Convert an image or resize it using macOS Shortcuts

Nov 6, 2021

Learn how to convert any image to JPG or resize it on macOS using the Shortcuts app, set up as a Finder Quick Action you can trigger with a right-click.

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For the longest time I’ve had an Automator script to convert images to JPG.

It’s something I do all the time, because the difference between PNG images and JPG for some things is huge. It depends on the image.

Sometimes converting an image to JPG can mean a 5x reduction in size in some cases. In other cases, not really. With big images, it’s worth a try.

(PNG is nicer because of transparent background, but there’s a balance between file size and beauty).

macOS Monterey, the latest macOS version, comes with a tool that’s basically going to replace Automator in the future, I think, and has been available in iOS and iPadOS for some time: Shortcuts.

I’ve never used this app on those platforms. I never had the need to do anything fancy.

But since moving to a new Mac, I decided to re-do my little automations. I don’t have many. I just have this one to convert any image to JPG, and another one to resize the images to 1200px.

In this post I want to describe how to do the first.

Open Shortcuts:

macOS Shortcuts app main window showing All Shortcuts tab with starter shortcuts including Shazam, Make GIF, Music Quiz, What's a shortcut, Convert to JPG, and Resize to 1200px

Click the + button, or from the menu select File -> New Shortcut.

New shortcut editor window with empty workflow area on the left and action search panel on the right showing categories and suggestions

Now on the right you can choose an action. Search “finder” and select the “Get Selected Files in Finder” action:

Shortcuts action search showing finder typed in search box with Get Selected Files in Finder action highlighted in blue under Documents category

Drag it to the left part of the screen.

Shortcut workflow showing Get Selected Files in Finder action added to the workflow with Convert Image action search in the right panel

Now select “Convert Image”:

Shortcut workflow showing Get Selected Files in Finder action added to the workflow with Convert Image action search in the right panel

In the settings tab on the right you can choose to use this shortcut as a Quick Action in the Finder, so you can right-click an image and you’ll see the option to convert it to JPG:

Shortcut settings panel showing Use as Quick Action checkbox enabled with Finder option selected, plus other platform options for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch

Finder context menu showing Quick Actions submenu with Convert to JPG option highlighted alongside other actions like Convert Image, Create PDF, and Resize to 1200px

Make sure you just set it to receive images by unselecting all the other file types in the first action:

Shortcut content type selector showing Images checkbox selected under Media section, with other file types like Files, Folders, PDFs unselected

Finally, add a “Move File” action to save the converted file to the desktop:

Complete shortcut workflow showing three connected actions: Get Selected Files in Finder, Convert File to JPEG, and Move Converted Image to Desktop

Unfortunately I didn’t find a way to save the JPG to the current folder and replace the file selected. I imagine that by spending a little bit more time I can fix this, if you know how to do that, ping me @flaviocopes on Twitter 🙃 but it’s not a big deal, I can live with this. And if I fnd it too cumbersome, I can always re-do the workflow in Automator. But at least I now know how to use Shortcuts.

Here’s the shortcut to resize the image to 1200px:

Resize image shortcut workflow showing Get Selected Files in Finder, Resize Image to Size 1200px with Auto Height, and Move Resized Image to Desktop actions

Tagged: Mac · All topics

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