The following guide will demonstrate how to resize many pictures in one shot using the FastStone Photo Resizer, a free image converter with no spyware or adware. Download the image converter from here: http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm (Direct link: http://www.faststonesoft.net/DN/FSResizerSetup35.exe) It is strongly recommend that you resize a copy of your pictures and keep your originals as a backup in case you make a mistake when resizing. Furthermore, If you want to print the pictures at a later date, use the original high quality pictures as they will produce better prints. Install and run the utility Click on the Source dropdown and select the folder with the pictures you want to resize (make sure you have the originals in a safe place in case you make a mistake!) Select the pictures to resize and click on Add (or click on Add All to process the entire folder) Set the Output format to JPEG Images (*.jpg) Select the Output folder (You can use the Source folder as the Output folder) Click on the Use advanced options checkbox and click on Advanced Options button that appears In the screen that appears, select the Resize tab Select the Use Resize/Resample checkbox Enter the width and height (1024 * 768 is a good size) Click on the Preserve Aspect Ratio checkbox Click on the Do not resize when the original size is less than the new one checkbox Click OK Optionally, you can have the program rename your files that will be resized. To do so, select the Rename checkbox and enter the new name followed by at lease two '#' signs. The '#' sign will be replaced by a sequential number. In this example my new pictures will be named MyCar0000, MyCar0001, MyCar0002, etc. Click Start A progress screen will pop up and show you the size of the new files. The new pictures can now be uploaded to the forum.
It would be more convenient if the upload process included a resize function so another folder (or renamed file) wasn't required to hold the resized pictures. Another board I use does it that way. I don't have any use for the resized images other than download for mmb.maverick.to. Not looking to make a lot of work for you -- just suggesting it in case its an easy function to add.
Here's a tip I learned a long time ago to save Bandwidth and to be nice to the guy on dialup. If you click on the Settings button and change the “Quality Settings” (AKA Compression Ratio) from 90 to 63 the output file size will be about 4 times smaller and load 4 times faster. The picture will still look good enough on a computer monitor. Lets say a 1024x768 image is 490KB at 90% C/R. The same image at 63% will be 121KB.
