posterity purposes

[wmchauncey]

My three adult kids were astounded that I have over 4.5 TB of psd files and that I've never converted
any of them for print, should they ever want to.

Am I correct in assuming that there is no way to convert them to sRGB for printing, en mass?
Is there any type of generic soft-proofing that would satisfy professional printers?

[langier]

Does it all need to be converted? I'm up to probably 20 TB or more and maybe convert 5% of my raw files. Many are similars and as a back-up or the nooks and crannies that fill in the gaps, but to convert and print every single photo would take a village... I'd do a tight edit of the best, convert and print at least small images and then buy three large hard drives, transfer the files and hand them each their own and let them worry about conversion and printing.

[trshaner]

There was a similar post on this subject in the Adobe Lightroom forum: https://forums.adobe.com/message/9133966#9133966

Since your image files are PSDs and not raw format that simplifies the "sharing process," but you still need to facilitate "finding" specific image files through folder naming and/or keyword assignment in metadata.

Soft Proofing is only done once specific image files have been selected and the target printer identified. So you won't be doing this during the conversion from PSD to JPEG, which can be done "enmass" with Image Processor in Bridge or Photoshop. Simply "outputting" 4.5 TBs of image files for someone else to find, rate, and select for printing is going to be a nightmare. You need to provide much more details on specific objectives and how others will actually use your image files.

[wmchauncey]

Let's back up...am I correct that most of the better pro printing labs prefer sRGB submissions?

[wmchauncey]

I should have made myself more clear...I want to convert them to a format to is likely to be acceptable
to the pro printers ten years down the road.

[trshaner]

Let's back up...am I correct that most of the better pro printing labs prefer sRGB submissions?

Most Pro Labs will want you to soft proof and adjust images for a specific paper type using a color profile they provide for that specific paper and target printer. This is why I said you shouldn't be doing any soft proof conversion if you're trying to create "archival" files OR image files for use by your children. For non-professionals (i.e. your children) sRGB JPEG files are probably the safest and most universally usable file format. For true archival purposes 16bit ProPhoto RGB TIFFs is the best format when outputting camera raw image files. PSD files already have a working color space assigned so there is no advantage in converting them to another color space like ProPhoto RGB. Simply output them to TIFF file format if you're concerned 10-years out the PSD file format will no longer be supported. There are other considerations such as PSD files with editing layers, which is supported by TIFF file format but not JPEG file format.  More here:

http://www.dpbestflow.org/file-format/archive-file-formats

[mouse]

All of the "pro" printing labs I know of will accept Jpeg files in sRGB color space.  The really competent labs will deal with any color space providing the file is tabbed.  Now, as to what we can count on 10 years down the road, my crystal ball is a bit foggy. 

[rdonson]

I should have made myself more clear...I want to convert them to a format to is likely to be acceptable
to the pro printers ten years down the road.

What do you mean by "pro printer"?  There are a lot of shops that will print just about anything you give them.  Do you consider Walmart or CVS a "pro printer"?

If you're working with a printer who specializes in "fine art" printing then the norm is TIFF or PSD in ProPhoto RGB colorspace.  The best have made their own profiles for their printers and papers and will do their absolute best to produce a "fine art" print from what you've supplied.

[CeeVee]

Convert to tiffs, Photoshop CC still has the batch function and you can specify sRGB as the output space.  You will need to decide to flatten, or not, and can save as LZW  compressed files to save space.
Tiff is about as universal as you can find and likely to remain there.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

[TonyVentourisPhotography]

Through lightroom you can also do a batch export to highest res original size JPG in sRGB space.  Some people here might balk at the thought...but in all reality no one is going to fight over srgb or higher color spaces if someone needs a reproduction three generations from now.  Its a horrid thought for sure...but ease of access is more important than anything else if you expect the images to be important to someone someday.  I have a habit of exporting just my favorite work, best work, and other really meaningful images to very obvious folder.  Its just a dump of my top 1% and special selections.  I figure little else will be looked for.  All are printable and viewable on any device.  Best part is no one needs to know how to do anything.  They open the folder and they have JPGs that they are familiar with.