Try this:
First take a dummy file and save it WITH LZW compression. Then start recording your action and when the dialog pops up for compression UNcheck the LZW compression.
In my experience, the action records changes in the dialog. I know it sounds screwy, but try it and you’ll see that if the box was checked as a "default" while you are recording, and then you UNcheck it, that change will be recorded.
Peace,
Tony
Thanks Tony,
I swear I’ve tried that sequence (not with a "dummy" file though). I’ll give it another try as you’ve described.
I noticed that when I first attempted this I examined the steps recorded in the action afterwards . When saving with LZW it was clearly noted so in the action, when saving without LZW there was no indication you were doing so (maybe because I wasn’t ACTUALLY doing it)? If using LZW is noted, I assumed that NOT using LZW would be noted? Actions saving files as JPEG’s note the level of compression … so I got thoruoughly confused.
so I got thoruoughly confused
It’s easy to get confused – the way it functions is a bit quirky. As far as I have been able to discern, when option dialogs are involved in an action, other than styles, nothing is recorded in the action unless there is a discrete change. That is to say, it will use whatever "defaults" are present in the function.
The quirky part is that this is not always true and not for all dialogs. <shrug> Try it though, should work.
Peace,
Tony
I’m losing my mind and/or really stupid … still no luck!
No matter what I do the action does not record my selection of the "None" option in TIFF compression dialog box? Here’s the steps I performed:
File – New ("dummy" file, 8×10 inches 300 dpi) Save As
Leave name as "untitled"
Select Tiff as file format
LZW compression is checked by default .. don’t change it Click OK
* ** start recording **** File, Save As
OK – to overwrite prompt (file name unchanged)
Select "None" in TIFF compression dialog box
Click OK
* ** stop recording ***
Open 16 bit/channel LZW tiff image, run action … just resaves it with LZW compression again?
Could it be because 16 bit/channel images?
If you recreate this action is the fact that LZW is NOT selected noted in your action steps? I can never get that tidbit of info to appear in my action.
Thanks for your help!
Kresner,
Maybe it’s a terminology thing…
No matter what I do the action does not record my selection of the "None" option in TIFF compression dialog box
You will not record the absence of an option. You will only record the inclusion of one.
So that leads us to… how do you KNOW that your image is being saved with compression? As far as I am aware, the only way to tell is via saved file size. The Save or Save As dialog box will not tell you what options THIS image currently has.
If you do the reverse, and record an action that DOES use LZW, is it noted in the action steps when you look at the actions palette?
Is there any difference in observable behavior if you reduce the image to 8-bit and perform the same function?
Peace,
Tony
"So that leads us to… how do you KNOW that your image is being saved with compression?"
The file size remains unchanged.
"If you do the reverse, and record an action that DOES use LZW, is it noted in the action steps when you look at the actions palette?"
Yes, that’s what adding to my confusion.
"Is there any difference in observable behavior if you reduce the image to 8-bit and perform the same function?"
Will give that a try just for grins. But I’m archiving "master" images and want to keep them in 16bits/channel … who knows maybe it’s a PS quirk and can’t be done. May have get yet ANOTHER piece of software to do a seemingly trivial task!
As far as I am aware, the only way to tell is via saved file size.
Through Photoshop 7, if you go through Save As (tiff), option will default to LZW on LZW compressed file, to None with normal one. In either 8 or 16 bit mode.
It IS rather odd that there’s no File Info in PS that tells this though. Again, if IrfanView does it, you’d think that …. never mind.
Mac
FYI … you guys probably know this but I just learned this bit of trivia, the reason why I’m trying to save all these images without LZW compression.
16bit/channel TIFF image with LZW compression results in a file size 10-20% LARGER than without LZW compression. With 8bit/channel TIFF files it’s the OPPOSITE. I always assumed "compression = smaller file size" … not true with 16bit/channel TIFF’s!
For every 250GB disk drive I’ll use, not saving with LZW will free up 25 – 50GB of space on each drive! Of course now that I know this bit of reverse logic trivia I won’t have the scanner save with LZW … it’s just the hundreds of files already scanned I’m trying to work with.
Mac,
Through Photoshop 7, if you go through Save As (tiff), option will default to LZW on LZW compressed file, to None with normal one.
So the "defaults" of the options dialog revert to whatever the current file being Saved As is? Interesting. I wasn’t aware of that.
Kres,
Will give that a try just for grins. But I’m archiving "master" images and want to keep them in 16bits/channel .
Right, I was just suggesting it as a troubleshooting tool, to determine if it was a bit depth issue versus something else.
Interesting pickle. I don’t use 16-bit images so I can’t test it in earnest.
Let us know though.
Peace,
Tony
16bit/channel TIFF image with LZW compression results in a file size 10-20% LARGER
It varies…
Some behave about like 8 bit in compression, some, as you mention, go nuts.
Also, you need actual 16 sampled bits to test this out.
Taking an 8 bit file and converting to 16 in PhotoShop doesn’t behave same way, as it is just duplicating existing samples.
Mac
OK … I give up already 🙁
Same behavior with 8bit/channel TIFF’s, I’m going to get LZW and that’s that.
Of course I can set up the action to prompt for user input for each dialog box that pops open … oh boy … can spend hours clicking "OK" … "OK" … "None" …. "OK".
Perhaps I was expecting too much from software with this kind of price tag. Hmm … maybe I’ll visit Tucows.com, bet there’s some freeware/shareware out there to do what is obviously a convoluted, complex, operation.
Thanks to all for your responses and suggestions, though I really was counting on some brilliant, inspired, work around 😉
IrfanView does it fine, but only with 8 bit files.
Mac
Dilemma solved … ThumbsPlus V7 does the batch convert just fine. Version 7 added support for 16bit/channel files.
I’ve been using TP for a LONG time and really like it’s image data base capabilities. It’s image editing has a few really nice editing features and for most folks more than sufficient and much easier to learn than Photo Shop. But if you’re an advanced user PS is more powerful for complex image processing … then again ThumbsPlus only costs $50, not $650!
Thanks for the follow up. It’s an interesting anomaly.
Peace,
Tony
I can confirm these findings, as I too was unable to record the None vs. LZW compression in an action — the options are simply ignored. Can’t remember if I reported this to Adobe or not…guess I’ll just report it again ;-).
Thank you Mr. Morris … for confirming I’m not a total idiot 🙂
Let’s hope we’re not both idiots 😉
tiffcp <
http://www.libtiff.org/man/tiffcp.1.html> can do the conversion you want:
tiffcp combines one or more files created according to the Tag Image File Format, Revision 6.0 into a single TIFF file. Because the output file may be compressed using a different algorithm than the input files, tiffcp is most often used to convert between different compression schemes.
It’s one of the libtiff <
http://www.libtiff.org/> tools.
