Batch image cropping to minimize white space

[iMarks]

Can anyone recommend an inexpensive program to crop out perceptible white space in an image, then resize, all in batch mode? Or can Photoshop do this in batch mode?

We have about 1500 manufacturer images, all with different amounts of white space surrounding the object. When we run the batch program to resize, many objects become too small. The white space needs to be cropped before resizing. (We do not not need to remove backgrounds - the assumption is that the products are already on "mostly white" backgrounds. We just need smaller margins/less padding.)

Ideally, we would like to control the white space "Tolerance" and border width. Or the program can figure out what an appropriate tolerance should be relative to the rest of the pixels in the image.

Please let me know what software you've used and liked. Thanks!

[iMarks]

Re: Batch image cropping to minimize white space

OK, I did a little investigation with Photoshop CS3 and it looks like we can use "Image, Trim" to trim the white space.

Then we can create an action that does the trim using the "Window, Actions" palette.

Then we can run the action in batch mode using the "File, Scripts, Image Processor" dialog WITHOUT Resize since the Resize happens before the Action - not what we want. (My client does not have CS3 yet so he was looking at "File, Automate, Batch" instead.)

For the multi-step process of trim, resize, save as, resize, sharpen, save as, resize, sharpen, save as, we may look at recording a more complex action to run in batch mode (haven't tried it yet - not sure how the file naming would work).

So I think we're OK for now. Hopefully Photoshop can handle the number of images...

[Red Flare]

Re: Batch image cropping to minimize white space

I am using http://www.irfanview.com/ for batch image processing. Don't know if you can remove white space though with it.

[klassic]

Re: Batch image cropping to minimize white space

I have recorded several actions that we use for editing our images. And the batch function works great. Are all your images already named? If so you can have the action save the files in another folder so you will have one folder of originals and one with the cropped.

If you need to rename all the images there is a program I use called Bulk Rename Utility. It can be found here.