imageprep is an image preparation utility for macOS. It is essentially a wrapper for sips.

From 7.0.0, imageprep no longer deletes source files by default as they are processed. For this reason, the -k and --keep switches have been removed and their use will throw an error.

To enforce source-file deletion, please use the new -x switch.

imageprep [--source path] [--destination path] \
          [--action s scale_height scale_width] \
          [--action p pad_height pad_width] \
          [--action c crop_height crop_width] \
          [--cropfrom anchor_point] [--offset y-coord x-coord] \
          [--colour pad_colour] [--resolution dpi_value] \
          [--format format_type] [--keep] [--overwrite] \
          [--info] [--createdirs] \
          [--help] [--version] \
          {/path/to/file} ... {path/to/file}

For more detailed guidance on using imageprep, please see this page.

You can add any number of actions: they will be applied in the order they appear at the command line.

You can specify an anchor point for crop operations. Use the --cropfrom switch and a value to indicate the anchor point: text markers, eg. tr for top-right, bl for bottom-left or cr for centre-right, etc., or a numerical value:

You can specify crop anchors as x and y co-ordinates: this is the co-ordinate of the top left point of the retained area. For example, with a 1920 x 1080 image, to crop out all but a 500 by 400 area in the top left of the image, you would specify 500 and 400 as your width and height values, and 10 and 20 as your offset co-ordinates. Offset values cannot be negative, and values beyond the dimensions of the source image will be ignored.

Please note that if you specify a crop anchor point using --cropfrom, it will override any offset value you specify.

Any output JPEG images are compressed. The default quality setting is 80%. From version 7.0.0, you can specify an alternative value using the -j switch followed by a percentage value, eg, -j 55. The request for this feature centred solely on JPEG images, but I hope to support other formats’ compression schemes in future releases.

Contributions are welcome, but pull requests can only be accepted when they target the develop branch. PRs targetting main will be rejected.

• 7.0.0 10 August 2023
  • Support the loading of individual files, not just a directory.
  • Deleting source files after processing is no longer the default -- see Breaking Change, above.
  • Allow the compression level of JPEG output to be specified by the user -- see JPEG Compression, above..
• 6.3.4 25 May 2022
  • Add man page.
• 6.3.3 23 July 2021
  • Replace async signal unsafe ctrl-c trapper with safe one.
• 6.3.2 16 June 2021
  • Correct a regular expression bug.
• 6.3.1 16 June 2021
  • Add better, broader fix for sips `no zero offsets, please’ issue.
• 6.3.0 2 June 2021
  • Add --offset flag to set an alternative crop anchor point.
  • Better checking for missing value arguments.
• 6.2.1 13 January 2021
  • No code changes — packaging update only.
• 6.2.0 28 December 2020
  • Add --cropfrom flag to select a crop anchor point.
  • Add --info argument.
  • Add the ability to crop/scale/pad to the width or height of the source image.
  • Add the ability to crop/scale/pad to a specified width or height using the aspect ratio of the source image.
  • Refactor code.
• 6.1.0 21 December 2020
  • Add optional destination intermediate directory creation.
  • Ignore sub-directories in the source directory for file-safety reasons.
  • Colourise output for greater visibility.
  • Sort source file list before processing.
  • Write all messages to user via stderr (click here to see why).
  • Correctly trap SIGINT.
  • Correctly keep source file when no target file is named.
  • Add examples to help text.
  • Add test suite.
• 6.0.0 2 December 2020
  • Initial public release.

Note imageprep was initially released as version 6.0.0 for historical reasons: previous versions were released in the form of shell scripts.

imageprep is copyright © 2023, Tony Smith.

imageprep’s source code is issued under the MIT Licence.