Picture Resizer is a small, free program that can Resize JPG image files in batch simply by dragging and dropping selected JPG files on the Picture Resizer Executable. Size and quality options are determined by renaming the executable and inserting a handful of commands in the name. It is possible to multiple instances of Picture Resizer to the Windows’ “send-to” context menu, with different settings for each.
This program does not have a user-interface; all conversions are done by dragging and dropping JPEG files onto the executable (or, alternately, Picture Resizer can be used through the command-line-interface). The reasons I am featuring this tool on FreewareGenius is as follows
- It is possible create multiple copies of this executable that do different things/have different resize settings.
- The authors have managed to squeeze so much functionality into this little program; you can really do a lot with at just by renaming it (see below)
- Image processing/resizing is done through a powerful, high-speed resampling algorythm optimized for high quality conversions and works well with gamma-corrected pictures.
- Most importantly (and the clincher for me), you can use this program to quickly add different resize functions to the Windows context send-to menu (see screenshot & instructions below).
Here’s what you need to know about this program:
- Can do batch conversions (select a group of JPEGs or a folder and drop onto the executable). Can also do batch conversions for images in a folder, as well as recursively for folders within folders (for this, insert an R into the file name e.g. PhotoResize400R.exe)
- Can only process JPG images
- Different resizing options can be invoked by changing the name of the executable, as follows:
- Resize to # of pixels: the number of pixels has to be inserted into the name; e.g. PhotoResize200.exe will resize the larger side of the picture to 200 pixels and preserve the original aspect ratio. If you prefer to resize using the smaller side of a picture insert an underscore before the number (e.g PhotoResize_200.exe). You could also choose to specify width or height, as in PhotoResizeW400.exe for width and PhotoResizeH400.exe for height. If you want to specify both width and height you can use the following syntax to (PhotoResizeWxH.exe), but preserving correct aspect ration in this case will be your responsibility.
- Resize to % of original: in this case the syntax is as follows: PhotoResizePxxx.exe; note that xxx is a number between 1 and 10000 (i.e for 50% you would enter 5000).
- Resize by Kilobytes: this is my favorite, but unfortunately it doesn’t work very well: PhotoResizeK50.exe in theory will result in a file that’s around 50K. The reality is that the file size is unpredictable, but will be smaller that requested (sometimes much smaller).You can make a file smaller but not bigger. The author states on the website that this functionality is ’experimental’. Perhaps it will work better in a later version.
- Quality: you can set quality parameters as follows: PhotoResize400L.exe for low quality and PhotoResize400H.exe for high quality (note that the H here comes after the number as opposed to the height setting). The high quality setting will result in the largest file size while low quality will be the smallest. The two quality settings are visibly different. The size of a file generated without any quality settings (e.g. PhotoResize400.exe) will be in the middle between these two, and in my experience will not be visibly any different in terms of from the high quality one.
- Resize by target DPI: PhotoResizeDxxx.exe. Other DPI-related commands are PhotoResize400T.exe will resample to 400 pixels and keep the original DPI, and PhotoResizeD100T.exe will not resample the image, but will set JPEG header DPI to 100.
- Other commands: Sharpen: PhotoResize400N.exe; skip files smaller than requested size: PhotoResize400S.exe, and copy metadata (including EXIF tags) to the resized file – PhotoResize400M.exe
- Name and location of output file: resized files are normally saved in the same directory as the original. You can, however, define your own default directory to save to (see instructions here). You have no control over the naming convention the program uses (typically filename-xxx.jpg) where xxx are the params used in the conversion; you can, however, tell it to replace the original (PhotoResize400I.exe).
- You can mix and match some of the commands within the executable name; (C, R, L, H, I, M, S, N, T) can be used simultaneously for example PhotoResizeH400R.exe
How to add it to do send-to context menu: Create as many copies of the executable as you want and rename them with the appropriate command; note that you can change “PhotoResize” to anything you want (see second screenshot). Once you have your executables renamed and set up move them to C:’Documents and Settings’{your user name}’SendTo and you’re done. Note that this is a hidden folder so either tell explorer to show all hidden folders in the folder settings or simply type it in in any explorer window.
Feature request: a great addition would be a quality percentage command where you could ask for, say, an 80% quality JPEG with reduced file size.
The Verdict: although I realize that some people would rather work with a GUI than an executable that you have to keep duplicating and renaming, as someone who works with images a lot I love the flexibility and the simplicity offered by this program. Oh and in case you’re wondering, I have no idea why the program is called Picture Resizer while the executable is PhotoResize.
Version tested: 1.5
Compatibility: WinAll; note that there are seperate versions for Windows 98/Me and 64bit Windows (x64).
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 248K).
