file compression

Hi I've a cd with a few hundred jpgs on it but each one is over 1.5mb in size is there any programs that will compress every file down at the same time without me doing each one individually?

[Kevin Connery]

Depending on which OS you've got, you could use a system level batch utility (AppleScript, .bat file, a perl script, etc.) to compress them.

You could also record a short Photoshop Action (Open file, Save As... a jpeg) and use File > Automate > Batch for the entire folder. (You'd want to do something like this if you wanted to reduce the file dimensions (Image Size) by reducing the overall pixel count.

HOWEVER, compressing a JPEG is generally not going to save you much--JPEG uses a pretty darn good compression in the first place, and a recompression might well make the file sizes larger unless you threw away some of the pixels by making it a smaller image (cropping or resizing down).

[markzebra]

1.5 meg Jpegs! theres something wrong with trhat - either they are exceptionally huge resolution, or they are compressed at Jpeg 9 or 10 quality. Either way you can easily make them smaller - just by batching them using an action. You don't need any fancy scripting to do this, just a simple action. Create a new folder and perform a batch operation.

[Kevin Connery]

Many cameras generate JPEGs of that size; they're the closest thing to an 'original', and the compression is set fairly low to minimize artifacts.

A typical JPEG from my D60 is between 1 and 2 megabytes, depending on the content. That's 6 megapixels. Many 4-6 megapixel camera make larger ones, if they have sharpening turned on.