Before I start with SuperJPG, I make a working folder in which I place the images I want to batch process(you did back up those images right?). From there, SuperJPG can make it's own sub-folders named "batch". More on this in a little bit. SuperJPEG is a shareware program but you get to try it free for 30 days. If you like the program you can purchase it for $29.00 which is well worth it. You can download SuperJPG from Midnightblue's website here:
Once you've downloaded and installed the program, open it up so we can do some batch processing. The first thing you'll notice is the folder view in the left hand pane. Scroll down until you find the folder that contains the images you want to process. Once that folder is selected you will see thumbnail views of all the images on the right along with their dimensions and file sizes. Now select "File/Batch Process" (keyboard shortcut: Alt-B) from the menu bar to bring up the screen below.
Click on the "Add Folder" button highlighted in green to add the images from your folder to your batch process. You should see the images appear in the text box of the screen like they are above. Now select the "Output" tab along the top to bring up the screen you see below.
This screen allows you to set your output folder (red arrow) and compression percentage which is highlighted in blue. SuperJPG makes it easy to select an output folder. By clicking the "./Batch" button highlighted in green, it will create a sub-folder to your working folder named "batch" in which it will place your processed images. I X'ed out the "Current Folder" button to prevent from overwriting the original images. As for compression level, a good place to start is somewhere between 60-70%. We have it set to 65% here as you can see. This is a good compromise between image quality and file size. Also make sure you have clicked the "Original Format" radio button (blue arrow).
All we have left to do now is choose how big we want our images to be so click the "Size" tab along the top to bring up the screen below.
SuperJPG lets you choose from some pre-set sizes on the left by clicking radio buttons or you can enter your own size on the right. If you use a pre-set, I would go no larger than 640x480. For my free sites I usually enter a custom size of 500x500 for my main images as you can see I did here. If I were doing thumbs, it would be set at 110x110 or so. It's very important to make sure you have "Underfill out put image, preserving aspect ratio" (blue arrow) checked in order to prevent your images from being cropped. Once everything is to your liking, click the "Process Now" button and SuperJPG will do it's thing.
I hope you have found this little page to be helpful. If you have comments or suggestions on how this page can be improved, please feel free to email me at freeballer@uberporn.net. I would love to hear from you. When you're done here head back over to VNWR and learn yourself a thing or two :).
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