Speed up your indexing in Bridge

If you find yourself having to reindex/recache an extremely large image library (like ours), here's a handy tip to get you back in search mode fast.

1. Launch Bridge
2. Make sure Path Bar is visible (if not, go to Window>Path Bar).
3. On the right side of the Path Bar, just to the left of the Star rating drop-down menu are two square icons. These allow you to modify the thumbnail quality and preview generation in Bridge. 
4. Select "Prefer Embedded (Faster)".
5. Voila!

It might take a few moments when you select an image to generate a preview and if you find this too annoying you can change it back to "Always High Quality" or even  add "Generate 100% Previews" although this will consume lots more disk space and of course take more time in caching/indexing)

Tweaking Photoshop to Save your Metadata

Well, I learned something about Photoshop and metadata recently and thought I would share it with you. For some this little thing may be no big deal but if you're keen on preserving metadata across users and platforms, if providing lo-rez images for 3rd-party vendors or to scattered staff where the need to view metdata might be crucial, then this little tip may help.

Oh, and this predicated on the idea that you're using Photoshop in prepping images for the web.

If you "Save for the Web" in Photoshop (keyboard: Option+Command+Shift+S), on the right side of the large  dialog box, directly above the Color Table is a drop-down menu for metadata. I believe that by default it is set to "Copyright and Contact Info" but don't quote me on that. Anyway, whatever the setting I suggest you set this to "All." It will stay that way by default until you manually change it to something else.

If you don't make this adjustment then none of the metadata embedded in any image you run through this feature of PS4 will be saved. And that's a fact.

Forewarned is forearmed. (Click on the screenshot to enlarge.)

What's in a number? Calculating the size of your image library

Beginning with Mac OS 10.6 Apple's Finder now calculates the size of your drive (internal and external) a bit differently than it did before. The idea now, apparently, is to provide the user with a number that appears "more accurate" than it might have before, when in fact the size reported in previous versions of Mac OS X simply allowed for a cushion.

For example, on a 2-tb external drive, my older desktop (OS 10.5.8) reports the space remaining as 1.07 while my laptop (with 10.6.5) reports 1.18 remaining. But, both machines report the same number of bytes, however (790 billion and change).  (By the way, a Windows machine reports the drive size the same way as the older Mac OS X.)

While I can't reproduce the complex explanations for how drive sizes are calculated (nor would I want to), suffice it to say that when you see your drive listed in Snow Leopard it attempts to provide you with a reading that is more in line with the accurate byte calculation. That is, 790 gigs used (to represent the 790+ billion bytes).

Now, aren't you glad you asked?

Previewing problems in Bridge CS4?

If you're having problems previewing images in folders you've previously indexed in Adobe Bridge CS4 try this:


1. In Bridge go to Edit>Find (Command+F)
2. Select the folder where the problem seems to occur most often (alternatively select all your image folders)
3. In the search criteria drop-downs select "keywords" and then type in the broadest keyword in your library, one that might cover all your images (such as your name, if you tag all your images that way  for example)
4. Make sure to check BOTH Include all subfolders and Include Non-indexed files
4. Click find and then walk away. Depending on how large your image library is, this might take a while (or overnight).


We've have found that using this method is one way to "clean up" any re-indexing issues that might arise in Bridge's caching process after months of re-indexing folders.


There are, of course, no guarantees so be sure to keep any eye on your caching numbers in the Library.