Batch scale app with Automator
Today I will introduce you to Automator with a short and interesting example. Automator is developed by Apple and was first released with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. It is a powerful environment for automating repetitive tasks. A wide range of applications are supported, including for example Finder, Safari and Xcode. It can also work with third-party applications like Adobe Photoshop and Pixelmator. Automator provides an interface for automating tasks without the knowledge of programming and scripting languages. Tasks can be recorded as you perform them. In addition, there is a library where predefined tasks can be selected from a list. In this tutorial we will create an useful application for batch scaling images without a single line of code.
It all started when I was looking for a small tool that would simply assist me in resizing images. I had no high expectations in mind, just some basic features. It should be a Mac OS X native app with optional drag and drop support and it should handle specified files as well as whole folders. As you can see, these wishes were modest. Anyway, I was not very satisfied with what I found. Some programs were just too much and not lightweight at all, some even lacked the basics. A friend mentioned: “You could use Automator for it”. So far I had known little about Automator but I am glad I gave it a try. Here is how the resulting app will look like. First, you will be asked to provide some files or folders.
If you started the program by dragging and dropping some files or folders on it, you can skip this and continue. Don’t mind that dragged contents will not be shown in this dialogue, but it will work. Now you’ll need to specify path and name of a new folder.
The scaled images will be saved here. Next you will be asked what size your images should have. Instead of pixels, you can select them to scale procentual.
Done with the workflow. All images are processed and available in your specified folder. Here is finally how the whole thing looks like in Automator. Not magic, but very effective.
I hope I was able to give you a small introduction to Automator, in my eyes one of the most underestimated Mac OS X tools. In case you just want the resulting application: BatchScale
