Cool Way to Quickly Resize Photos

[Greg A]

If you’ve ever had to resize a group of digital picture files, you’ve likely launched your image editing program and then resized each image individually — this is an extremely time-consuming task. Windows XP has a built-in image resizing utility buried inside the Send Pictures Via E-Mail dialog box that can quickly and easily resize a large group of digital picture files at once. Follow these steps:

1. Press [Windows]E to launch Windows Explorer.
2. Make sure the Tasks pane is visible. (The Folders button acts like a toggle switch. If the Tree pane is showing, clicking the Folders button will display the Tasks pane. Click the Folders button if the Tree pane is showing.)
3. Open the folder containing the group of digital pictures you want to resize. Select the group.
4. Under the File And Folder Task list, select the E-Mail The Selected Items command.
5. When you see the Send Pictures Via E-Mail dialog box, click the Show More Options link to expand the dialog box.
6. Select a radio button next to one of the available sizes and click OK. A new mail message window containing the resized digital pictures as attachments will appear.
7. Pull down the File menu, select the Save Attachments command, and save all the attachments to a different folder.
8. Close the mail message window and click No in the Save Changes dialog box

[Byron Kinnaman]

That seems like a lot of steps to go through when there's freeware that batch resize with a lot of control and other features. Here's one them.

[CD Smith]

With my Win-XP Pro I just right click the picture and select the size I want.

[Donna D.]

My question is do any of these Freebees allow you to change the resolution? The biggest problem we see with folks trying to up load pictures here is they're trying to upload PRINT quality pictures compared to SCREEN quality pictures... which have a MUCH smaller file size.

[Greg A]

The steps I posted above allow you to choose one of three resolutions. Resized a test file from 400k to 75k and 800x600 very quickly.
I use Adobe Photoshop CS myself, but that is overkill for most people posting pics here.
This seemed really simple and it is included in XP with no risk of loading malware.

[Donna D.]

The steps I posted above allow you to choose one of three resolutions.

If possible always chose a resolution of 72 to 96 for web use. Your pictures will load faster and take up far less space on the server!

I think I'm going to have to give this tip a try Greg. I use Photoshop Elements

[Phil H.]

If you’ve ever had to resize a group of digital picture files, you’ve likely launched your image editing program and then resized each image individually — this is an extremely time-consuming task. Windows XP has a built-in image resizing utility buried inside the Send Pictures Via E-Mail dialog box that can quickly and easily resize a large group of digital picture files at once. Follow these steps:

1. Press [Windows]E to launch Windows Explorer.
2. Make sure the Tasks pane is visible. (The Folders button acts like a toggle switch. If the Tree pane is showing, clicking the Folders button will display the Tasks pane. Click the Folders button if the Tree pane is showing.)
3. Open the folder containing the group of digital pictures you want to resize. Select the group.
4. Under the File And Folder Task list, select the E-Mail The Selected Items command.
5. When you see the Send Pictures Via E-Mail dialog box, click the Show More Options link to expand the dialog box.
6. Select a radio button next to one of the available sizes and click OK. A new mail message window containing the resized digital pictures as attachments will appear.
7. Pull down the File menu, select the Save Attachments command, and save all the attachments to a different folder.
8. Close the mail message window and click No in the Save Changes dialog box

Hi Greg,

I certainly appreciate you posting this information as I don't have photoshop and am very nervous about downloading a virus with free software despite having Norton anti-virus. I have been hesitant to upload photo's to this site as a they have to be so small compared to other sites I use and don't want to offend the powers that be if I upload a pic that is too large. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out what you meant by tree plane or task plane - could you explain or use a screen capture so I know what you're talking about?

Thank you,

Phil

[Greg A]

Hi Phil,





On the left is the Explorer with the folder list open. The "folder button" is in the button bar at the top and by clicking that it toggles the left side between the folder list and the task list shown in the second photo. Once you have the task list open on the left you'll see the option to send email which should help you continue on with item 3-8 on the tips.

Hope this makes sense....

[Phil H.]

whew! I think I figured it out with the help of your screen shots - thanks so much.

I was able to resized this photo from 711Kb to 52 using your method - great!

[Greg A]

Great job Phil.
Photo looks great.

[HaroldB]

If you are using XP and trust Microsoft, just go to Microsoft Power Toys and download "Image Resizer." Then it is a simple right click on the picture and choose the size you want.

Harold

[Byron Kinnaman]

My question is do any of these Freebees allow you to change the resolution? The biggest problem we see with folks trying to up load pictures here is they're trying to upload PRINT quality pictures compared to SCREEN quality pictures... which have a MUCH smaller file size.

That's what resizing does. Reduces the number of pixels hence file size.

The only thing you need to watch for is saving in jpeg format. Jpeg is graphic file compression format. You can control the amount of compression which decreases the file size, but it also messes with the quality of the picture. Some compression is a good thing, too much isn't. It's easy to play with. Change picture size (pixels) and change compression on a picture. Save with a different name (I always preserve the original). Then look at the newly save picture, look at the file size and you'll soon get a feel for compression and pixels to get a good web picture.

I figure anything that's larger than 500 pixels in one direction is too big. I set compression in the medium high area, unless it produces a much too large file, then I'll play for the best compromise.

[Byron Kinnaman]

If you are using XP and trust Microsoft, just go to Microsoft Power Toys and download "Image Resizer." Then it is a simple right click on the picture and choose the size you want.

Harold

I just tried that. Works pretty good. Simple and easy to use. Doesn't have the control of some of the other graphics programs but is simple enough that you might not want the other things.

I use one that not only can I resize the picture and control compression, I can also crop the picture before resizing.

If don't want to get into the control of the picture thing, then use Microsoft's.

[Donna D.]

That's what resizing does. Reduces the number of pixels hence file size.

I'm not talking just about how many pixels. But reducing the number of pixels in a picture without changing it's physical size. You can have a picture that's 4X6 and 300 DPI which will have a large file size. Or you can have a 4X6 72 DPI picture that has a small file size. We'd prefer the 72 dpi pictures.

I'm sure you've noticed pictures that are physically small but have large file sizes on this forum.

I just tested a couple of pictures a 4x6 picture at 300 dpi (print quality) is 6 meg. The exact same picture 4x6 at 72 dpi (screen quality) is 365 kb.

[Byron Kinnaman]

I'm not talking just about how many pixels. But reducing the number of pixels in a picture without changing it's physical size. You can have a picture that's 4X6 and 300 DPI which will have a large file size. Or you can have a 4X6 72 DPI picture that has a small file size. We'd prefer the 72 dpi pictures.

I'm sure you've noticed pictures that are physically small but have large file sizes on this forum.

I just tested a couple of pictures a 4x6 picture at 300 dpi (print quality) is 6 meg. The exact same picture 4x6 at 72 dpi (screen quality) is 365 kb.

Did you view the 4x6 picture at 300 dpi on a computer screen?
If it's viewed at full size it'll be bigger than the screen and you'll need to scroll to see all of it.
Do you have the ability to see the actual pixel size of the two versions? If so take a look.


EDITED TO ADD INFORMATION

DPI = Dots Per Inch such as a printer can print 1200 dpi or 300 dpi. Meaning the spacing between ink dots is decreased as the number gets bigger and dots get smaller. I therefore can print a picture of some size like 4x6 with different resolutions by telling the printer what to do.

Computer screen has a resolution of n pixels x n pixels. A digital photo is measured in the same way, by size (number of pixels high x number of pixels wide). Therefore for digital pictures the only thing that matters for size is pixels. The file size in a jpeg can further be controlled by the amount of compression.

I think a long time ago with dot matrix printers a lot of confusion was generated.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Let's take a look at your screen shots.

The first one at 2400 pixels wide. 8" wide 2400/8 = 300dpi.
Let's do the same thing for the next one 576 pixels / 8" = 72dpi

1 dot = 1 pixel.

Therefore to make the size of a picture proper for your computer screen no matter how you go about it you change the number of pixels, which changes the file size. The only exception is amount of compression. Even with a lot of compression the pixel width and height are the same.

[Donna R]

I'm certainly not very technical , but I have been using this free progrram
http://www.irfanview.com/
for years and find it very easy. It also has other features that act as a mini mini photoshop.
Anyone else use this and are there any problems with this freeware that I don't realize?
Donna R

[Donna D.]

From one Donna to another , and everyone else, here's some more information about Irfanview in Photo Upload Tutorial, How Tos

[Norris Jeffrey]

Some options/alternatives for consideration...

An excellent FREE software program. Has a lot of features including size reduction. The object addition feature is also quite good. I use it to add comments to photos. Does require an additional program download. http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php

Another rather simplistic solution is to email the original photo file to yourself using hotmail or gmail. Both programs will automatically reduce the size...
The resulting reductions by these two programs may not be exactly what you want in "quality" but they do work well and result in quickly reducing photo size that can be used in some situations.

[Dean & Mary]

That's what resizing does. Reduces the number of pixels hence file size.

Donna and Byron, I guess you probably know that you are both right. Byron, your technical examples point out your understanding. However, Donna is correct by asking members to not just simple resize their image but to also make sure the resolution is reduced.

In Photoshop CS4 (the standard professional editor), when you resize an image you do not change the pixel height and width unless you have selected the ‘resample image when resizing’ option. With the ‘resample image’ option set to off, the file size would not change when the image size is changed. So Donna’s point is absolutely correct, “Please make sure the image is resampled when you resize it”.

So, resizing does not reduce the number of pixels or file size, if that option is not enabled.

I would agree that 72 dpi for the internet is a good choice.

Dean