⌘ Batch processing images, even when it’s not supported

This is exactly why I love working with the Mac. With the power of macOS and Keyboard Maestro all sorts of magic is possible.

I’m a huge fan of the apps/plugins from JixiPix, especially Spektrel Art and Portrait Painter. To that end, I want to process several hundred images, but the JixiPix apps don’t support batch processing.

Fear not, with a little help from Keyboard Maestro, it’s possible to write a macro to handle the job with 99% accuracy.

This does take a very small amount of prep work.

• Spektrel Art needs to be open with an image.
• A preset needs to be selected.
• Under Preferences, the Last Saved Location option needs to be checked.
• And at least one image needs to be saved in the output location.

Then within Keyboard Maestro, the macro runs like this.

Using the For Each Item in Collection action in Keyboard Maestro, get a list of all the files in the folder.

• Open that file with Spektrel Art.
• The previous Preset will be applied.
• Use the option for Save. The output folder will be used.
• The Slider for image quality will be set to best.
• Save will be clicked and the process will repeat.

The great thing about Keyboard Maestro is the ability to wait for certain kinds of events such as buttons appearing, and moving sliders.

That’s what makes this macro work. And it works well. I’ve processed a couple hundred images so far. What I thought was going to be a mundane and mind-numbing task is now a trifle.

Batch Process Images with Spektral Art