Janel Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 Hi folks, I have received questions lately about how to resize photos to the guidelines that are strongly urged to be followed when posting them on The Carving Path. Resizing the photos is both a courtesy for those members who have no choice but to use dialup internet services, where 1MB images may take ten minutes to download, and to keep the storage capacity for the forum at a manageable amount. I use Photoshop to change the dpi or ppi (dots or pixels per inch) to be no more than 700 pixels wide or long. The guidelines state 640 x 480 pixel dimensions... which is a good size. I crop out the unnecessary background, which makes the subject larger and easier to see. The resolution is set down to 72 dpi or ppi, which is the web standard for images. Anything larger is for print, and just makes the files larger for storage, and is not necessary for the internet. The file size, or amount of memory of the image file, should most comfortably be between 50 and 100 kb. Larger files take more time for images to load with the posts, and is not friendly to those members with dial up services. I suffered with dialup until last year when the service almost quit working altogether. I now use satellite service, but the service is still slow, yet it does work. This is one reason why I am adamant about keeping the image file sizes low, to make the viewing pleasurable for all of the members. Artists all must reckon with learning how to process digital images at some point in their lives. Lets see if some of you know some tricks for doing this easily. I use a Mac computer. Most people use PC, which I know little about as far as software goes. There should be free software on the internet for doing the simple resizing. I used to know of some of it, but that was a few years ago. There must be more available now. What do you use to resize your photos? How might you help other members who are trying to figure out how to do this? Thank you for your helpful responses! Janel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey G. Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 I just downloaded picasa 3. picasa.google.com It is a free program from google that seems to be working. It is a little tricky but if you pull up the operating manual and type picture resize in the search bar, it will walk you through it. I am going to post the pictures I am changing. Could you please let me know if they are the right size for the forum. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janel Posted March 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 Here is a link to an earlier topic, pinned at the top of the Photography forum: http://www.thecarvingpath.net/forum/index.php?/topic/52-resize-images-for-this-forum/ There are links to various other options from 2009 and earlier. Joey, the photos that you posted were perfectly resized. Thank you! Thank you for the above info as well. Janel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joey G. Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 once you download picasa it is a little confusing. Don't bother cropping or any of that. Just pic the picture you want to size go to the bottom of the page and click on export choose resize. it asks for a size, I used 640 then choose minimal then export it then asks for a place to put in on your HD I made a new folder in pictures and simple named it "resize" It leaves the original file as it is and where it is so there is no need to worry about your pictures It also has a few pretty cool adjustments for you picture. It's the norm that I have found on most iphone apps. Color, tent, effects, etc. Mainly it does what we need it to do here and it's free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janel Posted June 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Thomas M. posted this info to a new member in Who's Who: " ... you can use "Microsoft Office Picture Manager" to resize your photos (find it in Start / All programs / Microsoft Office / Microsoft Office Tools) if you are running Windows with Microsoft office." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas M. Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Hi All, I have been looking for some time for a software allowing me to resize/crop/compress, etc.... pictures for the forums I post in. Until now, I was using, as Janel mentioned above, Microsoft Office Picture Manager because I never found a simple software with basic tools, there was no "in between", only complicated softwares or too basics. I found out this morning a software called XnConvert ( http://www.xnconvert.com/ ). I am really not fond of photos modifications and retouches, and quite allergic to huge softwares such as Photoshop or The Gimp. Here are the pros and cons for XnConvert as a new user: - Pros: Free (you can donate via paypal if you want, but you are not prompted to) Lightweight (about 22M once installed) Portable (you can choose to download a ZIP file or a EXE) Available for Windows, Mac and Linux (deb, rpm and tar.gz) User friendly Complete (a good batch of options) Available in multiple languages Can resize pictures by batch (just select a folder containing pictures and apply resizing and compressing to all pictures) Created by a French guy - Cons: I will tell you after having used it on a few pictures, only tested one for the moment. For my first attempt using this software, I managed within 5mn to find out how to crop, resize to 640*480 pixels, and save in 72dpi a picture much larger at the origin. And the output picture was about 44kb. I encourage you to try it and tell me your feedback. Thomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas M. Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Just to show you what can be done with a few "clics". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janel Posted June 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2012 Hi, I realized that my post about the Resizing Guidelines are not open for questions and answers. Please use this topic to ask questions and to ask for help. Members have offered information about free photo apps in previous posts and other topics here on the Photography forum area. Please scan through those to see what others have written about preparing photos. Janel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas M. Posted June 25, 2012 Report Share Posted June 25, 2012 Thanks Janel, that's a good idea. By the way, I'm looking for a good alternative on Linux. If you have any advice or idea, thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janel Posted December 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Try this web based photo resizing aid: http://www.webresizer.com I have just tried it and found it to be a simple and useful tool for preparing photos for use on the internet, and for posting here on the forum. It is free and is easy to use. It prepares and reduces large size photos for internet use. If you set the width or height to be near 640 x 480, the image should be a better size for use on the forum posts. One tip, there is a "crop" tool you can use to cut away the unnecessary background. When you do that, the carving becomes larger in the picture. A suggested order of steps: 1. Select photos from your computer files. 2. Click "Upload" to the Web Resizer 3. Crop the unnecessary background 4. Click "Apply Changes" 5. New Size: the longest side should be set to 640 pixels, which could be either width or height. The other shorter side will be shorter. This will create an image good for the forum. 6. If the image needs to be rotated, use the Rotate option. 7. The image quality could be between 50 and 100. If the image gets "pixelated" or goes from clear to broken up, the use a higher number that will let the image be clear. Click "Apply Changes" as you make changes so that you can see what is happening. You can also "start over" if you need to. 8. The next four choices: Tint, Exposure, Contrast, Color Saturation, are things that you can play with but are not essential to use, unless the image of yours is too bright or too dark. If that is the case then the exposure setting could go down or up, what ever helps the image to be improved. 9. When you are satisfied with the results, click "Download This Image" to your computer. (I do not have a cell phone that takes photos, so I do not know if this will work for that kind of photo imagery.) I hope that this is something that you will be able to use to prepare your photos for posting on The Carving Path forum. Janel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janel Posted May 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2014 A question to the members: I don't have a smartphone, so I do not know if those members who do are able to use http://www.webresizer.com to prepare and resize their photos before uploading them to the forum. Can any of you enlighten me regarding the use of the webresizer.com ap with smartphones? Thank you, Janel PS: this post is in response to the increasing number of very large images files being posted. Members, please remember the request made when you joined to prep and resize your photos before uploading. I pay for the storage of the image files, and if all were 3.5 MB my costs will go up. Guidelines: - 72 dpi - JPEG works great - around 640 x 480 pixel dimension - and around 50 K file size 100 K is okay Thank you for trying out the web resizer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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