, you will need to identify (or record) an action that defines the sequence of commands you'd like applied to each of the designated files. Assume for this example that you want to convert the selected images as quality 9 JPEGs, regardless of their original format.
Choose Window, Actions, to display the Actions palette. Click on the New Set button at the bottom of the palette and enter "SaveJPEG9" for the name. Click on the New Action button and name the action the same thing: SaveJPEG9. After confirming the settings in the New Action dialog box, Photoshop is automatically placed into "record mode". From this point on, all commands will be recorded as part of the action. Don't worry about adding accidental commands/steps; you can tidy up the action afterwards.
Choose File, Open and select one or more image files. The location and type of file is unimportant, since you'll override these later in the batch/droplet dialog. Once the files are opened, a new action step named Open will appear in the Actions palette. Now choose File, Save As (or File, Save for Web, if you prefer). In the Save As dialog box, choose Format: JPEG. Once again, the save name is irrelevant, since you'll establish a filename pattern later in the batch/droplet dialog. Finally, close the file and confirm that both the Save and Close commands have been recorded as part of your action.
Stop recording by pressing the Stop button at the bottom of the Actions palette. If you inadvertently added any extra steps (besides the Open, Save and Close commands), simply drag them onto the Trash icon.
If you wish to process 8-bit files (such as GIFs, PNG-8s or 8-bit BMPs) with this action, you'll have to add a Conditional Mode Change. This is because indexed files cannot be saved as JPEGs unless they are first converted to RGB mode. To insert the new step, you'll need a temporary image: choose File, New (accept the defaults), followed by Image, Mode, Indexed Color. Select the Open command in the action to make it the active step and then press the Record button at the bottom of the Actions palette. From the menus, choose File, Automate, Conditional Mode Change. Select Indexed Color, change the Target Mode to RGB Color, and press OK to add the command to the action - it should be inserted after the Open command. Press the Stop button (or the Esc key) to stop recording.
Creating a droplet or batch
Since both the Batch and Create Droplet commands are automation tools, you'll find them in the File, Automate submenu. The Batch command is used to process a series of images using a pre-recorded sequence of commands from within Photoshop. The Create Droplet command is used to save a batch process as an executable file for repeatedly applying the same operations, using the same settings. When image files are dropped onto a droplet icon, Photoshop launches automatically (provided it is not already running) and executes the batch instructions contained in the droplet.
There's only one fundamental difference between the Batch and Droplet dialog boxes: the Batch dialog requires that you specify a Source from which the files are to be processed, whereas the Droplet dialog requires a save location and filename for the intended droplet. For the purpose of this Workshop, you'll see how to create a droplet: however, you would follow the same steps if you were performing a batch.
Begin by choosing File, Automate, Create Droplet from the menus. The first section of the dialog box allows you to specify the droplet save name and location. A convenient choice is the Send To folder. Saving droplets into the Send To folder allows you to quickly and easily process the selected image files using the context sensitive, right-click menus - which is much better than having to drag-and-drop files onto the droplet icon. If you do a lot of file management on the desktop you may wish to save the droplet icon there instead.
Next, ensure that the correct Set and Action names appear in the Play section. By default, the active/selected set and action are used: however, you may select from any of the actions that are currently loaded into Photoshop.
Enable the Override Action "Open" Commands option to have the droplet (or batch) ignore the file(s) specified in the original action, and instead, use only those files dropped onto the droplet icon. If you were performing a batch, you would also need to specify the Source from which the images would be processed. If you are dealing with entire folders of images, turn on the Include All Subfolders option to ensure that images within subfolders are also processed. The last option in the Play section, Suppress Color Profile Warnings, allows you to ignore any profile conflicts that might otherwise interrupt the processing of the selected images.
For Destination, select Folder and then use the Choose button to establish the save path. Enable Override Action "Save As" Commands, which instructs the droplet (or batch) to ignore any Save commands specified within the action in favour of the settings established in this section.
Use the File Naming section to set up a naming scheme for the processed files. You may select an option from the appropriate drop-down, or enter data directly into the available field. An example filename is provided at the top of the File Naming section so you can preview the results. Finally, select Stop for Errors from the Errors drop-down to be notified of any corrupted files, incompatible image formats, etc.
Press OK to save the droplet. Before dropping an entire PhotoCD onto the droplet, test the droplet with a couple of duplicate files to ensure it works. You cannot simply edit a droplet after it's been created. Instead, you must use the Create Droplet dialog box to recreate it. Thankfully, Photoshop remembers the last-used settings for both the Create Droplet and Batch dialog boxes.