Useful internet software, websites and blogsites.: Resize Images Easily & Quickly With Fotosizer & EasyThumbs

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Resize Images Easily & Quickly With Fotosizer & EasyThumbs

Sent to you by Hemi via Google Reader:

Resize Images Easily & Quickly With Fotosizer & EasyThumbs

via MakeUseOf.com by Karl L. Gechlik on 11/26/08

I was helping a buddy of mine create his artist portfolio on the inter-webs. His digital pictures of his work were very large and would all need to be resized to thumbnails and medium sized images. So today's article is going to be a two for one. For this article we are working with Windows Only tools. Two great free tools to help us get the job done quickly and efficiently. Ready?

Our artist thought he was going to have to do all the sizing and resizing manually because they needed to be various different sizes, depending on their dimensions.

He was used to using that little check box in PhotoShop that says "Constrain Proportions".

This magic box allows you to approximately resize an image allowing it to retain its original shape.

My artist friend was under the impression that Photoshop had some uber magic that does this and it couldn't be done any other way. Instead of going into Photoshop Actions, I downloaded for him a tiny itty bitty application called FotoSizer. I am going to show you how we can quickly resize a whole bunch of images for the web.

But first I downloaded a second FREE application to create our thumbnails. (Yes all of this can be done in Photoshop but with A LOT more work - and these apps are FREE. Did I mention that they are free??)

I grabbed Easy Thumbs from here and fired her up:

I pointed it at my source folder and quickly checked my settings:

I hit the "Make All" button at the bottom and my thumbnails went into production. What an awesome feeling; like you have thousands of little people inside your computer churning out your images!

Now I opened up FotoSizer and pointed it at the correct folder containing my original HUGE images. The original images were in the area 2600×2200 but there were images in that folder that were already sized, I didn't want these images touched.

I decided I wanted the re-sized images to be close to 1024×768, maintaining aspect ratio (constrain proportions), and the option to not enlarge if smaller.

I chose my output folder and left the file name mask untouched. I hit the Start button and away we go!

In under 10 minutes I had all my images sized properly for the site. And now I could properly spend my time helping him design his site and get it online.

Not only did I get the job done quickly, I showed him two awesome free applications and now he can create the images for his site on his own!

Now all I need to do is show him how to use DreamWeaver…

Wish me luck! Do you have a favorite tool that does both of these jobs quickly? Let us know in the comments!

(By) Karl L. Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry who wears many hats and changes in telephone booths. Karl mostly uses his powers for good and the occasional hysterical prank. Get your geek on & follow his geeky antics at the NEW AskTheAdmin.com today. Show your support and check us out today! Where all your technology questions are answered for free!

Enjoyed the article? Please leave a comment and tell us what you think about it

New here? Get your cheat sheets and freebies at MakeUseOf Downloads. Enjoy!