how to resize in batches.. without losing quality?

[truflip]

*sigh* I just spent over an hour resizing photos in Photoshop so I can show my friend the pics. I did NOT want to send full size images that total over 2GB so I resized them to 1024x .

After 1 hour of doing manual resizing in photoshop I realized theres an "Action" function.. so I did that but it still took a while though it cut the time by half.. not too bad.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4936/toomuch8pr.th.jpg (http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=toomuch8pr.jpg)

Now I found this thing called ImageResizer from Microsoft PowerToys. Its QUICK, or FAST and It takes only a few clicks.. basically highlight the pics, right click, click resize, select size and click ok, 2 minutes later its DONE.. ALL 500 pictures.. yes 2 minutes. compare that to photoshop that took me nearly 2 hours..

can you tell the difference between these two pictures?
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/4971/img22779gp.th.jpg (http://img160.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img22779gp.jpg) VS. http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/4546/img22776kr.th.jpg (http://img160.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img22776kr.jpg) how bout http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/9610/img22867fb.th.jpg (http://img160.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img22867fb.jpg) VS. http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4601/img22861tg.th.jpg (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img22861tg.jpg)

Can you guys tell the difference? I want to show them pictures quick and easy so if they want something in full size original copy then thats when I send them the full sized image for prints or whatever. Thing is I dont wanna show some low quality pixely pictures and they would think my camera takes crappy pics =(

For 150 pictures the total file size if I do it in photoshop is about 100mb if i do it in the cheapo windows built in image resizer, as low as 45mb. photoshop way takes 20x longer than windows way.. the quality difference, very minimal. Im looking for a good balance in quality and size and time it takes to process.

If you know of a better way to do this, PLEASE help me... =(

[XaiLo]

Let's see in the first set the second one is photoshop and in the second set the first one is photoshop:confused:

[David Metsky]

In PhotoShop you can record the resize action and then perform them in batch mode over entire directory trees. That will also take 2 minutes and three mouse clicks.

-dave-

[wall]

I highly recommend IrfanView, a program that can do just about anything with images including batch resizes/conversions/renames. It is quick, simple, and best of all free. Check it out: http://www.irfanview.com/ I believe it also has several settings you can adjust for quality.

If it's only intended for showing on the web, this method quite satisfactory. The only way I would resize pictures in Photoshop is if it's for printing. Of course, resizing won't be all that I would be doing in that case...:D

BTW, the first pictures in both sets are done in photoshop (am I right? fewer compression artifacts in those it seems).

[truflip]

XaiLo - You're right =P I bet you just looked at the file sizes.. or maybe not :p

David Metsky - I will certainly look on google how to do what you mentioned. I got the action recorded but I had to click on each picture 1 by 1 and click play then the other pic, n play n so on.. but the batch way would be MUCH easier

wall - I went to the website, doesnt mention resizing pics.. so i downloaded it. cant figure out how to batch resize pics.. u sure it can do batch resize? and your answer is wrong =P refer to XaiLo's answer.

[David Metsky]

David Metsky - I will certainly look on google how to do what you mentioned. I got the action recorded but I had to click on each picture 1 by 1 and click play then the other pic, n play n so on.. but the batch way would be MUCH easier
Under the File menu, select Automate->Batch
Select your action, the source folder, and hit OK.

I use it mainly to put my copyright notice on photos that I've edited and intend to put on the web. Make sure your action includes writing out the file. I usually make a copy of the files to ensure that I have an original in case anything goes wrong, but nothing has so far.

-dave-

[wutske]

There are lots of programs that can do this for you.
Like FastStone Photo Resizer, Easy Thumbnails, irfanview, ...
The first 2 allow several resizeing algoritms, so you can controll the quality a bit.

[gstafleu]

Don't forget XnView (free). I just had a quick look at its batch options, and it has a whole list of things it can do in batch, starting at "Convert to True colors" via "Gaussian Blur" to "Wave", plus 40 or so others!

[truflip]

Yea i jsut want something that can convert 500 images at once to 1024x768, retains image quality and compresses the size down from 3mb to 300kb more or less.. nothing fancy

I will look at those softwares when I get home but I like mr. Metsky's idea =D thanks sir