How do I easily & quickly resize pics?

[Una_Persson]

@Bear_Nenno

I can’t think of any. Certainly not when the task is sharing on a message board or something. I’m curious as to when or why someone would do this.
Could someone explain where they are getting these normal sized pics that are in the multiMEG range? Every pic I’ve seen on my computer that is over 500k is just HUGE when viewed at 100% Reducing the size of the photo and decreasing the the filesize, have always seemed like the right thing to do.

Printing is one place where a larger picture can really make a difference. And in online art galleries like the one I run, very often large works with a lot of detail need more pixels to see detail properly.

[Hombre]

@Bear_Nenno

I can’t think of any. Certainly not when the task is sharing on a message board or something. I’m curious as to when or why someone would do this.
Could someone explain where they are getting these normal sized pics that are in the multiMEG range? Every pic I’ve seen on my computer that is over 500k is just HUGE when viewed at 100% Reducing the size of the photo and decreasing the the filesize, have always seemed like the right thing to do.

Not sure of the intended situation, but PhotoShop works wonders for me at reducing filesize but not any great visible clarity. But I use it a lot.

Frequently, I drag pics from the internet (me - MacOSX) that have not been properly optimized.

[AHunter3]

Well, if you’re on a Mac, the venerable Graphic Converter will batch-process entire folders’ worth of files, reducing filesize to a specified parameter, converting TIFFS to JPEGs, optimize colors for the web, etc etc.

High-end graphics shops use Photoshop in conjunction with AppleScript to do batch-processing, but GraphicConverter will do the job for most mortals.

[FlyingRamenMonster]

@Bear_Nenno

I can’t think of any. Certainly not when the task is sharing on a message board or something. I’m curious as to when or why someone would do this.
Could someone explain where they are getting these normal sized pics that are in the multiMEG range? Every pic I’ve seen on my computer that is over 500k is just HUGE when viewed at 100% Reducing the size of the photo and decreasing the the filesize, have always seemed like the right thing to do.

What resolution are you using?

Jpegs are small, yes, but a decent-sized gif or png can easily run over 500k.

[Rhubarb]

Since no one else has mentioned it, let me put in a plug for Graphic Workshop Professional. Their latest (unregistered) version puts a watermark on images you manipulate with it, but the registration fee is only $30. GWSP will let you convert from pretty much any format to any other with complete control over quality and size. It does batch processing, special effects, thumbnail catalogs, proof sheets, etc. very quickly and easily. Also, the company that produces GWSP, Alchemy Mindworks, is from Canada and seems to have an interesting world-view (judging from their promotional materials). I’ve been using Graphic Workshop for at least 15 years, and I haven’t had a single complaint with their software.

btw, this is not a paid promotion, I just like their stuff.

[Shalmanese]

@Bear_Nenno

BULLSHIT! Did you even try it!? Go do it right now. Do what I said and then save the new image. Do a SAVE AS if you dont feel like losing your original large image. The new file will be roughly reduced by the same percent you reduced the dimensions of the photo. I’ve done it a million freaking times and I would not have posted the method if I was not positive that it works.

Also, I just reduced a 1.5 meg photo to a 44kb, decent size and quality photo. And it takes like three seconds. You dont have to wait for large programs like photoshop or whatever to load all that garbage you dont need. I know I only have a modest 2ghz processor with half a gig of ram but Photoshop still takes its damn time loading up. PAINT is instant, and so is its ability to resize an image and reduce the file size.

Go do it right now, if I am wrong, I owe you the small paperback book of your choice from Amazon.com

MSPaint uses nearest neighbour interpolation when resizing pics which produces horrible image quality. Photoshop is likley to use Bilinear or Bicubic which gives you a much nicer pic for a given reduction.