14 DAY TRIAL // The digital era we live in is mainly based on multimedia and communication, the two becoming so intertwined that it's difficult to say where one ends and the other one begins. In order to convey a certain message or a feeling, words are often not enough, which means novelties in terms of human interaction are bound to be brought to the table. Thus, just like old postcards sent by means of regular postal services carried alongside an evocative image and a written message, nowadays, we can attach to our electronic mails much more than a single photo. In this particular area, the evolution took us so far that today it is possible to combine all known variants of communication: written, spoken and visual (video, animated or static).
Viewed as a whole, all the above-mentioned means of transmitting the message make up the notion of multimedia, something that, after all, we come across and use on a daily basis. It's not seldom that we have to set up a certain level of detail of some of these elements so as to carry the exact amount of information we have in mind. Usually, we'll be needing to trim, crop, change sizes and dimensions to make an image, a video or an audio clip fit an attachment or comply with the limits imposed by some online service. Because they are most easily done, photos constitute the majority of attachments that people send to share holiday impressions, original or funny moments, to name just a few instances.
Being perhaps the most widely spread and used media content, digital pictures are responsible for the creation of an equally large share of the dedicated software that we use to manage and edit our files. This is good in terms of choice for the end user who can opt for the perfect tool for the specific task that needs to be done. So, when it comes to working with images, the differences among the applications are small and pertain for the most part to the price and ease of use, because everyone likes a cheap utility that gets the job done fast and easy, with the best possible quality.
A small but quick and powerful piece of software that can handle photo resizing and conversion as well is Batch Image Resizer that comes with another big advantage on its side, as it is free of cost. The software barely tips the scale with the 1 MB size and, on top of that, it doesn't require installation. You can run this tool as soon as you download it, the only thing it creates being an INI file for the settings in the containing folder (making it completely portable).
Once you run this utility, you'll face a simple interface, no fancy effects, color schemes or customizable skins, just two windows and the operational buttons. In the window on the left, there is the explorer tab that will enable you to select the folder where the photos are stored, while, from the right section, you'll be able to highlight the graphic documents for processing.
If you have several image types in the source directory, Batch Image Resizer allows you to pick only the desired formats with the help of the ''Mask'' function that displays all the supported formats. And they are quite a few, eight to be more precise, and include all the common types (BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF, TIF), as well as some not so often encountered, namely PCX, TGA and PSD. Designed to ease the navigation to the picture folder, there's a button that will open in the explorer tab the ''Documents'' folder for the currently logged computer user.
As soon as you select the file(s) for resizing or converting, you can press ''Resize'' and you'll get to the window that has all the settings for re-dimensioning as well as for changing the format of the loaded digital photos. The available options for making resized copies of the images are fixed and four in number: small, medium, large and extra large. In pixels, they range from 640x480 to 1280x1024. Batch Image Resizer lets you change the original picture if you need to, and you can also opt for downsizing instead of enlarging it if the source's dimensions surpass the maximum size previously mentioned.
An interesting and quite useful addition, especially for the more experienced users, is the possibility of choosing from a dozen of graphical filters that will be used for giving new dimensions to the pics. The variety of algorithms includes bilinear, cubic or Lanczos3, to give you just a few examples. Insofar as the conversion is concerned, things are pretty straightforward, as it can be done independently of the resize function and using all eight image formats.
The actual processing runs at a high pace and the resulting files are just as good-looking as the original ones you load. The system resource usage is average and, as it would be expected from a graphical piece of software, the CPU is exploited a bit, peaking at 50% more than one time. The stress on physical memory is reduced, barely reaching 15 MB with large images.
The Good
Batch Image Resizer offers a speedy alternative to anyone who wants to quickly alter the dimensions of digital pictures or convert them to various graphical formats. The filters that can be applied to the photos are a definite plus, just as the diversity of supported file types is.
Also, another good thing is that you can use this tool without having to go through a boring installer and, if you choose not to use it anymore, there won't be any leftovers after a simple delete of the executable and INI settings file.
The Bad
There are a few minuses related to this software and the first one you'll notice is the interface that is not visually appealing as other similar applications are. Another thing that is worth noting and is more important this time is the lack of a customizable size feature that would enable the user to manually configure the output dimensions.
Even though it is easy to understand and use, the utility has no help file that could shed some light for less experienced users with regard to the twelve filters available for resizing the files.
The Truth
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
