PRODUCT REVIEW
Batch processing made simple with ReaConverter Pro
By John Roling
Every digital photographer or graphic artist has a plethora of tools in their toolbox. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks often come to mind. While these tools are best of breed, sometimes they are too complex (or expensive) to use. And while their photo editing and graphics features may be top notch, sometimes a small (but occassionally very needed) feature like batch processing might get a minimalist treatment.
"I have yet to see a better batch processing utility, especially for the price."
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For those of you that don't know, batch processing is simply taking a large number of images and converting them to something else in some way. It may be as simple as resizing or renaming the images, or as involved as sharpening, changing color depths, changing brightness and adding a border.
Batch processing takes the tedium of opening each image, making your adjustments and resaving, and then automates that entire process from beginning to end. It allows you to convert hundreds or thousands of images in a short amount of time. This is what ReaConverter Pro from ReaSoft does so well.
ReaConverter Pro is a full featured batch processor. It boasts the ability to convert over 340 graphics formats. Everything from tried and true JPG and GIF images to newer formats like JPG2000 and RAW formats, including thos like as NEF (a Nikon format) and CRW (a Canon format) that higher-end cameras use today.
In addition to the vast amount of formats you can convert from, ReaConverter Pro also gives you the ability to make 19 different types of adjustments with tons of individual tweaks within each action. You can sharpen or blur images, change color depths and resolutions, add a watermark, crop, mirror, resize, rotate and so much more. The level of detail really is amazing.
To see what the product could do, I decided to convert pictures I had from a car show. I had 305 pictures, all at 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution, and totaling 431 megabytes in size. I eventually wanted to create a Web page with thumbnails linked to the main images. This meant that I needed Web-friendly images with thumbnails and a consistent naming scheme. To facilitate this, I decided to do the following to the pictures:
- Change the size to 640 x 480 pixels
- Change the color depth to 256 colors
- Change the resolution to 72 dots per inch
- Add a sequential number to the end of the filename
- Convert the filename entirely to lower-case
- Save the file as a JPG at 75% quality
- Create a thumbnail for each image that's 100 pixels wide and 72 dpi
- Add "thn" to the end of the thumbnail filename
- Save the thumbnail as a JPG at 75% quality
As you can see, that's a lot of work if I had to do each photo individually. Imagine the time it would take me if I did it myself. Fortunately ReaConverter Pro did all the heavy-lifting for me. And it took only five minutes! This was on a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 machine with a gigabyte of RAM, so your mileage may vary.
Let's show you how it was done. In Figure A you will see the main screen of ReaConverter Pro.
FIGURE A
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ReaConverter has a clutter-free interface. Click picture for a larger image.
It has three tabs that allow you to do each step of your work. Step 1 allows you to choose which files you want converted, Step 2 allows you to choose each action that you want to apply to the images, and Step 3 allows you to specify where and how you want the images saved. It's also the place where you can choose to create thumbnails along with your images.
In Step 1, I chose all of my files in the "2003 Car Show Pics Master" folder and added them to be processed by clicking the Add All To File List button.
I then selected the Step 2 tab. This is where I chose all of the actions to do to my images. The first thing I elected to do was resize the photo to 640 x 480. I chose Resize from the list of possible actions drop down box. I then made my height and width choices, and clicked the Add to Script button as seen in Figure B. I did the same thing for changing the color resolution. Once I was done with that, I moved on to my Save Parameters.
FIGURE B
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Choosing your actions is easy. Click picture for a larger image.
I chose Step 3 on the final tab. This is where you specify how and where you want your final image saved. It's also where you can choose whether or not you want thumbnails created and how you want them created. I started by telling ReaConverter Pro where I wanted to save the new images. I then specified that I wanted to save my converted files as JPG, as shown in Figure C.
FIGURE C
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The Specify Save Parameters tab lets you choose your save options. Click picture for a larger image.
You have 13 different file formats to choose from. This should be more than enough to satisfy most people's needs. I then clicked the Additional Settings button. This area as shown in Figure D allows you to get more in-depth with the individual settings. I chose 75 percent for the quality and then clicked OK to return to Step 3.
FIGURE D
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You can tweak your advanced settings. Click picture for a larger image.
To finish up the main images, I added a numerical suffix to the end of each filename, and I chose to make the case of the filename all lower-case. Once my main choices were complete, I chose the Thumbnails Parameters tab.
As you can see in Figure E, you have to check a box to enable thumbnail creation, and then you have to choose your resolution, quality, and size of the thumbnails. Setting up these options will create thumbnails based on your converted images.
FIGURE E
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Thumbnails can be added easily Click picture for a larger image.
At this point, all that was left was hitting the Start button. Doing so started the batch process. It ran through everything, taking each image and converting it to my specifications, and creating a thumbnail for each one. The whole process took approximately five minutes to complete. It saved me a TON of time and worked flawlessly. ReaConverter Pro also creates a log of the process, so you can see if any errors did occur, a nice feature if you run into any problems down the line.
I did many more tests with standard GIF, JPG, TIF and PNG files and had no problems. I did however encounter some weirdness when testing with CRW files from my Canon 300D Digital Rebel. It showed that everything converted properly but the files I ended up with were blank. To ReaSoft's credit, they do state next to CRW support that it's for PowerShot digital cameras, and Canon is notorious for changing their RAW format constantly, so I imagine it's just a matter of time before the 300D files are supported.
The only other issue I had with ReaConverter Pro was that it was Windows only, no Mac or Linux support at this time. It would have also been nice to see an FAQ on the ReaSoft website, but instead they just had support forums. This is forgivable, but when looking for support, it's nice to have immediate feedback to the most common questions.
In all, I have yet to see a better batch processing utility, especially for the price. ReaConverterPro is $39 for personal use, and $99 for business use. This price is a lifetime price that includes all updates to the software going forward. For this much power and the time it saves you, $39 for a lifetime of batch processing work is well worth your money. Looks like my toolbox is going to need room for one more program.
OUR RATING: 4 of 5
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John Roling is an IT Manager for a global telecommunications company and a digital photo enthusiast. You can keep up with him at his blog at http://greyhawk68.dominohosting.biz.
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