How can I create an Automator Quick Action to change jpeg quality setting to 85%?

Question

Level 1

10 points

How can I create an Automator Quick Action to change jpeg quality setting to 85%?

I've been trying to create a Quick Action in Automator to open and resave jpegs at 85% quality. I thought it would be straightforward, but I can't find a way to do it.

I've found a few pages online that show an "Export Image" action in Automator that allows you to set the quality, but this action does not seem to be available in Automator on my Mac running Ventura 13.7.8. There is a "Change type of images" action which allows you to set the image to jpeg, but does not allow you to specify the quality.

Other pages have suggested that it can be done with a shell script and the "Run shell script" action. But I can't get this to work.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.7

Posted on Sep 1, 2025 05:35 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

214,206 points

Sep 1, 2025 03:40 PM in response to MartinR

MartinR hit the nail on the head with ImageOptim. It can do batch jpeg quality reduction and thus size reduction as this animated screenshots. Look at the size of the files on the left as I drop the folder onto ImageOptim:

I had the settings set to 50% for the demo but here's the range of settings available:

I use it to reduce the animated gifs down to 40% so I can add them to these posts.

Reply

Answer 2

MartinR

Level 7

23,421 points

Sep 1, 2025 07:07 AM in response to Dewlally

Use the Automator Action called Scale Images.

This is the workflow I'd use:

Ask for Finder Items, Allow Multiple Selection

Copy Finder Items (if you want to preserve the original files) ... To <selected folder>

Scale Images ... By Percentage = 85%

What is the reason you want to reduce JPEG quality to 85%?

Reply

Answer 3

Dewlally Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 1, 2025 07:33 AM in response to MartinR

Thanks for the suggestion, but I want to keep the images at the same resolution. Just reduced the JPEG quality setting.

I'm using the images online and a smaller file size mean that the image load faster and takes up less space on the server. Reducing the JPEG quality setting to 85% results in a file size of about 25% of the original, without much appreciable loss to the image.

Reply

Answer 4

MartinR

Level 7

23,421 points

Sep 1, 2025 07:55 AM in response to Dewlally

In Apple Photos you can set JPEG quality on export ... but only 1 image at a time (no batch capability).

Photoshop Image Processor (File > Scripts > Image Processor) can do batches. Ditto with Bridge. Affinity and other image editors can do likewise.

Reply

Answer 5

Dewlally Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 1, 2025 08:18 AM in response to MartinR

Yes. At the moment I'm opening JPEGS in Affinity Photo and exporting them at 85%, so I have a way to do it. But it would be much quicker and easier to have a Quick Action that would do this from the Finder. I've set up Quick Actions for several other often needed tasks.

Reply