Configuring automatic routing of files

Adding a routing entry (general procedure)

1. Select Add to open a dialog where you choose the type of routing you want to apply. 
2. Choose a routing type and a method name. Select Select. 
3. Set your preferences in the dialog that opens and select OK.

All routing entries will be shown in the AutoRouting list. You can change the order of the entries, so that multiple routing methods can be applied within the channel in any order you like.

Tip: An example path below the list of applied routings gives you an indication of the file structure in the output.

File Name Prefix

Set the number of prefixes in the file name to route by, and whether the prefix length is fixed or if they are separated by a certain character. You can remove the prefix after routing, or simply remove the prefix without routing the image, in which case the image will be stored in the channel’s output folder. Finally, set up the associations between prefixes and the folders in which the files are stored. These will be subfolders within the channel’s output folder.

Metadata

Using metadata routing you can direct files to subfolders according to the contents of any metadata field in the file. Simply choose a metadata field and the string to look for, and associate it with a folder. Checking Add unlisted field values automatically will ensure that separate subfolders are created for any entries not listed.

Day of the week

You can route files according to the day of the week on which the processing takes place. A default set of weekdays and subfolders has been defined. To change the name of the associated folders, select an entry and enter a new folder name.

Day of the month

Enables routing of files according to the day of the month when they are processed. By default, subfolders will be named from 1 to 31.

Year Month and Day

You can sort files hierarchically by the year, month, and date of processing. Choose between long and short year, month, and day strings.

Folder Size

When routing by folder size you can choose between using one or two levels of folders. By default, only one level is enabled, in which case the specified number of subfolders is created within the channel’s output folder. You may set the maximum folder size before proceeding to the next folder and the required course of action when all folders are full. If you have chosen to begin filling the first folder over again when all folders are full, select Empty New Folder First to make Color Factory purge the contents of the first folder before starting to fill it again. Similarly, folder 2, 3, and so on will be purged when the need for a new folder arises. When enabling two-stage folder size routing, enter the name of the base folder (i.e. images-001) and the number of such base folders to create in total. When the maximum number of folders specified below is full, a new base folder will be created until the maximum number of base folders has also been reached. Select Set current folder to set the current working folder.

Contrast Quality    

Contrast quality routing makes it possible to redirect too light or too dark images to a special folder where they may for instance be picked up for manual tuning. By default, images that pass the quality check are stored in the channel’s output folder upon processing, although this may be changed by specifying a subfolder. Images that don’t pass the quality check are by default stored in a subfolder called To be Edited.

In order to tune the quality checking sequence, you can enable Add quality analysis to caption field and run a few images that you find too dark or too light through the system and adjust the lightness/darkness levels accordingly.

Analyze type and color lets you choose which colors should form the basis of the analysis. You can for example analyze the grayscale version of the image to find real white and black areas, since it can be easier to understand the contrast histogram of the grayscale image. This option makes the contrast analysis less complex and more correct. In this case, a temporary grayscale copy will be created for each image processed in the channel before it forms the basis of the analysis. The grayscale version is then discarded and the original image is routed according to the result of the analysis.

You can select a similar analysis for individual color channels from the drop-down list.

If the images processed in the channel are surrounded by, for example, a colored frame, you can adjust the percentage of the image border that should be ignored to rule this area out from the contrast evaluation. To do so, fill in the percentage value in the Percent of image border to ignore field.

Image Size

Routing by image size lets you route images above or below a certain measure or resolution to subfolders within the channel’s output folder. Specify the maximum and/or minimum size or resolution and the folder to which images matching the criteria should be moved.

Image Color

This feature lets you sort images with different color modes into separate subfolders. Four folders for Black/White, RGB, LAB, and CMYK images have already been predefined, which means you can simply enable the feature to start using it. If you wish to change the name of the subfolders, you may do so by selecting an entry in the list and then changing the assigned folder name.

Search Text

Text Search routing allows you to search the image caption for certain words or phrases and route them to subfolders accordingly. You may specify two folders, one to which images containing the specified text are sent, and one for images where the specified text could not be found. If no folder is specified in either field, the images matching those criteria will be stored in the channel’s default output folder.

You may specify a certain word or a phrase (using quotation marks to indicate a phrase), and combine them with AND and OR operators.

Required fields

To use this function, tick the required fields in the list, choose a folder for files where the required fields are filled in, and similarly a folder for files where the required fields are not filled in. If either folder is not specified, the files matching those criteria will be stored in the channel’s default output folder.

Ticking Discard White Space characters when checking fields ensures that fields that are empty except for blank space characters are treated as empty fields. Color Management – Color Management routing allows you to route files according to the name of the ICC profile embedded in each file, or according to its out-of-gamut status (RGB images only). By choosing the former, you may also choose a folder where files without an embedded profile should be stored. Choosing the latter lets you select a CMYK profile, the rendering intent, and the number of pixels that must be out of gamut in order to route the file to the out of gamut folder. Note that when using this feature, images without an embedded profile will not be routed.

Color Management

This type of automatic routing will route files to subfolders based on which ICC profiles they are tagged with. You can also specify a folder for files that don't have a profile.

Alternatively, you can use his routing method to route files based on their out-of-gamut status. Choose a profile and a rendering intent, and choose the maximum percentage of pixels you will allow to be out of gamut. Color Factory will process the file and discover whether the files are within our outside the gamut scope you specified and route the files to the In Gamut or Out of Gamut folder. This routing will not be applied to files without an embedded profile.

Input File Type

When routing files by their input file type Color Factory will scan and try to determine file types in the input folder regardless of their file extensions. To add a file type, enter either a four-character type code or an extension and the corresponding folder within the output folder to which the file should be routed. The three most common formats, JPEG, TIFF, and EPSF are predefined in the dropdown list, but you may also want to add 8BIM (Photoshop PSD). By selecting Add unlisted types automatically, file extensions that aren’t already in the list will be added so that you can associate a folder where the file type should be routed later.