Nowadays, it's almost common that everybody owns a digital camera, so you can take loads and loads of pictures everywhere you go or even if you stay at home with your family and friends. But it's also common that all good things come at a price or with "inconveniencies". When it comes to digital cameras, if you want to share your pictures on the Internet, you have to take into consideration the large size of the images. You wouldn't want your connection or applications that access the Internet to be slowed down by oversized images and, luckily, you don't have to.

The vast majority of graphic viewers come together with at least some editing options - be it the common red-eye removal or adding watermark - there must be something you can do with your photos. Today's topic is an easy to use piece of software named Resize Pictures Plus, developed by Angel Software. Just by reading the name of this utility you might be tricked into believing that it only does picture resizing, but trust me, it's more than that.

Resize Pictures Plus comes with a relatively small installation kit, 1.84 MB. By simply following the instructions, you shouldn't have any problem installing it. From the very beginning, it's worth mentioning that this application supports processing your graphic files in batches, meaning that you can apply the same pattern to multiple images, without the need of manually opening each of them. This can be a huge advantage for those who have to process a large number of files, as it significantly reduces the time needed for the actions to be performed.

Resize Pictures Plus presents its users a clean and highly intuitive interface, making it extremely easy to use even for those with little to no experience in working with computers.

Let's have a closer look at the features supported by this utility. Since it is a graphic-oriented utility, the first thing you need to do is, obviously, input the image files. To complete this action, you can either drag & drop the pictures from Windows Explorer or select the File List button and click Open Files to add the images to the processing queue. Resize Pictures Plus supports the vast majority of graphic file formats, so you shouldn't worry too much about it not being suitable for your needs, unless you use an exotic and proprietary graphic format. For each file loaded, Resize Pictures Plus displays the format, dimension in pixels, number of colors, size and DPI (dots per inch). Another interesting feature is that when the mouse cursor is placed over a file, you instantly get a thumbnail preview so that you know the exact image file you are about to process. The application also displays the number of loaded files in the top-right corner.

Supposing that you have decided upon the pictures you want to process, we move along further to find the Output button, which hosts some of the useful features included in Resize Pictures Plus. If you want to resize your pictures, you can either select one of the predefined values or set the one that best suits your needs by typing the width and height of the output file.

Another useful feature of Resize Pictures Plus is that it allows you to rename your photo collection. Renaming is done by choosing a base name followed by sequential numbers and/or other parameters, such as date or time. A nice improvement of the software might have been adding a second renaming pattern, for example keeping the original filename but adding a prefix.

One of the many disadvantages when posting your image collection on the Internet is that it can be easily downloaded by others who wish to take all the credit. Resize Pictures Plus also comes with a solution to this problem, namely that it enables photo watermarking. By simply placing a distinctive mark on your graphic files, everyone would know they're yours. When working with this particular software, you can choose between a text and logo watermark. Although it's not a dedicated photo-watermarking utility, therefore it doesn't support a wide variety of adjustments, you can still customize the stamping according to your needs and preferences. On the right side of this window, you will find some miscellaneous options you can set to ensure the results will look really professional. You can preview the results for a better management of the entire process any time

Our next stop is the Editor tab, which includes a toolbar from where you can launch basic editing actions such as cut, rotate, flip and zoom. Last but not least is the Options tab, where, besides standard settings, including launching the application at Windows startup, you have the possibility to save the current settings as a profile that you can load afterwards.

The Good

Resize Picture Plus is very low on resources and does its job pretty well. The fact that it includes three applications in one single package can only come as a plus, as it saves you the trouble of looking for other software to complete your tasks. As I've said before, the fact that it supports batch file processing saves you a lot of time, especially if you have to do photo renaming, resizing or watermarking on a daily basis. Last but not least, the Help file is very comprehensive and well-organized.

The Bad

Resize Picture Plus seriously lacks advanced features hosted by other graphics oriented applications. Perhaps a good idea for future updates of this software would be the addition of image conversion, cropping, compression and, why not, portability. Otherwise, the 19.95$ you have to pay for the unregistered version is a little too much.

The Truth

Although Resize Picture Plus is not suitable for advanced users, I think it definitely has potential. So, my advice is to take advantage of the five-day trial period and give it a shot. You might just like it!

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: