6 TB of TIFFs to JPEGs?

[Petrus]

We have a 6 TB photo archive of magazine pages starting from year 1916 to today. I was thinking about converting theses TIFF originals (from backup disk) to a smaller drive as JPEGs to save space and to make leafing through them faster. Any ideas how to automate this process? Loading them into LightRoom would choke it, I assume. File structure is likely to be root/year/issue and should stay that way, preferably.

Are there any standalone converters which could be automated to do something like this?

[Farmer]

There are heaps of standalone convertors - as to which are better than others, I don't have any direct experience, but you could just grab a few from Googling them and test on a small batch and see what you think.  If you have Ps / Br then you can use that to batch it up - start it running with whatever preferences you want and a few days later it should finish.  It takes just one file at a time and processes it, so it won't choke, but it will take a long time any way you do it.

[Mark D Segal]

Use Photoshop> File>Scripts> Image Processor.

[kirkt]

You can also use the free utility called XNConvert, which is specifically designed for batch conversion, with many actions that you may need built into the interface.

http://www.xnview.com/en/xnconvert/

It will permit several operations on each file (ICC conversion, resizing, etc.), should you choose to apply them, as well as recursive file handling and preservation of the directory structure in your batch output.

kirk

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I am a Linux/Macintosh user, what I would do is to write a small script and use ImageMagick for the conversion. Many options, but that is what I would do.

Best regards
Erik

We have a 6 TB photo archive of magazine pages starting from year 1916 to today. I was thinking about converting theses TIFF originals (from backup disk) to a smaller drive as JPEGs to save space and to make leafing through them faster. Any ideas how to automate this process? Loading them into LightRoom would choke it, I assume. File structure is likely to be root/year/issue and should stay that way, preferably.

Are there any standalone converters which could be automated to do something like this?

[scyth]

We have a 6 TB photo archive of magazine pages starting from year 1916 to today. I was thinking about converting theses TIFF originals (from backup disk) to a smaller drive as JPEGs to save space and to make leafing through them faster. Any ideas how to automate this process? Loading them into LightRoom would choke it, I assume. File structure is likely to be root/year/issue and should stay that way, preferably.

Are there any standalone converters which could be automated to do something like this?

I'd convert each issue to a single PDF

[Alan Klein]

Irfanview is free and does batch conversions, renaming files etc.  Try it and see if it works for you.  Good luck.

[Petrus]

I'd convert each issue to a single PDF

What we need right now are spreads to be used in a video. JPEG would be the most universal format, PDF-per-issue might come next after the video project is done. They are already available online, but not possible to download in full resolution, just frame-grabs with navigation tools embedded.

Thanks for the links everybody.

[AFairley]

FastStone Image Viewer is free and has a batch convert function.  You can also rename, resize and perform other global edits in the conversion it you want.  I've been using it for years and recommend it highly.

[Petrus]

You can also use the free utility called XNConvert, which is specifically designed for batch conversion, with many actions that you may need built into the interface.

http://www.xnview.com/en/xnconvert/

It will permit several operations on each file (ICC conversion, resizing, etc.), should you choose to apply them, as well as recursive file handling and preservation of the directory structure in your batch output.

kirk

nxconvert is now running on my work laptop over the weekend, 40 pictures per minute, from USB3 to USB2 disk, with same file structure and file name. I am expecting it will convert about 150000 files before I get back to work on monday. Still some 60000 files to run later.

[nirpat89]

Create an action in Photoshop based on the level of quality, color space, etc, including where you want to save the new jpegs and closing the file without saving after the conversion.

Open folder in Bridge.  Select individual files.  Go to Tools / Photoshop / Batch where you can select the action you created.  Hit OK.  It will load each file in Photoshop and do the conversion and save in the respective folder. 

I do this on a small number of files, don't see why it should not work for a boat-load together.

[Petrus]

Create an action in Photoshop based on the level of quality, color space, etc, including where you want to save the new jpegs and closing the file without saving after the conversion.

Open folder in Bridge.  Select individual files.  Go to Tools / Photoshop / Batch where you can select the action you created.  Hit OK.  It will load each file in Photoshop and do the conversion and save in the respective folder. 

I do this on a small number of files, don't see why it should not work for a boat-load together.

No reason to doubt it. Problem is the file structure. With xnconvert I simply created a top level folder "Pages" on the source disk, and dragged all 85 Annual folders to that, each annual folder containing Issue folders, which each contains the actual page TIFFs. This arrangement took all of 10 seconds. Next comes the neat part: In xnconvert i just dragged the folder "Pages" to the input field, chose the output disk, conversion type and checked "keep directory structure". And clicked "Start". 57 hours later 179605 files had been converted without errors, with the original directory structure, on another disk. From 3.9 TB of TIFFs to less than 300 MB as 80% quality JPEGs.

[kirkt]

No reason to doubt it. Problem is the file structure. With xnconvert I simply created a top level folder "Pages" on the source disk, and dragged all 85 Annual folders to that, each annual folder containing Issue folders, which each contains the actual page TIFFs. This arrangement took all of 10 seconds. Next comes the neat part: In xnconvert i just dragged the folder "Pages" to the input field, chose the output disk, conversion type and checked "keep directory structure". And clicked "Start". 57 hours later 179605 files had been converted without errors, with the original directory structure, on another disk. From 3.9 TB of TIFFs to less than 300 MB as 80% quality JPEGs.

Nice.  Glad it worked!

kirk

[nirpat89]

No reason to doubt it. Problem is the file structure. With xnconvert I simply created a top level folder "Pages" on the source disk, and dragged all 85 Annual folders to that, each annual folder containing Issue folders, which each contains the actual page TIFFs. This arrangement took all of 10 seconds. Next comes the neat part: In xnconvert i just dragged the folder "Pages" to the input field, chose the output disk, conversion type and checked "keep directory structure". And clicked "Start". 57 hours later 179605 files had been converted without errors, with the original directory structure, on another disk. From 3.9 TB of TIFFs to less than 300 MB as 80% quality JPEGs.

Wonderful...and it is free too.