Batch resizing photos

In my first hub I explained how to get unlimited storage at Picasa Web Albums. And for that to work we need to resize our photos. Almost any picture viewer or editor has a resize option. It really isn't that difficult to resize an image, but the problem arises when we want to resize a hundred, or a few thousands images. It would be tantalizing to open each image, then find the resize option, then enter new dimensions, etc. Such situations are excellent for a batch job.

Let's first see what a batch is in computer terminology, according to guys at searchdatacenter:

And a little more about it:

Now, let's get down to image resizing.

For this how-to I used a great freeware program Faststone Image Viewer (you can grab it here or here). The good thing is that you need to do these steps just once. The program will remember them, so you will not have to repeat the whole procedure the next time you want to batch resize your images.

Here are the steps:

1. Pick a folder with as many photos in it as you like.

2. If you need to, rename the folder according to your preferences. (This is needed for step 10)

3. Open the folder and open any image with Faststone Image Viewer.

4. When the program loads, click on Tools-->Open Batch Covert/Rename Dialogue.

5. A dialogue window will open and all the images from the folder should appear on the lefts side of the window. Now clik Add all button and all of the images will appear on the input list.

6. If you want the new, resized files to be in the same folder, uncheck the ‘Output folder’ option which is just below the Input list. If you want your new files somewhere else, leave the option checked, click ‘Browse’ button and select whichever folder you like.

7. Now, check the ‘Use Advanced Options (Resize...)’ option and click ‘Advanced Options’ button.

8. Select ‘Resize’ tab and select everything as on the image:

9. Click OK button to exit the Advanced Options dialogue window.

10. If you want to rename you files, check 'Rename' option, then click on the field next to it and choose one of the patterns that suits you best. You can also enter your own pattern. For a quick reference to patterns, click '?' button. I entered my own pattern: "$P ##" which means that all the images inside the folder will get the following names: FolderName 01.jpg, FolderName 02.jpg and so on. If you, for example' named your folder 'Batch How-to', your first image will be named 'Batch How-to 01.jpg', the next one 'Batch How-to 01.jpg' and so on.

11. Now we want to choose quality for our new images. Click on the 'Settings' button

12 In this step select the option as in the image bellow if you want the best quality for your new photos. You can also play with the settings and choose the ones that suit you best.

13. Click 'Convert' button and wait for the batch process to finish.

14 Close the 'Image convert' window, exit the program and you're done.

So, as you could see, batch image resizing is a great helper and that initially requires 14 easy steps that enyone can follow. The good thing is, as I have already mentioned, you only need to go through the procedure once.