Watched folders
Watched folders process files as soon as they show up. Drop something in, and Picmal converts or compresses it. You don’t have to open the app. Watched folders need a license; the 7-day trial does not cover them.
- Open Settings → Watched Folders
- Click Add Folder and select a folder
- Configure the folder’s processing settings
- New files added to that folder are processed automatically
Per-folder configuration
Section titled “Per-folder configuration”Each watched folder has its own settings:
Actions
Section titled “Actions”Pick what the folder does with the files that arrive:
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| Compress | Each file is compressed in its original format. |
| Convert | Each file is converted to a format you pick. |
| Images to PDF | The images that arrive together become one multi-page PDF. |
| Combine PDFs | The PDFs that arrive together are merged into one. |
Compress and Convert are per-file: one file in, one file out. Images to PDF and Combine PDFs are batch actions. They wait for the folder to go quiet, then collapse everything that landed into a single document.
Images to PDF
Section titled “Images to PDF”Drop any number of images into the folder and, ten seconds after the last one lands, Picmal writes a single PDF with one page per image, in Finder name order. Pick Fit to Image, A4, or US Letter pages and the JPEG quality for the embedded images in the folder’s settings, name the PDF with the usual naming tokens, and turn on Delete originals if you want the images cleared once the PDF exists.
Great for a scanner that drops one file per page, or a phone-photo folder you want filed as documents.
Combine PDFs
Section titled “Combine PDFs”Same idea, for PDFs: everything that arrives inside the ten-second window is merged into one document, in name order.
From the terminal, picmal-cli watch add --action images-to-pdf and --action combine-pdf set these up. See Command line.
Output destination
Section titled “Output destination”| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Same folder | Save processed files alongside originals |
| Output subfolder | Save into a “Processed” subfolder |
| Custom location | Save to a folder you choose |
File type filter
Section titled “File type filter”Choose which types of files to process:
- Images
- Audio
- Video
Presets
Section titled “Presets”Pick image, audio, and video compression presets independently for each watched folder.
Resize settings
Section titled “Resize settings”Each watched folder can have its own resize configuration. Choose from several resize modes:
- Percentage. Scale by a percentage of the original size
- Fixed dimensions. Resize to exact width and height
- Max dimensions. Fit within a maximum width and height, preserving aspect ratio
- Width only. Set a fixed width, height adjusts automatically
- Height only. Set a fixed height, width adjusts automatically
- Max file size. Scale each image down to fit a target file size
Naming
Section titled “Naming”Set a prefix and/or suffix for output files, or write a full naming pattern using the same tokens as Settings → Output, {original}, {date}, {camera}, and the rest. See output and naming for the full list.
{sequence} works a little differently here. A watched folder sees files one at a time rather than as a batch, so instead of restarting at 1 with every file it keeps a running count for that folder. The folder’s settings show how many numbers it has handed out and give you a Reset button to start again at 1.
Additional options
Section titled “Additional options”| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Process subfolders | Also watch files in subdirectories |
| Delete originals | Remove source files after processing |
| Process existing files | Queue every supported file already in the folder when you add it. The Edit sheet also has a Process Existing Files Now button to run it whenever you like |
| Min file size | Skip files smaller than this (KB) |
| Max file size | Skip files larger than this (MB) |
| Remove metadata | Strip metadata from processed files |
| Compress after convert | When in Convert mode, compress the output file afterward |
Notifications
Section titled “Notifications”When a watched folder finishes processing, Picmal posts a native macOS notification with the file count and total savings. Manage delivery (banners, sounds, summaries) under System Settings → Notifications → Picmal.
Requirements
Section titled “Requirements”- Keep in menu bar must be enabled in Settings for watched folders to work in the background
- Pair it with Start at login if you want processing to resume after a reboot without you opening the app
- Use watched folders with your Downloads folder to auto-compress screenshots and photos
- Set up a “web export” folder that converts everything to WebP
- Combine with cloud sync folders (iCloud, Dropbox) for automatic optimization
- Point your scanner at an Images to PDF folder and get one filed document per scanning session