New user, first steps

Retrobatch
1

Hi, everybody,

I have Retrobatch v.1.4.5 and I am still on Mojave 10.14.6 (old MacPro 6,1). Since I’m a new Retrobatch user, therefore I got a couple of basic, general questions.

  1. Is there a native way to convert JPEGs to webP format in Retrobatch? If there is, I can’t find the appropriate node.

  2. Is there a way to instruct Retrobatch to compress images using ImageOptim app (or any other specific app, for that matter)?

I’m sure I will have a lot of other questions going forward. I hope you will help me out…

P.S. I almost forgot this one:

  1. How to add this forum to a RSS reader?

Thanks.

2

OK, guys, I already found the way to save images in webP format (in Write Images node). So, you can skip the first question.

Second question can also be ignored, since I found Retrobatch does a good job compressing on its own.

Question #3 is still valid and I got one additional question:

  1. In a workflow I created, I moved around some nodes and now two of the arrowed links are blue. What does that mean?
3

I don’t think there’s any way to get an RSS feed for the forums - but I’ll look into it (maybe it’s something I can switch on).

If you have manual connections enabled, the blue highlighting means that the node connection is selected. If you hit the delete key, they would then be removed.

4

Thanks, Gus. Having the ability to get RSS feed would help (probably not only me).

I have one more specific question.

I am outputting 4 different sizes in two formats: JPEG and webP (total of 8 variants). Is it possible to set separate output folder for each variant in one continuous workflow? How to do that?

5

You’d need a separate Write Node for each variant, with each one pointing to a different folder. Does that make sense?

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6

Thanks, Gus. If you say this, who am I not to agree? :smile: I will try that tomorrow.

I was also thinking of combining even more actions to my workflow. Namely, processing both rectangle images and square thumbs (custom cropping/composition) in one workflow. I imagine I would have to add a separate Read node? One Read node for rectangles and one for squares?

7

Yea, that can work. There are other more complicated ways, but this is probably the most straightforward if you already have them separated.

8

Thanks again, Gus. You’ve been very helpful. But your forum seems to be asleep. Is it always so quiet here?.. :grin:

9

It’s as busy and it needs to be I guess? :slight_smile: Yea, it is a bit quiet, but if folks have anything to add - do it!

10

Hi, Gus, @ccgus

I have one pressing question for you and then I’ll leave you alone (for awhile, at least).

I made a large workflow in which I have combined 2 separate processes. To make it easier to visualize, here’s a screenshot:

Imperitus-combined_workflow
Imperitus-combined_workflow782×1022 35.3 KB

All went great, except sequence numbers. What I mean is that after the first process completed, sequence numbers kept adding up in the second process, by continuing where first process left off.

Question: is there a way to make a sequence that would span only one process and then, start from the beginning in the second process?

As it is now, first process consists of numbers 1-8 and second process consists of numbers 9-16.

This is what I would like to achieve:

  1. First process starts with 1 and ends with 8;
  2. Second process also starts with 1 and ends with 8.

This is important to me because I process both thumbs and display images in the same workflow. Obviously, the thumbs should have numbers that correspond with display images.

11

A “process” is the whole thing when running, and you’ve got basically two node trees. And unfortunately the File Number is workflow / process wide.

However - this is something that can easily be done via a JavaScript plugin. I’ve just added a “Custom File Counter” on the JSNodes page. Here’s what it would look like:

image
image1108×1030 24.9 KB

You’ve got two chains, each with their own custom counter. The write and file counter nodes on the top look like this in the inspector:

image
image1022×630 59.1 KB

And the bottom two look like this:

image
image1026×632 62.7 KB

Notice the “MyID” and “MyOtherID” tokens. That’ll create unique IDs for each chain. Here’s the workflow:
CustomCounter.retrobatch (7.2 KB)

Also one other thing. In your workflow where you have two write nodes branching ff a scale node - they don’t have to branch. You can have a JPEG node and then a WebP node right after that, which should make things a bit more organized:

image
image1390×342 12.6 KB

Also, ignore how the lines are different in my screenshots. I’m running a debug build of Retrobatch with some stuff turned on that you wouldn’t normally see (sorry - should have grabbed a release version :slight_smile: )

12

I’ve just added a “Custom File Counter” on the JSNodes page.

Where is that?

The CustomCounter workflow you linked to looks like this:

CustomCounter.retrobatch

So, it’s a wrong workflow, isn’t it? Sorry, I’m a bit confused…

13

Sorry - I forgot to point a link to the JS Nodes page: Retrobatch JavaScript Nodes

The workflow should open correctly after that (you might have to re-download it if you saved it).

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