Lightroom Class: PNG Conversion Info

Now we come to a fork in the road – which road you take is entirely up to you and the software programs you choose to use

The road less traveled will be Photoshop Elements.  Using Photoshop Elements for the conversion process will take a lot more disk space because of the way it processes files.

Another drawback with PSE is the processing of files – to keep the folder structure you need for the class, you will have to process the files one kit folder at a time – which can be time consuming.  However, it can be done and I will show you how to do it.

The other road is Bridge.  I am personally partial to Bridge because I use it in my own workflow and it is a workhorse for processing files.  I like it so much I’d even suggest downloading a Free 30 day trial of Photoshop (which includes Bridge) for your initial conversion of files.  It really will make that big of a difference – especially if you have hundreds of kit folders to convert.  Who knows – you might like it so much you’ll switch to Photoshop.

Those of you with Photoshop Elements 6 or earlier for Mac will also have Bridge instead of Photoshop Elements Organizer.

If Photoshop Elements is a little slow, you can choose another PNG conversion tool for Windows users called Image Converter Plus.  There are a few tweaks to getting it to preserve PNG transparency, which I’ll cover in another post.

I strongly suggest that you  read all the blog posts about PNG conversion in each software program before converting all of your files.  This way you’ll know which way is the best for you before you start.

I’ll be publishing these three posts on the same day:  PNG Conversion in Bridge, PNG Conversion in Photoshop Elements, PNG Conversion in Image Converter Plus.

One final note:  the file format you choose to convert to will depend on the software you use.  In my testing I found that converting files from PNG to TIF was the best and produced the smallest file size.

In Photoshop Elements the conversion of the same files to TIF created files that were much larger.  In comparison converting the same files in PSE from PNG to PSD produced smaller files.  So if you use PSE, I recommend converting to PSD or using a trial of Bridge to convert to TIF.  You may also take a look at Image Converter Plus (although I will admit up front I have not done as extensive testing with it as I have PSE and Bridge).

Before you do anything further in this class, make sure you have completed a full and complete backup copy of all your digital scrapbooking supplies!