bat_img

Fast, multithreaded batch image processor — available as a standalone command-line tool installable via pip.

The binary is a native Rust executable (no Python overhead at runtime). The Python package is simply a convenient delivery mechanism so you can install bat_img the same way you install any other command-line tool.

Installation

pip install bat_img

brew install libheif  # for HEIC/HEIF support

Pre-built binaries are provided for:

After installation, the bat_img command is available in your terminal.

Quick start

# Strip GPS location from all iPhone photos (in-place)
bat_img -i ~/Pictures/iPhone --strip-gps

# Resize all JPEGs to 1920 px wide, save to ./web/
bat_img -i ./photos -r 1920x0 -o ./web

# Convert HEIC → WebP at quality 85, resize to 2048 px wide
bat_img -i ./iphone_photos -r 2048x0 -f webp -q 85 -o ./web

# Strip ALL metadata, sharpen — 8 threads, recurse
bat_img -i ./raw -R --strip-all --sharpen -t 8 -o ./export

Features

Usage

bat_img [OPTIONS] --input <INPUT>...

All options

  -i, --input <INPUT>...      Input: file path, glob pattern, or directory (e.g. ./photos, "*.jpg", ./img/photo.png)
  -o, --output <OUTPUT>       Output directory. When omitted, each input file is processed in-place (the original is overwritten)
  -R, --recursive             Recurse into subdirectories when input is a directory
      --info                  Print image metadata (dimensions, size, format, date/time, etc.)
      --strip-gps             Strip GPS location data from EXIF metadata
      --strip-all             Strip ALL EXIF/IPTC/XMP metadata (implies --strip-gps)
  -r, --resize <WxH>          Resize image. Format: WIDTHxHEIGHT (e.g. 1920x1080). Use 0 for auto (e.g. 1920x0 = fit width, 0x1080 = fit height)
      --filter <FILTER>       Resize filter algorithm [default: lanczos3] [possible values: nearest, triangle, catmull-rom, gaussian, lanczos3]
      --no-upscale            Do not upscale images smaller than the target size
      --border <PIXELS>       Add a border of N pixels on each side
      --border-color <COLOR>  Border color as CSS hex (#rrggbb) or name (white, black, red…) [default: white]
      --rotate <DEGREES>      Rotate image clockwise by degrees (90, 180, 270)
      --flip-h                Flip image horizontally (mirror left-right)
      --flip-v                Flip image vertically (mirror top-bottom)
      --brightness <VALUE>    Brightness adjustment (-100 to +100)
      --contrast <VALUE>      Contrast adjustment (-100 to +100)
      --sharpen               Apply sharpening filter
      --grayscale             Convert to grayscale
  -f, --format <FORMAT>       Output format (defaults to same as input) [possible values: jpeg, png, webp, tiff, bmp, gif, heic, heif]
  -q, --quality <1-100>       JPEG/WebP output quality (1–100), required for non-HEIC output. Default is 90 if not set. HEIC file is encoded with the default encoder
      --suffix <SUFFIX>       Filename suffix appended before extension (e.g. "_edited" → photo_edited.jpg) [default: ""]
      --prefix <PREFIX>       Filename prefix prepended (e.g. "web_" → web_photo.jpg) [default: ""]
  -t, --threads <THREADS>     Number of threads to use (default: physical CPUs qty on macOS; logical CPUs qty on others) [default: 8]
      --overwrite             Overwrite existing output files (default: skip)
      --quiet                 Suppress all output except errors
      --dry-run               Dry-run: show what would be done without processing
  -h, --help                  Print help
  -V, --version               Print version

In-place mode

Omitting --output overwrites each original file in place. A temp file is written first and then atomically renamed over the original, so the source is never corrupted if something goes wrong.

# Show all image files meta data
bat_img -i ./photos --info

# Strip GPS from every HEIC file recursively — no copies made
bat_img -i ~/Pictures -R --strip-gps

# Resize all JPEGs to 2048 px wide, in-place
bat_img -i ./photos -r 2048x0

Note: in-place mode cannot change the file format (e.g. HEIC → WebP). Use --output when changing formats.

Examples

# Add a 20 px black border to all PNGs
bat_img -i ./screenshots --border 20 --border-color black -o ./bordered

# Rotate scans 90° clockwise and convert to grayscale
bat_img -i ./scans --rotate 90 --grayscale -o ./processed

# Convert HEIC → JPEG at quality 90, resize to fit 1920×1080
bat_img -i ./iphone_photos -f jpeg -q 90 -r 1920x1080 -o ./jpegs

# Dry-run — see what would happen without writing anything
bat_img -i ./photos -r 800x600 --strip-gps --dry-run

HEIC support

bat_img can read and write HEIC/HEIF files natively, including:

• Decoding HEIC photos from iPhone / iPad
• Re-encoding back to HEIC while preserving the original codec (HEVC / AV1) and file size (unless --quality is specified)
• Converting HEIC to any other supported format with -f jpeg, -f webp, etc.

License

bat_img is distributed under MIT License. Please see details in LICENSE.