Changing the size or file type of your photos and other images should be a snap, but unless you’re comfortable on the command-line there’s no quick and easy built-in method in OS X. There’s many ways to resize pictures and save them in other formats — even Preview can handle that — but it takes several steps for each image.
Snap Converter fills the void. It’s a drag-and-drop image converter that can handle many file formats, resize images, add watermarks, and batch rename. Both simple and functional, it’ll handle all your basic image processing, but you may need to look elsewhere if you need more advanced tools. Let’s take it for a spin.
Easy Conversion
Converting or resizing images — whether you have one or one thousand — with Snap Converter is simple. Just drag and drop a folder or file(s) onto the Snap Converter window, or select your files from the Open dialog, tweak the settings, hit Continue, wait while it works its magic, and confirm the location for the new images to be saved.
Drag and drop and you’re all set for a quick conversion.
A minimal and functional interface ensures that you can get the job done quickly and without distraction. All settings are in the one window, popping in and out of existence depending on the context — the options for a single image conversion are slightly different to that of a multi-image conversion, for instance. You can choose between seven output formats — JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, JPEG2000, or ICNS — with a quality slider for JPEGs and an Optimize File Size option for PNGs.
You’re out of luck if you need to convert to more exotic image formats, but Snap Converter covers all the major ones. The app can read many more formats than it can write, however. Files with the extensions TGA, ICO, CUR, PDF, EPS, PSD, DNG, CRW, CR2, NEF, MRW, ARW, ORF, and EXR can all be read and converted, which may make Snap Converter a good choice for people with cameras that use RAW or a proprietary image format.
Resize, But Don’t Crop Me
Resizing can be done by percentage, maximum length of the longest side, maximum dimensions, absolute size (with or without the current aspect ratio), or fixed height or width (or not at all, of course). There’s no option for resizing the image according to a value for the shortest side, although you could probably work around this with a bit of thought. If for some reason you want to do multiple size adjustments you’ll have to do multiple conversions — there’s no way to combine these options in one process.
Resize one or many images with a few keystrokes. You can resize according to any one of several criteria.
You can set rules for file naming on batch conversions — be they incremental counters, prefixes, suffixes, or replacements. This should cover just about everybody’s systems for naming, except perhaps those who like to name according to image content (which wouldn’t exactly lend itself to batch processing and so may be a moot point). If it’s a folder, or folder of folders, you can preserve the directory structure and specify whether or not to include images in subfolders. You can also overwrite the existing files, if you so desire.
Batch rename according to whatever ruleset you like.
You can’t crop images with Snap Converter. The app doesn’t even include basic cropping functionality, whereby you enter pixel coordinates for where the new sides/corners should be. For an app that prides itself on image conversion made easy, this seems like an oversight — especially now that it’s at version 2.0. If you need to crop your images as well as change their overall size or file type, look elsewhere (or introduce Snap Converter alongside another app or script specifically for cropping).
Watermarks
Adding watermarks to images is very straightforward. You can choose between a text and an image watermark. Either of these can be positioned in one of nine points on the image, offset by a set number of pixels (four to the left and four up, by default). This means that you can put the watermark anywhere on the images, and you can make it consistent no matter what the size and dimensions.
There’s lots of flexibility when it comes to creating and adding a watermark to your images.
Text watermarks can be colored however you desire. You can change the font to any font installed on your computer. An optional drop shadow adds depth to the watermark, with an opacity slider and blur radius to strengthen or weaken the effect. The text also has an opacity setting, should you prefer your watermarks heavily transparent or completely solid — or anywhere in between.
Preserving Metadata
Serious photographers will be relieved to know that Snap Converter 2.0 can preserve EXIF data (earlier versions did not) when the output file format is either JPEG or TIFF. This means that technical information stored in the original photo’s metadata — such as focal length, exposure time, device model, and F number — will be saved in the converted image. The caveat here is that you have to check a box that says Preserve Metadata — the behavior is not enabled by default.
EXIF data can be preserved during conversion if the output format is JPEG or TIFF (just don’t forget to check the Preserve Metadata box).
My testing indicated that not all data is preserved every time, however. With the same settings, repeated exports occasionally resulted in different metadata — usually the EXIF data carried over in its entirety (well, almost — a standard sRGB IEC61966-2.1 color profile was often changed to “Generic RGB Profile”), but a few times it didn’t get saved. I’m not sure what caused this, but take care that there could be minor reliability problems when preserving EXIF data.
Snap Conversions
Using Snap Converter is a breeze. You can quickly and easily convert any number of images to a different file type or create smaller versions of them, or even add a watermark. It doesn’t have the flashiest of interfaces, but it’s clean and simple and focused on functionality. If you need to do more advanced batch image operations such as cropping, adding borders, adjusting colors, or applying visual effects, Snap Converter is at best a helper app and at worst a waste of money. But if you need something simple to make all your photos the same size and format, perhaps with a consistent naming structure and a watermark on every one, the app is perfect.