Batch exporting Photoshop files to JPEG or PNG

August 04, 2011

All I wanted to do was take a big folder full of PSD files and turn them into JPEGs, so that I could view them more easily without having to wait while Photoshop opens every time.

Fine, I thought - Photoshop has a batch processing function. Trouble was, it would keep asking me to navigate to the save directory, choose a filename, and choose the JPEG quality.

There’s usually a way around things, that isn’t always obvious.

Thanks to a lot of googling, I found this forum post which pointed out the batch processing function in Fireworks is really easy to use.

  1. Open Fireworks
  2. Go to File > Batch Process
  3. Add the files you want to process and then click Next
  4. Set the batch options - I just wanted to use Export (JPEG - Better Quality) and then click Next
  5. Set the location where you want to save the files, and click Batch

It might take a while, especially if the files are big, but it should just run without pestering you.

If the file contains a font you haven’t got installed, you’ll get a dialog box asking what you want to do about it, but otherwise you can go away and have a cup of tea while it happens.