When you need to convert, resize or otherwise process a set of images then of course you could work with them all individually. And that will probably deliver the best results as you can tailor your tweaks to whatever each image requires. But if you’ve not just 4 or 5 photos, but 20, 50, 100 or more than you may want to look for a little batch processing assistance from a tool like ImBatch.

Getting started is as easy as dragging and dropping your preferred images onto the program. ImBatch imports all the usual formats – PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP and so on – as well as many other file types which you might not expect (PSD, TGA, PCX, TIFF, WDP, HDP and more).

The Task list reveals the various batch processing actions ImBatch can perform

You’re then able to choose whatever operations you’d like to perform on your selected photos from the Task list. You can save the image in another format, for instance; resize, rotate or flip it; work with EXIF or IPTC tags; and apply a few effects or image tweaks (“Soft Shadow”, “Round Corners”, “Convert Colours”, “Convert to Gray”).

This isn’t the most impressive of lists, then. And a less than intuitive interface means you can spend a while clicking around, trying to figure out exactly what you can do. Still, the tasks you do get are a little more configurable than you might expect.

The Resize action allows you to specify your target size in pixels, inches, millimetres, centimetres and as a percentage of the original size, for instance.

The “Set Tag” task can configure your choice of 16 EXIF and 15 IPTC tags.

And the “Convert Colours” option will convert your photo colour format to 32-bit, 24-bit, 256 colours, 16 colours, black and white, or a specific number of colours which you define.

We’d still like to able to do more – the ability to tweak colours, brightness and contrast, say, would be welcome – but then ImBatch hasn’t even hit version 1.0 yet (it’s currently at 0.9), so it’s hardly surprising that the program is missing a few features. ImBatch handles the basics well, though, once you’ve figured out the interface, so if you’re in the market for an image batch processor then you should probably give it a try.