Here is my iPad picture resizing Photoshop action (right click link and choose to download linked file) I’ve zipped the action for security. The slideshow function within the iPad photos app works very well and smoothly with pictures prepared using this action. The pictures are displayed at exactly 50% when viewed full screen and this gives you some very useful zoom in capability if you want to show off the detail of a picture to your client.
The action steps for your reference are: Flatten, Make RGB, Make 8Bit, Resize using Auto Fit to 2048 x 1536 pixels, Stroke 4 pixels white inside, Convert to sRGB, Save as a Jpeg at Q12.
Unzip the action and put it in your Photoshop actions folder. Restart Photoshop. Batch process your pictures into a new folder placed within the folder that syncs with your iPad Photos app and you are good to go.
Here are typical settings. You will need to select your source and destination folders.
Let me know how you get on.
Thank you Damien works like a charm, how can I add an extra border line and signature in this same action?
Hopefully this is possible because this works very fast.
Cheers Michael
Hi,
I haven’t done any actions with photoshop before so i have a few questions.
Firstly, what do you mean when you say ‘right click to download the link? Is that the start of the action or are you following a link before doing the action?
Also, how do you rename the action to ‘ipad’ when you go to the actions palette? And from there how do you get the resizing options?
thanks for your help.
Tash.
Hi Tash,
I havent the space or tools to teach how to use Photoshop actions on this blog but I did a Google search for you and came up with many free guides like this one Search for ‘how to use actions in Photoshop’ in YouTube for even more how toos. I hope this helps..
Kind regards,
Damien.
Thanks Damien …. not a solution for me as I’m not Mac!!! However I have been pointed in the direction of a rather fabulous little app called Portfolio – costs around a tenner but it is a really good little presentation app that can be customised to reflect you branding …. and yes, I’m loving my iPad!! J
Thanks Jerry, for taking the time to share that gem of knowledge :)
Kindest regards, Damien.
Love the action, Damien, thanks for sharing …. would love to ask everyone how they are sorting their images in their iPad …the order in which images are displayed seems to be a little random, and not changeable, and I would love to control the order in which images appear … any ideas? Thanks Jx
Hi Jerry,
I use iPhoto to sort all my pictures. ‘Albums’ in iPhoto are just like playlists in iTunes. I drag and drop the pictures into the order that I want to show them in. I then select all and rename them to further lock their position. All is fine when I sync the albums using iTunes. Enjoy your iPad, Damien.
The iPads resolution is 1024x768x132dpi
Hi Ken, Indeed it is. Fortunately for us Apple decided to give us a zoom in facility that allows for a double scaling. My action gives a 50% rendering of each image at 1024×768 so it maximises the 100% view when enlarged. I hope this helps.
Damien.
Two questions:
When I do the batch in photo shop, my horizontal images get re-sized to 2048 x 1336 pixels, not 2048 x 1536 pixels as mentioned above. In addition, I noticed that the vertical images get re-sized to 1024 x 1536 pixels. Is this correct?
Do I need to crop the full resolution images prior to running the batch process so that they are scaled properly for the iPad?
Thanks a lot for the great post, it’s much appreciated!
Hi Brian,
The sizes are correct. Any larger than this and the pictures get further reduced in the optomisation process. The crop gets done in Photoshop as part of the iPad action so no initial crop is needed first.
Cheers, Damien.
Thanks for the replies got it sorted now, will just use iphoto for iPad photos as I use lightroom normally. I did not have to rename them I just reordered them in the iphoto album
Gavin
Sorry Gavin, martin’s right, i didn’t make it clear. I use aperture (i-photo will do the same) I have created a project in aperture called i-pad images. within that project i create separate albums eg a venue name I then sequentially name my files I want to go into that album, resize using D’s action then import the resized images into that album in the ipad project in aperture. When i connect the ipad to my mac via itunes the ipad syncs with the aperture album. In photos on the ipad, i select the album and it will play or scroll thro the files in the order i numbered them.
C
Gavin – this is a bit of a bug / feature and what Chris didn’t say is that you need to use iPhoto to sync your photos. I.e. in iTunes you sync with iPhoto albums not with folders directly. If you do that the iPad will respect the sort order of the album in iPhoto for e.g. filename as Chris suggests. M.
gavin re name your image files xxx0001 or something like that sequentially in CS, create an album or folder, apply damiens action to images then import to your pad. In photos you will have an album which will play your images in file number order.
HTH
C
Damian
I use your action works really well. I was wondering what app you use to view images, as I’ve tried photos but you can not change the order and you are forced to view them in their creation order
Hi Gavin.
This is a hot one. I use iPhoto for my ipad picture sorting. Drag and drop positioning in the albums without the need to rename the files etc. Then I just sync the albums that I want on the iPad. It’s like syncing playlists in iTunes :) It seems we all have different ways of doing it.
I hope this helps,
Damien.
Separate issue – I need to put video clip pulls that are 640 x 480 inside a 1024 x 768 canvas so that on the ipad they appear smaller sized but at good resolution rather than being blown up to pit the ipad screen and thus not good views. I have done this – it works well but I have not been able to automate the process for photoshop. Any help?
Maurice
Hi Maurice,
You can write an action to do that or modify my action to replace the fit image script with a resize canvas script. You need to add a reset then reverse foreground background step too.
Cheers, Damien.
@Trish
AFAIK for the best quality normally sharpening happens as a last step in postedit. However if you happen to have a sharpened file already, you should slightly sharpen again, i.e. going down from a sharpened fullres 4000px to 2048.
Cheers, George. Good advice.
Good question about the sharpening. Would it do damage to the images to further sharpen and then “Save For Devices”?
Hi Trish,
Try and see. Test and measure, If you like the look then add a splash of sharpening. It’s like adding salt to your food, only you can decide how much is right.
Regards, Damien.
@Trish
No, you can mix and match horizontal vertical images in one folder. The fit image script takes care of both as it seeks for the longest edge only in both formats.
Damien,
how about a sharpening step in there? Are your pics sharpened before? I have in mind that after a resize the picture has to be sharpened.
Hi George,
There is no need for a sharpening step unless you choose to put one in. I never sharpen my image after initial RAW file conversion. I like an analogue look and certainly not a sharpened digital look. Personal preference I suppose.
Cheers, Damien.
Forgot to check notifications box. Oops!
I’m on my iPad right now, so I can’t play with your action. Some questions though. Do I have to keep my horizontal photos in a separate folder from vertical images? Also, what about square images? Oh and also just curious what the step “stroke 4 Pixles white inside” is/does.
Thank you for sharing this!
Hi Trish,
I hope you are getting to grips with your iPad. As you will see from my action each step is open and you can decide to remove or omit the stroke step as you wish. Enjoy the freedom that the iPad brings.
Damien.
Fantastic Damien …thank you, you’ve saved me hours! looking forward to meeting you on the 31st..just watching your DVD :))
Thanks Julie,
I look forward to shooting with you on the Urban Portraits workshop.
Cheers, Damien.
Hmmm – just given it a go and for some reason the images look the same size as before…. erk. Not quite sure what I did wrong as it all seemed to do was add the stroke…
So far I have just had my photos on my iPad at the same resolution as they have been on my iPhone, but I have tried this action out and it is such an improvement and works brilliantly, especially with the batch command. Thank you so much Damien :0)
Jenny
Thanks Jenny – enjoy your iPad :)
Hi Martin,
Photogene is not something I’ll ever use on an iPad. I do all my editing on a laptop or desktop machine using Lightroom and Photoshop.
I now have clearly defined uses for my iPad, iPod, iPhone and MacBook Pro. There are some overlaps but not many.
Damien.
Damien, thank god for that!
I got that piece of information from an apple moderator on the iPad forum. I just copied & pasted it. I’m glad he was wrong.
Thanks for your info. I’d been emailing images to the iPad to bypass iTunes!!
Played with that ‘photogene’ app yet?
Martin.
Damien
thanks for this i’ll be using this when i collect mine in the next week or so
Martin
iTunes creates low resolution copies of whatever photos you choose to put on your iPad, scaling them to the screen size (1024×768) before syncing them to your iPad.
How do you get around this?
I’ve been looking into this for about a week now as iTunes seems to really destroy image quality of my pics, compared to say those on the guardian eyewitness app.
Previously it looked like it was only possible directly, with the Apple USB adapter. When I wanted to use the images I already had in my lightroom library.
Sounds great you’ve found away.
hi Martin,
Fortunately for us all you have been mis-informed. After resizing using my action, pictures don’t get scaled down again in iTunes. Pictures ‘display’ to fit within 1024 x 768 (exactly 50% hence clean clear render) but retain their full size available on demand. So when you double tap on the image it zooms in to 100% and renders a perfect image, clean, crisp, sharp and not pixelated. Another double tap returns it to 50% and a perfectly rendered fit to the screen.
Regards,
Damien.
Excellent Damien, thanks a lot. As you posted this, I was in the process of setting my own action to do something similar. Many thanks indeed! Oh, and yes, it works perfectly.