Resize, watermarks, and clear metadata

Three optional processing steps happen before fan-out, configured under Image Processing in your dashboard: resize, watermark, and clear-metadata. All are off by default. Enable them when the recipient or use case calls for it.

Resize¶

Reduces images to a maximum dimension on the long edge while preserving aspect ratio.

Configuration: set the max dimension (in pixels) in your dashboard. Images larger than this are resized; smaller images pass through unchanged.

When to enable:

• Web delivery — clients viewing on phones don't need 50 MP frames
• Email destinations — keep download sizes reasonable
• Bandwidth-constrained wire desks
• Galleries where the original is overkill

When not to enable:

• Wire services or agencies that require full-resolution originals
• Print delivery
• Archival copies

If you need both resized and original deliveries simultaneously, that requires running two destinations with different configurations (e.g. resized to Drive, full-res to S3). For per-destination resize, consider whether to send originals everywhere and let the recipient resize on their end.

Watermarks¶

Overlay a watermark image on outbound files.

Configuration: upload a PNG with transparency in your dashboard. Position and opacity may be configurable depending on your account version.

When to enable:

• Preview deliveries pre-purchase
• Press release distribution
• Demo galleries
• Client previews where you want unmistakable attribution

When not to enable:

• Final delivery to paying clients
• Wire / press delivery (wires strip and re-process)
• Personal backups

Clear metadata¶

Strips EXIF, IPTC, and XMP metadata before delivery.

When to enable:

• Privacy-sensitive deliveries (location data, serial numbers)
• Client deliveries where you don't want camera details visible
• Wire delivery to specific desks that require flat files

When not to enable:

• Anywhere your byline, copyright, and credit need to survive
• Wire ingest that depends on IPTC for filing

Important: if you have a metadata template active and clear-metadata enabled, the file is stripped, then your template is applied. The end result is a file with only your template's metadata — nothing from the original camera EXIF survives. This is usually the desired behavior for delivery.

Processing order¶

Before fan-out, ZenTransfer applies steps in this order:

1. Thumbnail and preview rendition extraction
2. Resize (if enabled)
3. Clear metadata (if enabled)
4. Metadata template applied
5. Filename rename applied
6. Fan-out to enabled destinations

Knowing the order matters: clearing metadata then applying a template produces a clean file with only the template's fields. Clearing without a template produces a stripped file.

Per-destination differences¶

The same processed file goes to every destination in a single auto-transfer. If you need different processing per destination (full-res to S3, resized to Drive), you'd typically:

• Send full-res everywhere and let downstream tools resize
• Or set up a separate workflow with culling in the Browser and explicit transfers

Future versions may support per-destination processing. Check the changelog.

Common mistakes¶

• Resize enabled when delivering to a wire — they reject undersized files
• Watermark left on after testing — final delivery ships with a "DRAFT" overlay
• Clear metadata without active template — your byline and copyright are removed
• Resize max set too aggressively — quality degraded on output

Related reading¶

• Metadata templates
• Dashboard tour — locating processing settings