Picture Resizer 3.0 April 14nd 2008

An easy-to-use and free tool for batch resizing of JPG pictures and photos.

How to use it? Download PhotoResize400.exe and place it on your desktop. Drag and drop JPG files or folders with JPG files on the application icon. The tool will resize JPG images and save them next to the originals. Names of the new pictures will be based on the original names, with a suffix indicating their size. For example, the resized version of MyPhoto.jpg will be called MyPhoto-400.jpg, where the number 400 indicates the size of the picture.

Configuration

• By default, the application resizes the pictures to 400 pixels and preserves original aspect ratio.
• The size of output pictures is controlled by the name of the application. To generate 200 pixels images, simply rename the application to PhotoResize200.exe
• Tip: it is possible to have multiple copies of the application with different names to generate different image versions quickly.
• If you want to manually control both width and height of the output image, rename the application to PhotoResizeWxH.exe, where W is the requested width and H the requested height. It is your responsibility to set correct aspect ratio in this case.

Highlights

• The tool is using high-quality resizing method, where color of each pixel is a weighted average of all covered pixels from the original image. Linear interpolation is used when zooming in.
• The algorithm is optimized to work with gamma-corrected pictures.
• High speed.

Notes

• The application is provided as is, without warranty of any kind. Authors are not responsible for any damage.
• Refer to the download section below to get versions for 98, Me, or 64-bit (x86) version of Windows.
• When using the application from command line, specify absolute path to the source files or folders. Relative paths will result in undefined behavior.
• Files in the destination folders are always overwritten unless they have the readonly flag set.

What's new in version 1.1

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused recursive resizing of already resized pictures.
• Added new modes, where the images can be resized to specified width (rename to PhotoResizeW400.exe), height (rename to PhotoResizeH400.exe), or to a minimum size (rename to PhotoResize_400.exe).

What's new in version 1.2

• The tool can resize images in all subfolders of a folder - PhotoResize400R.exe.
• Resized images can be placed in another folder: Photo Resizer advanced settings.
• Added versions for Windows 98, Me and 64bit Windows (x64).

What's new in version 1.3

• Resizing to a percentage of original size PhotoResizePxxx.exe, where xxx is a number from 1 to 10000 [%].
• Resizing by setting target DPI - PhotoResizeDxxx.exe. If the source image does not define DPI, it is assumed to have 100 DPI.
• Command line options to override parameters from filename - advanced settings.
• Adjustable output helps creating custom reports or web pages when resizing images - advanced settings.

What's new in version 1.4

• Do in-place resizing (overwrite original file) - PhotoResize400I.exe.
• Set compression quality of output image with a -q command line switch or rename to PhotoResize400H.exe for high quality or to PhotoResize400L.exe for low quality.
• Copy metadata (including EXIF tags) to the resized file - PhotoResize400M.exe.
• And finally a simple trick contributed by one of Picture Resizer's users that lets you run the tool from Explorer context menu:

Open Windows Explorer and go to your "Send To" folder (usually C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name>\SendTo). Place one or more configured copies of Picture Resizer there. Items placed in this folder will appear in Send To context menu as demonstrated on the picture. Tip: you may change the tool's name to for example "Resize to 400.exe" instead of "PhotoResize400.exe".

What's new in version 1.5

• Independent DPI mode - change only DPI or only number of pixels by using the T letter in tool's filename:
  • PhotoResize400T.exe will resample to 400 pixels and keep the original DPI.
  • PhotoResizeD100T.exe will not resample the image, but will set JPEG header DPI to 100.
• Sharpen the resized image with PhotoResize400N.exe.
• Skip files that are already smaller than the required size using PhotoResize400S.exe.
• Resize images by setting approximate maximum target size in kilobytes PhotoResizeK50.exe (experimental).

What's new in version 2.0

• Custom destination folder and file name - the -c switch was enhanced and allows specifying a template for output file path. More details here. Simple examples:
  • Default behavior of the tool equals -c<ROOT><PATH><NAME>-<SIZE>.jpg
  • To put resized files into folder C:\Resized Images, use "-cC:\Resized Images\<PATH><NAME>.jpg" (the double quotes are needed, because, there is a space in the path).
  • To simply put files to current folder of the process, use -c<NAME>.jpg Make sure that the current folder is set on command line prior to running the tool.
• New predefined output quality - PhotoResize400G.exe for good quality (75%).
• PhotoResize400O.exe skips the need to press Enter when the tool finishes (and also blocks progress report).
• PhotoResize400F400x300.exe ensures that the resulting image fits into the defined frame.

Run Picture Resizer from context menu of .jpg files and folders

Version 2.0 introduces a new usage scenario. The tool supports intergration with Windows shell and allows you to define one or more commands that are added to Windows Explorer context menu (the menu that appears when you right-click on a file). Separate each switch by space, just like on command line.

To add a command to context menu, start the tool and type the name of the command to the "Command name" field and additional command line options (if you want to use them) to the "Additional options" field. Finally click the "Add to context menu" button.

To remove all created commands, click the "Remove all".

Version 2.0 allows you to add multiple commands to context menu of .jpg files.

PhotoResize was recently updated to be compatible with Vista Explorer - you can use it as a replacement for the missing Image Resizer PowerToy.

What's new in version 3.0

• B&W (grayscale) jpeg images are supported.
• Creation date of the resized file is preserved.
• Explicit multi-core and multi-processor support. If multiple files are resized, all cores will be utilized. Hyper-threaded processors are also supported, but the speed gain will not be significiant.
• Image re-targeting support (<- worth clicking ;-)). Combination of resampling and image carving techniques is used to obtain image that fits the specified rectangle. Activated using -gWxH switch or by the G letter: PhotoResizeG1024x768.exe.

Download

Version 3.0 from April 14th 2008:

• PhotoResize400.exe (297kB) for Windows NT4, 2000, XP, and Vista.
• PhotoResize400.exe (292kB) for Windows 98 and Me.
• PhotoResize400.exe (366kB) for 64bit Windows.

Other resources

Learn more about images in article 'What is a computer image?'.

Need more advanced batch image processor? Download the beta version of RW Photos and easily resize, rotate, apply filters, add watermarks, etc.

How can you help?

You are welcome to help PhotoResizer by:

• 
• Suggesting a new feature - leave a short note in the comment section or start a new topic on the discussion board.
• Introducing the tool to more people - if your friend is looking for an image resizer, let them know about this one. The more people use it, the happier is the author.
• Translating this page - help people in your country and translate the information about PhotoResizer for them. The translation can be placed on this server.
• Linking to this page from your image-related web site or blog.

Recent Comments

Display all comments.

Hyland (2008-04-17): This program is excellent!

I am using the program to make a resized copy of my Master Archive of personal photos (the Master Archive is too big for my laptop) to make a Resized Archive in a new directory.

1) When resizing photos to a new directory (using the R command) is there also a command that will copy non-picture files (movie files, pdf, etc) that were skipped?

2) Is there a way for the program to skip photos that were resized in an earlier resizing session? This way I do not need to resize photos already in my Resized Archive, just the new ones I add to the Master Archive. (Resizing the entire archive takes 7+ hours on my computer)

Suggestion for future version: Have the command prompt window show a status counter (example “Resizing 3 of 8567”)

Thank you for your time!
Hyland

Vlasta (2008-04-18): 1) Unfortunately no. I guess copying all files not matching *.jpg should be possible using some scripting language. Definitely on Linux and most likely on Windows, but I am no expert on this ( try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Script_Host ).
2) Probably no. The -s switch or S letter at the end of the tool's filename will make it skip files that are already smaller than the specified size, but if I understand you correctly you would rather need to skip files modified prior to some given date. Maybe in one of the next versions...

Unknown author (2008-04-18): Really nice program! Just one thing: can you please add a parameter to hide the command prompt window? Thank you in advance!

Vlasta (2008-04-18): There is the -o parameter, which closes the window after the work is done without need to wait for Enter key. Other than that, the output is generally useful, because it will show if the resizing was successful or not. The window can only be hidden if the tool is started from another application with appropriate Windows API call.

Unknown author (2008-04-19): I see. I use the -o parameter. But I usually process one or two pictures at time (e.g. to write an email) and the prompt command window is kind of annoying (no offense). Please, consider since it's just a simple feature that will be optionally used by us. Let the user make a choice here too. Please! :)

russell (2008-04-21): This program is so much fun to use. Thank you :)

The filesize comes out so small, but the quality still looks great to me. I've been using this app to compress my images even though I'm not decreasing the pixel size. I just have to keep changing the pixels on the app because my images are all over the place. Is it possible to have the app recompress without resizing? I realize it's kinda silly since it's called "photo-resize" but just thought I would ask. :P

Vlasta (2008-04-21): Well, yes, PhotoResizeP100.exe will resize to 100% and re-compress the image. Some quality will be lost of course, but the file size is likely to decrease, because image from cameras are usually using a very high (often unnecessary (the sensor is not that good anyway)) quality setting.

russell (2008-04-22): ahh, i didn't think about using the percentage thing. excellent work :)

Unknown author (2008-05-02): Cropping?

Vlasta (2008-05-03): cropping is hard to do without GUI, try retargeting

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