Quick JPEG Resize and Crop 1.1
As the name states, this program is useful for quickly resizing and cropping JPEG
pictures. It can also be used to adjust the quality setting of a picture to
reduce disk space usage. It requires windows XP or later and also requires
the Microsoft .net framework 2.0, which will be installed from the Microsoft web
site if necessary.
Version 1.1 adds the ability to overwrite the original file when saving and
fixes some minor bugs. Thanks to Adam Pacey for his assistance with this
version.
Version 1.2 adds the ability to copy & paste, so you can paste in pictures from
the clipboard and save them as jpeg files. It also adds the ability to
open files in some other formats (png and tiff) although they can only be saved
as jpegs.
There are
four ways to select an image:
-
Run the
program from the Programs menu or from a desktop icon and open a file from the
File menu.
-
Run the
program from the Programs menu or from a desktop icon and drag a file from
Windows Explorer to the picture area on the window.
-
Drag a
file from Windows Explorer to the program’s desktop icon.
-
Paste in a picture from the clipboard (Paste menu item or ctrl-V).
Note: a
desktop icon is not created during installation. If you want one, run the
program and choose “Create Shortcut on Desktop” from the file menu.
Selecting a new Size
You can
select one of the preset sizes (800x600 or 1600x1200), or specify your own size
by entering a width and height (in pixels) in the Custom setting. The
width and height are initially set to the original size of the image. When
you enter a width or height, the other is adjusted to maintain the aspect ratio
of the picture, or else it would appear stretched out or squeezed in after
resizing. Also, if the aspect ratio is not 4:3, the preset choices are
disabled and you have to enter a custom value.
Cropping an Image
To crop an
image, first create a cropping rectangle, which shows the area of the picture
which will be retained. Do this by clicking the left mouse button where the top
left corner of the cropping rectangle is to go on the image, and dragging the
mouse down and to the right with the button still held down. Once the rectangle
is created, it can be moved and resized either with the mouse or by entering
values in the appropriate fields.
Saving
the Resized Image
There are
three Save buttons. The bottom one acts as a conventional Save As...,
prompting for a file name. The middle button saves the resized image in
the same folder as the original file, using the same file name, but with "_rsz"
appended. (So for example a file called Picture1.jpg would be saved as
Picture1_rsz.jpg.) This saves having to go through the Save As dialog box,
which can be tedious if you are resizing a lot of files. The top button
overwrites the original file.
Quality
Setting
The
Quality Setting gives a way to reduce the image file size even more than just by
shrinking the image. Lowering the quality gives a smaller file size at the
expense of a reduction in picture quality. Very low numbers (10 or less)
result in very bad images, but each image is different and you have to try
different quality settings and see how they look.
Comments,
suggestions, etc. may be sent to ph@zzornix.net.