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Best batch crop & resize software

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Phil King

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I have to attend a conference next week in which photographs will be taken which need to be quickly cropped and resized to be sent to press offices.

In previous years I have used Photoshop on my laptop, but due to Adobe's activation policy I am now not allowed to have CS2 loaded on my office PC, home PC and laptop. Rather than deactivate one of my PCs, I was wondering if anyone could recommend a decent (preferrably free) piece of software to allow me to quickly crop and resize a batch of images.

I have Breezdownloader Pro which is excellent for taking image from the card and losslessly rotating, but I don't think it can resize or crop.

Any suggestions ?

Thanks

Phil
 
Most of the viewers will do this.

My favourite for this would be Faststone Photo Resizer.

There's also Faststone Image Viewer, XNview, Irfanview, 11view etc, etc.

All free.

I wouldn't dream of using Photoshop for a job like this.
 
Thanks - I tried most of these but none of them suit my needs so far.

The JPEGcrops is fixed aspect only - I need to be able to select the area to be cropped, then resize to a maximum width, and rename of course.

The closest so far is Breeze Browser Pro, this allows all of the above on raw files but seems not to allow cropping and resizing on jpgs - which is a bit odd, maybe I'm missing something.

--
Phil
 
Have you considered Qimage? You may already have a copy.

You select the images to add to the queue, then click on each one. You can then n drag a box to crop and position the same as photoshop.

When you've finished them all, you have th option to output them as new files rather than printing them which I presume is what you would want.

As you're applying a global filter, you can adjust brightness contrast etc and sharpen , and you can even tag a colour profile if you want.

It isn't free but is only about $50 by recollection and I think you are allowed up to 3 copies. All future updates are free and it's simply the best resizing program and printing program out there.
The support, should you need it, is fantastic.
It's light , and it does a lot more that that too.
Maybe it's what you need?
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/
Ian
 
Phil King said:
The JPEGcrops is fixed aspect only - I need to be able to select
the area to be cropped, then resize to a maximum width, and rename
of course.
Click to expand...
Though I don't know if it's right for you or not, JPEGCrops does support "free" cropping (non-fixed aspect ratio). Just select "Free" from the drop-down list of crop types or select Edit ~ Set All Aspect ~ Free

Jeff
 
Hi again, I have tried the free crop and that gets me halfway there, but what I really need is for it to then resize the image to a maximum height or width.

For example, the image might start off at 4056 x 2704 pixels. I then crop a section out of it, say 3331 x 1515 pixels. I then want to make the width a miximum of 1024 pixels before saving.

--
Phil
 
Phil King said:
Hi again, I have tried the free crop and that gets me halfway
there, but what I really need is for it to then resize the image to
a maximum height or width.

For example, the image might start off at 4056 x 2704 pixels. I
then crop a section out of it, say 3331 x 1515 pixels. I then want
to make the width a miximum of 1024 pixels before saving.
Click to expand...
Understood, thought I'm not aware of a way to do that solely with JPEGCrop. While it might not be ideal, I guess you could crop the images using JPEGCrop, then resize them using something like FastStone Photo Resizer.

http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm

Since JPEGCrop is lossless, I don't think there would be a quailty issue to worry about - it'd just take 2 steps.

Jeff
 
Thanks Ian - downloaded it, but can you resize at the same time as cropping (see my reply to jgodfrey)?
--
Phil
 
I have, and I find it a bit clunky. You have to open the images individually and process them. I need to be able to select a batch and quickly crop, resize and rename.

Thanks,
--
Phil
 
I don't really understand what is wrong with Faststone Photo Resizer for this job.

You can batch crop, resize, convert format & rename all in one go. Plus other options.

Doesn't do raw files, but the Image Viewer does the same batch processes but includes raw files.
 
I'm getting lost in your terminology of wanting to "batch" but also somehow apply crops individually. I don't understand how both can co-exist?

You could consider something like Paintshop Photo Album. You'd have work along the following way:

Batch rename all files (usng common name and then a sequential number).
Set each individual photo's crop and then save.

After that's done, do a Batch Resize and enter a max width and height value for all of your photos.

At least that's how it is in PhotoAlbum V.4

You could also try Photo Mechanic, which I've read is pretty full-featured, but I don't think its cheap..
http://www.camerabits.com/pages/PM4.html
Phil King said:
I have, and I find it a bit clunky. You have to open the images
individually and process them. I need to be able to select a batch
and quickly crop, resize and rename.

Thanks,
--
Phil
Click to expand...
 
Another one to try Click2crop.

You set the aspect ratio, output size, jpeg compression sharpening etc, then move the crop curser to position or drag to size n. When it's where how you want it, click on the save button and it will rename and save to target directory, then move on to the next image.
Not exactly batch but you do want to adjust each image individually.
Only $12 this time.
http://mazaika.tripod.com/click2crop.html#c2cdl
Ian
 
jgodfrey said:
Understood, thought I'm not aware of a way to do that solely with
JPEGCrop.
Click to expand...
That's partly true.

Since Phil has time for preparation beforehand and not much time for the actual manipulation, he might want to take a look at the "scripting" in JPEGCrops.

It is possible for JPEGCrops to perform an arbitrary command on an image, after it has been cropped. By installing ImageMagick (also freeware), Phil could create a custom aspect with an "After crop" script along the lines of

convert %D -geometry 1024x -quality 75 %D

which would resize the cropped image to a maximum width of 1024 pixels.
 
Toke - this is interesting! I looked at ImageMagick, and there is a large variety of different downloads. Does JPEGCrops integrate scripting or would I have to run ImageMagick on the command line after I had cropped?

Thanks,
--
Phil
 
Yes - FastStone pretty much does the job. It allows me to chose images from thumbnails, I can then crop, then resize, and save out. It probably suits my needs best so far.

Thanks
--
Phil
 
Batch as in being able to select more than one image at once, then sequentially judge each one, crop, resize and rename in one go.

The worst of these applications present the user with a standard windows file open dialog with no multi-select - those are no good because I have no idea what the image numbers relate to.

The job I have to do is a race against time. The photographer is taking 2 or 3 shots per group at the award ceremony. I get the CF card with 20-30 images on, and the photographer goes to work on the next batch. Meantime I have to select the best image per group, crop and resize ready for emailing to a press office. For this to work I need a slick workflow. So if I can find a package which allows me to preselect a max width of say 1024 pixels, all I have to do is crop the 8mp image as I see fit, and the software does the rest, leaving me with an emailable file.

Cheers,
--
Phil
 
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