Converting .jpg to .pdf in bulk?

[ljirwin42]

I want to send 150 .jpg files to a recipient who wants them in .pdf format for commercial printing. I am used to converting .jpg files one at a time using: open .jpg image > file > print > save as .pdf > select destination > save. But repeating this sequnce 150 times would be mind-numbing and take forever.

Is there a way to convert the filr format in bulk (for example, by selecting all the .jpg's and converting them? (The individual .jpg's run 750kb to 1mb.)

Lee James Irwin
iMac running OSX 10.6.8; Reunion 10.0.6; iPhoto (but no Photoshop)

[Bob White]

Re: Converting .jpg to .pdf in bulk?

Yes, download Graphic Converter from www.lemkesoft.com. Use File > Convert & Modify. You should be able to follow it without a problem. As an experiment, I did a dozen at once and it took less than 30 seconds.

[donworth]

Re: Converting .jpg to .pdf in bulk?

Thanks for the tip, Bob! I downloaded it and it's a great program! I especially like the batch processing (auto levels, resizing, etc.)

[Howard Fink]

Re: Converting .jpg to .pdf in bulk?

Thanks for the tip, Bob! I downloaded it and it's a great program! I especially like the batch processing (auto levels, resizing, etc.)

Not to take anything away from Graphic Converter; I agree that it is a great tool, but another solution would be to set up an Automator task to do this. Automator is a handy Apple tool that is already on your Mac and lets you set up various workflows through Finder and application steps that you want to repeat many times. You can even assign them to Folder actions, so that all that's necessary in the future is to drag files to a specific folder. For instance I have a folder on my desktop that automatically takes any number of JPEG files that I drag into it and generates a single PDF document with each image on a different page. Great for when I have scanned multiple pages of a document; I adjust the images as needed and then drop the whole mess on my folder and boom, it is a coherent document again.

There is a small learning curve for Automator, but it can really come in handy for tasks that you need to repeat often.

[ljirwin42]

Re: Converting .jpg to .pdf in bulk?

Yes, download Graphic Converter from www.lemkesoft.com. Use File > Convert & Modify. You should be able to follow it without a problem. As an experiment, I did a dozen at once and it took less than 30 seconds.

Bravo, Bob, and thanks to others who replied. I got the test version of Graphic Converter and successfully converted a batch of 150 files.

One further question arises: the resulting PDF files, which were just under 1MB as JPGs, are 5-6MB as PDFs. I can run them through a re-sizing software, but maybe I'm missing a step in the Graphic Converter that would do this while converting format. Thoughts?

[donworth]

Re: Converting .jpg to .pdf in bulk?

In GraphicsConverter I clicked on the Use Batch check box, then clicked on the + to add a step in the batch table, then selected Max Size under Size/Crop/Scale and set the parameters to limit the size to 800x1000. I also added the Auto Levels step. Worked perfectly.