If I want to process a large batch of files in exactly the same way, I can simply set the parameters in the “Auto Pilot” settings, load up the files, and let the program run. Even then, though, it makes me wait until a certain amount of processing can be done, before it will enable the “Save Images” button to process and save all of the files that I have loaded. I do not see any good reason why that button should not be enabled immediately.
But very often, I find myself processing a large batch of files, where I want to make changes to the parameters of some of them before I let the program go on with the processing. So, in each such case, I have to switch to the image, and wait for a certain amount of processing to happen before it will let make change any of the parameters for that image.
Why can’t the program allow me to make all the changes I want to for the parameters of different files, and click the “Save Images” button immediately, without having to wait for some of the processing?
The time it takes is just for the images to load and is dependent on your computer processing power. You don’t need to preview the images to save them though if you know you want to apply Autopilot or specific settings from one image across the batch.
either you’ve misunderstood me, or there is something you’re trying to tell me that I am not understanding.
I want to be able to load up a batch of pictures, go through each picture and set the parameters individually for how that picture is to b e processed, and ten hit the “Save n Images” button and let it go on processing them, without being made to wait at the start of that process, and between every picture I am working with, for Photo AI to do some processing before it will allow me to change any parameters.
At this point, there does not seem to be any way to bypass having Photo AI do some processing, and forcing me to wait at many points along the way, to be able to change any parameters.
As soon as I load one image, it makes me wait for some processing to be done, before it will let me do anything, whether it is to change the parameters for the processing, or even to save it will the default parameters.
How powerful a computer one is using is not nearly as relevant as you seem to think. Ultimately, it is a bad practice to give such low priority to attempts by the user to interact with a program. A user’s attempts to tell the program what to do, and how to do it, should always take higher priority than the program going ahead and processing an item in a manner that might not be how the user wants it to be done. That’s basic user-interface 101.
Thanks for clarifying. To hit save before processing and previewing the images seems like a rare workflow. If more users express interest in this either by posting about it or voting on this thread, we may consider supporting the workflow in the future.
At this point, Photo AI will not allow me to do anything at all, until it has spent some time doing some processing on these images. If I want to just process them all, according to the “Autopilot” settings, then I would just want to hit the “Save … Images” button, and let it go. But at this point, it won’t let me do that. and if I want to change the settings for any of the individual images, then I have to select the image I want to change, and wait even longer before it will let me change anything.
Either way, there is no way to use Photo AI that doesn’t involve having it force me to wait gratuitously before I can do anything.
What I want is for the program to give higher priority to taking input and instruction from me, than to going ahead with processing and forcing m to wait until it deigns to pay attention to what I am trying to tell it to do.
This is basic user interface 101. Whatever interactions a user is trying to have with a program should •ALWAYS• take priority. This is just bad practice, for a program to go ahead and do whatever processing it assumes it should do, and force the user to wait. Even (especially) when what the user wants is what the program assumes the program, should still allow the user immediately to tell it to go ahead with that, or to change the parameters.
I’m tempted to suggest that the ancient Inside Macintosh series of books ought to be required reading for any modern computer programmer. The technicals, of course, are way out of date, now, and much of it was only ever relevant to the Classic Macintosh platform; but the general user interface principals are essential even more today than they were back then. An important point, above all else, is that the user should always be in charge.
Dealing with Photo AI, as it currently is, is very much like being boss to an employee that is busy fiddling with his cell phone, or some other distraction, and demands that you wait until he’s done with that before you tell him what you want him to do.
For a while, we were developing with the goal of having Autopilot be “perfect” where the user didn’t have to make any manual adjustments whatsoever. Through research and feedback however, we found that our professional users prefer the manual customizability and we’ve since shifted our strategy accordingly.
I agree with the request of the wish. The problem is that users are blocked from interacting with this image while it is loading and being analyzed. This makes the whole thing very sluggish and slow. Why can’t this process run in a backgrund thread? When I open a series of images, the time it takes me to manually view and optimize the first image, the other images can be pre-analyzed in the background.
I think the program architecture should be more multithreaded.
The other images are being processed. When you click on it, it just has to process the preview for you. You can technically import a batch and hit save without previewing each individual image and it’ll still export the processed images.
Where can I click, to get Photo AI to start processing the images right away, or change any of the parameters, without having to wait for it to do a bunch of processing on its own before it will deign to pay any attention to any attempt on my part to tell it what I want it to do with the images that I have just loaded?
The “Save 5 Images” button, at this point is disabled, as are all keyboard or menu commands. At this point, it won’t even let me tell it to close the images or quit the program. It will nto let me do anything with thsi program until it finishes a certain amount of the processing that it has started.
You’ll still need to wait for the initial processing. What I meant is after that, you don’t need to view each image individually. Once the Save Images button becomes available, you can save the entire batch. Apologies for the confusion.
Why should I have to “wait for the initial processing”? Why can’t I hit the “Save…” button right away, or go in and change the parameters of some images right away?
There is no good reason that I can think of for the program to not accept input from the user right away. One of the most essential principles that Apple established, in the Inside Macintosh series, all those years ago, is that the user should always be in charge. Always. That’s a principle that should apply on all modern platforms.
I’ll see if we can build toward that in the future but at the moment, there has to be at least some processing that happens. If we allow a universal off switch for Autopilot, I can see this functionality being much easier to implement.
What would it take for the “Save … Images” button to be enabled almost immediately? If the user wants to go ahead and process all the images that he’s just loaded, using the default parameters, why does he have to wait so long even to specify that, before he can turn his attention away from Photo AI and on to something else?
Just that one change, in itself, would be a very major improvement over how Photo AI is now, and I just cannot believe that it would be at all difficult to implement. Photo AI is already doing the actual work; but it’s gratuitously making the user to wait to say to go ahead and do it. It’s needlessly keeping the user’s attention away from other things that the user could be doing, until the user can click the “Save … Images” button and move on.
And the user should be much more easily and quickly able to change the parameters of specific images in the queue to be processed. That might not be as easy to implement as allowing the user to immediately tell the program to go ahead with processing everything using the default parameters, but it shouldn’t be that hard to implement, and it ought to be a high priority.
Once again, the principle that Apple established, decades ago, in the Inside Macintosh series, that the user should always be in charge, should certainly apply to any modern software under any modern operating system.
There is less excuse now for failing to abide by this principle than there was back in the 1980s when Apple established it.
