New user question about working with jpg files: "loss" of file extension and creating .photo-edit files

[Big Ethan]

Hello!

I'm new to Photomator. I've got a folder full of jpg photos that I want to fix up. I can drag the folder into Photomator and they all show up. What I want to have happen is for me to edit the files, and when they save, they overwrite the original. What's happening:

- The original file has it's file extension removed, so that "foo.jpg" becomes "foo" in the finder (it's there in the actual file, but finder stops showing the extension), which wouldn't be confusing, except...

- A Photomator file with the same name is created alongside the jpg, so that "foo" will be doubled. Additionally the companion file is huge in comparison. So now in finder I have all files with double names and taking up to 12x the space:

foo | JPEG Image | 500kb
foo | Photomator Edit Document | 6.5mb

The file extension this is a bit frustrating, but the edit document is a big deal. I'll run out of space if every <1mb jpg adds a 6mb companion.

I've got my settings set to:

Photos
[ ] Sidecar files

Files
[x] Modify Originals

Any advice on how to have it edit the jpgs without adding the edit documents alongside them?

Thanks!

[Martin Chalifoux]

Photomator is a non-destructive editor so the original file is kept and the edited image is a special format. You if want your edits back in a JPEG you can export one based on the edits. Non-destructive editors allow to re-edit or even revert back to original which is very valuable. If you were to overwrite the files your would not be able to go back, you would start from scratch every time, And every time a JPEG is overwritten with edits quality degrades.

That said under Preferences / Files, they added a "Modify Originals" option that I think will do what you want on JPEG files. Remember if you use that option you probably won't be able to undo any edits once you saved.

[Big Ethan]

Hi! I've tried that option (see my initial post) and it still creates the big "edit document" file. Have you worked this way yourself? I think Photomator either has a bug or bad marketing, and I'm trying to figure out which it is.

[Nadeem]

I can confirm what Big Ethan is seeing. I just edited a couple of jpgs on my Mac (via file browser, not Apple Photos) using the 'modify original' setting and there is, in fact, a second jpg being created. In effect, it's creating/exporting a new jpg file of the edited image rather than baking in the edits to the original jpg. I do also see the file extensions being dropped in UI of the finder folder (though the file info does show the .jpg and the photomator formats).

I then went to the settings and unchecked 'modify original', restarted the app, and edited a third jpg. This time only the small sidecar file was created alongside the original jpg.

I usually only work with raws and obviously for raw images those can't be changed. But I feel like for jpgs the original file should be changed if using the 'modify original' setting. Would love to hear from the Pixelmator team if what's happening is the expected behavior.

[Martin Chalifoux]

It could be a matter of semantic. From your description, modify Originals here does not mean modify the original file but the original image, and save is as another JPEG, same format as the original file, which does not necessitate the Photomator app to work with. You can then revert to regional yet you get a JPEG. If you do not tick that box you have a sidecar which only Photomator can process again creating a dependance on that specific app to use the image. I can see a point to have it one way or the other. Storage being cheap the way they did it is more versatile. It is sure confusing and the wording could be much clearer.