Lightroom Class: PNG Conversion in Bridge
By DS101 on in 2012 Lightroom Supplies with 26 Comments
Before you do anything further in this class, make sure you have completed a full and complete backup of all your digital scrapbooking supplies.
The PNG Conversion Process for Photoshop and Bridge
This process is going to be different depending on the software you have, so make sure that you are reading the document that corresponds to your particular software. This document covers the step by step process of converting your PNG files to TIF files using Bridge
PNG – PSD – TIF – What’s the difference?
One of the first questions I know a lot of you will ask is, “Why TIF (LZW Compression) and not PSD?”
When I first went through this process, I converted everything PNG to PSD format. It worked! However, the more I organized and tagged, and the more I researched, I learned that there were some distinct advantages to TIF. I switched to TIF mid stream – the best part was because I had already done a lot of keyword tagging in Lightroom, even though I switched formats, I still retained all my keywords!
There were a few reasons I made this change mid-stream in my organizing process:
PSD File Compatibility – Even after converting, Lightroom had issues with some PSD files. I realized this could be a long term issue as my catalog aged.
File Size - At first I thought PSD would be smaller, but after testing a folder of several kits, I noticed that some files were much smaller in TIF format than PSD format. Yet there were others that were larger as TIF files. **Note if you are using Photoshop Elements instead of Bridge – for some reason the opposite is often true**
Speed – this clinched it for me. Updating metadata in TIF files is a lot faster than PSD. With thousands and thousands of items to keyword in a digital stash, speed is a huge factor – there was a definitive difference in the speed of tagging to TIF files vs. PSD.
Here’s the video outlining the step by step process below.
Before Getting Started with the Conversion Process in Adobe Bridge
Consider the remaining hard drive space on your computer before you get started. As you change the format of your files to PSD, they will increase in size. This has a lot to do with changing the format of the file so you will have a reliable space inside it to store your metadata.
Look at the size of your main scrapbooking folder with all your designer folders inside it (right click and choose Properties to find its size). Plan on having at least twice to three times that space free on your hard drive to go through this process.
The three times the hard drive space may seem like overkill – but your computer also uses the free space on your main drive for temporary files – so you will want to make sure you always have at least 10-20% of your drive space free for temporary files – because Bridge is going to use it. 
There will be so many PNG files to convert, I highly recommend going through the conversion process designer folder by designer folder. This way you won’t overwhelm your computer’s processor.
Setting Up Bridge
There are a few things you can do to make this process faster and easier in Bridge.
- Choose Adobe Bridge CS5 > Preferences > Cache (set in the middle)
For faster browsing (and PNG file detection), choose a folder and then select the Browse Quickly By Preferring Embedded Images button in the Adobe Bridge application bar.
Converting Files
- Inside Bridge Navigate to your Scrapbooking Originals Folder. Right click and choose “Add To Favorites” This will make it always accessible on your Favorites Tab.
- Double click on the first designer folder you want to work on.
- Choose View > Show Items From Subfolders.
- After Bridge finishes Building Criteria. Click on PNG image underneath the Filter Tab.
- Choose Edit > Select All (or press CTRL/CMD + A on your keyboard)
- Choose Tools > Photoshop > Image Processor
- Under Section 2, select “Save in Same Location”
- Under 3 select TIFF and LZW Compression
- Click Run and then wait while Photoshop processes the image – this could be a few minutes or longer depending on how many files you have in the folder – now might be a good time to get up and take a computer break for a few minutes.
- When your computer is finished processing in Photoshop, return to bridge where all your PNG files should still be selected. Right click and choose “Move To Trash”
- Repeat this process for each designer folder in your collection.
- Navigate to your designer and kit folders and double click on the TIFF folder inside each – voila – all your PNG files from the kit are now TIF files and ready to import into Lightroom!
**** You can download a free thirty-day trial of Bridge (choose the Photoshop CS5 download) here. ****
Great post Kayla, I am so pleased to finally embark on this process of organising in Lightroom with the help of Bridge and can’t wait to start converting my png files for organising. At this stage however I am still doing some ‘housework’ on my master file in readiness to commence this procedure. Thanks for the info re the space we will need on our drives…obviously an important consideration before commencing the process.
Thanks again for this free class and sharing your methods with us.
xxox
Great job so far Kayla.
I am working hard at organizing my kits into designers and converting them. I struggled with converting a bit at the beginning because I have an older version of Bridge. I was able to figure out that to view all the items in the sub-folders (like you showed)I had go to the filter tab and click on the file folder that has a little red circle with the line through it. When I did that it showed me all my items my sub folders. It did not work properly for me at first, so I had to go in and purge my cache and now it works beautifully.
I thought maybe this information might help others who are not working with the most current version of bridge.
I am really amazed the designers I have the most kits from. We should do a survey and see who collectively we own the most of.
Thanks for all your hard work – looking forward to tomorrows lesson.
Leigh-Ann
Thanks Leigh-Ann – great comment that others will most definitely find helpful – thanks for sharing your experience!
Is there any way to make PS NOT make a new “TIFF” folder for each PNG group it processes into TIF? Getting rid of all those extra folders is a bit of a pain….
Thanks a million for this class! Right up my alley, and SO needed!
Oh help! I imported my main folder with everything in it–including my vast collection of freebies–all in the freebie folder of course! Now I have some parts that might be kits from various places–(blame Ikea Goddess here LOL). Do I need to delete the freebie folder? and reorganize it then re-import? Some parts are sets of paper, some elements, and my favorite thing, templates? Please advise. I haven’t started to try to convert png yet, since I’m not sure what to do here.
THanks!
You can organize the folders in Lightroom just as easily as you can in your folder structure. I would recommend creating a separate place for your Lightroom Catalog folders – this makes it easier as you import to know what is actually in your Lightroom catalog and what is outside of it. So if you have already moved things into Lightroom and they are not in the same place as where you brought them from, I would just organize and move your files in Lightroom. However, if it is a lot to organize you may choose to do it in your folder structure. But don’t delete anything unless you have another copy.
I did the conversion in Bridge to CS4. when I was all done I have the TIF file in my designer folder, but back in Bridge under filter>png it says I still have 11 items(what I started with). I click on it and it says ‘no items to display with current filter. 11 items” So I can’t view the items.
On the tif line it says 1 image.
What am I doing wrong? any idea? Thanks so much!
When you convert the files and then after conversion move the original PNG files to trash, Bridge will still have the PNG Filter active so it will say there are not items but 11 items hidden. This just means that you don’t have anymore PNG files (which is a good thing) If you remove the filter by unclicking the PNG Filter, or change folders, the items will all show up again.
Here are some relevant screenshots:
http://www.kaylalamoreaux.com/.a/6a00d8341d0b2a53ef0147e32cda79970b-pi
http://www.kaylalamoreaux.com/.a/6a00d8341d0b2a53ef0147e32cda74970b-pi
I’m finally getting started on this process. Very awesome!
In the video, you mentioned about the location of “Preferences” within Bridge when using Windows. It’s located here: Edit>Preferences.
Thanks for that!
Sent from my iPhone
Kayla —
Do you recommend converting all of your psd’s to TIFF as well? As you know, TIFF with LZW compression will keep layers intact. The file size is smaller with TIFF…but I’m wondering if there is some disadvantage to using TIFF over PSD?
No disadvantage at all – they are very similar. I haven’t gone so far as converting PSD to TIFF, but for templates I purchase that offer both I keep only the TIFF format. Hope that helps!
When I browse to my Scrapbooking Originals folder there are no png files-only jpg and psd. All of my png files are in the main Scrapbooking folder I created pre-class so in Bridge, I have to browse to Scrapbooking Main instead of Scrapbooking Originals. Is this okay or did I mess up somewhere during my 1st import?
Thanks so much for all of this wonderful information! I had given up hope on being able to find my files in ways I could really use but now I see it is possible!
Your next step is to convert those PNG files to TIF with LZW compression – which gives the file closets to store metadata. Then you can import them into Lightroom right along with your other files. Hope that helps!
Thanks! I’m plugging right along!
Hi, Just sorting my supplies into the designer folders, how do you sort the duo kits, i.e. a kit made by 2 designers? Do you duplicate into both designers, or do you have a combo folder? I am thinking perhaps just a combo folder, or just choose 1 designer, as doubling up would seem like more work… Thanks for an awesome tut!
In that space I usually put them in one designer’s folder then when keywording, I add keywords for both designers. Hope that helps!
I just started this process and while it will be worthwhile, it is painful. I have accumulated so many digi-supplies over the years. I was organizing with ACDSee but it continually crashes. The one positive about ACDSee is I did not have to unzip the files…well so now I am unzipping and converting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have an HP MediaSmart Server here at home with about 3TB of storage. I think I’m gonna need another TB lol!
Just wanted to let people know- if you use Anna Forrest Design’s Title Builder scripts- the alphas need to stay as PNGs for the script to work. I didn’t see that she has one for TIFFs available.
Thanks Christine – maybe we can talk her into writing one for TIFs?
Might be a good idea. It was a good thing I thought of checking my alpha script before I deleted my PNGs
Kayla ~ I’ve finally sat down to try and tackle this job of organizing my supplies. The lack of organization has been a real creative road block for me so I’m hoping I can figure this out. I’m to the step where I show items from the sub folder and then put the check mark by PNG image file type in Bridge. Here’s the problem…none of my subfolders show any PNGs; everything is either jpegs or tifs?? Did I mess up in my conversion to LR. This is all a little over my head. Thanks a bunch!
If you go into Windows Explorer or Mac Finder and search for PNG files, can you see them there? Another thing to check in Bridge is View > Show Items From Subfolders. Hope that helps.
Hey kayla ~ It’s me again.
Ok, now I seem to be having bigger problems. When I couldn’t seem to get things to work in Bridge (not being able to find my PNGs) I went back to square one and started over. Apparently, LR didn’t like this idea because now when I try to import my scrapbook kit file it’s not reading anything but a few previews. It’s giving me a “could not read preview” message and only trying to import about 142 images. After having a complete “Why are these things always so hard for me” pity party yesterday, I stepped away from the computer. I was hoping I would have an epiphany in the middle of the night, but it didn’t happen. So here I am hoping you can help me. I’ve checked and all my kits are still right there in my Windows OS, but for some reason LR is not reading them. I also searched Windows for my PNGs and they were there. I hope this is clear. Thanks for your help!!
Hey Kayla! I know its been a while since you posted this video, but hopefully you still get comments. I was wondering, I’m working with an older version of bridge that came with PSE 6, and it doesn’t offer the option for LZW compression. Is that going to make a huge difference in the size of my files? Should I go to the trouble of downloading a trial version of Photoshop so I can use a better bridge?