Using irFanView to batch edit images
I recently decided to repurpose my Piwik Mastery product and turn it into a book and Kindle version. The Kindle version had no real issues with images since they get down sampled anyway, but the printed book needed to have the images at at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). If not the images would almost certainly be grainy, and I don’t want that. Most screen capture software saves the images at 96 dpi or sometimes 72 dpi. I started using Photoshop and taking each image and making it 384 dpi by using the bicubic sampling functions. It was a pain. First, change the image type to indexed color, then upscale, downsize (the images get really big), then change back to RGB. Do that for 50 images, well, you get the idea.
My search for automated image manipulation
I started looking for a Photoshop script to do the work, and couldn’t find one I thought was decent. Then I looked at some commercial programs, but I never did use them. Instead, I stumbled across irFanView. This program does everything I needed and more. I have only done the batch conversions, but you can also do many different things and there are plugins as well. I decided to put together a little video to show you how easy it is to use the batch functions to increase the resolution of your screen captures for print. You could use this for any image really. Also, I highly recommend not using .jpg or .gif for your print work. Use .tiff. Tiff files are designed to be printed, and even though you don’t hear much about them, do yourself a favor and use them on all your print projects. Without further ado: