Batch Image Compression

If there's one thing for sure, it's that adult webmasters never have enough hours in the day. And, as incredible as it seems, I actually used to compress all of my JPEGs one by one - in the manner I talked about yesterday. While this can be a good way to get each image down to it's most efficient size, it takes FOREVER! And it's also exceptionally dull. And when I started my Paysite, and was compressing maybe 200 pics per day, it also became an impossible task.

That's where BATCHING became essential - but I'd advise everyone to use it on their free site images too. There's nothing better than putting your pics in a folder and then pointing the image compression program at that folder and then sitting back and letting IT do all the hard work for you. It only takes a few seconds, and you really don't have to do that much. And that's a really important part of being an adult webmaster - hunting out tools that give you more time to do the important things...

1) OK, the software that I'm going to throw at you today is simply wonderful at it's job. Here's your new best friend:

JPEG Opimizer
http://www.xat.com/jpegopt/jpeg_compression/
Download: ftp://ftp.xat.com/pub/jpopt3.exe

So download that software, put the coffee on, and then move on...

2) We're going to need TEN images to compress for this tutorial, so if you have some that you can play with, maybe some sponsor content or some pics that you've bought, then use those. You don't really need to copy them to their own folder as the program that we're going to use will write the compressed images to a folder of their own. Cool!

NOTE: If you need some images, feel free to download this ZIP file for the purpose of this tutorial:

http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/batch/batch.zip

3) Start your new software by clicking on it's icon on the desktop (it usually installs a convenient link there for you - OR basically just use the start menu). It will start up in no time, and not much will happen. The software might look lifeless, but don't be fooled. It's a powerful piece of kit.

4) There's a little button at the top left of the screen with OPEN on it. Press that to get things started...

5) Using the interface, double click on the appropriate folders and find the one where you're content is - the pictures that we talked about earlier.

6) Once you're in that directory, single left click on the 1st image in that window and then press the SHIFT key on your keyboard and click the LAST image that is in that window.

7) Press OPEN on that little panel.

8) Another window now pops up, but don't worry, there's not much to change here. Set the "Default Compression" part to 75. 1 would be a smaller image file size but would be really messy, and 100 would be a larger image size but would have very little or no compression symptoms such as blotchy patches... 75 is usually ideal for a free site! Press OK when you're done.

9) A 'save AS' box pops up at this point. This is basically asking where you want to put the images. If you pressed SAVE now, all of the images in that folder would be overwritten with the new compressed versions. Press the 3rd box from the top right to create a new folder - call it TEMP or something. (You COULD create a folder before you start too...)

*TIP* It's always good to put batch compressed images into a new folder so that if you don't like the way they look (maybe you over compressed them!) then it's easy to just go back to the originals wand work from them.

So make a new folder here, and double click in to it...

9) Click SAVE, and sit back and watch the JPEG compressor work it's magic. If all went well, you should have a bunch of images in the folder that you specified that are all compressed versions of your originals.

10) Go check them! If you like the way they look - cool. If not, go back and start again using your original images here. You might also want to see if you can get the file size down even further...

Good luck and let me know if you get stuck...

TOM ^"^

ICQ 12616560
Email tom@tomsnewbiebooster.com

Enter TOM'S NEWBIE BOOSTER

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