People often ask for a good freeware application for resizing images to post on the forum. A recent comment in the Payware forum gave me the idea of a comparison between a few freeware & commercial programs.

For the test I used a shot taken with the default V key when I first got the FSX Demo. The original is 1440 x 900 in BMP format.  I resized it to 1024 x 640 in each application & saved in JPEG format as close as I could get to the forum limit of 150 Kb. I was rather surprised by the results.

The software I used was BDSizer, GIMP, IrfanView, Paint.NET, Paint Shop Pro 7, Photo Pos Pro & Photoshop Elements 6. All but two are genuine Freeware. See if you can tell which is which.

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test1.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test2.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test3.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test4.JPG

3 more I didn't have room for.

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test5.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test6.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test7.jpg

Well they all look pretty close the same quality to me.

:) Bob

They all look quite the same, but the first looks the best to me.

Bob70 wrote on Dec 7^th, 2009 at 3:38pm:

Well they all look pretty close the same quality to me. :) Bob

I noticed subtle differences but it's difficult to tell in a post like this.


Frequent Flyer wrote on Dec 7^th, 2009 at 3:47pm:

They all look quite the same, but the first looks the best to me.

Interesting you should say that. I thought so too. It was resized & saved with GIMP. http://www.gimp.org/

This is an interesting topic, though I wouldn't expect much in the way of visible differences.

Without being able to compare them side-by-side differences are harder to spot.

Given they all started with the same source material, would it be possible to list the file size for each software product?

I would also be interested what the results would be if you used MSPaint.

Great idea!

cheers,
Joe

[edit]
What I meant to say was what was the file size of the pictures, not the software. And they are all 142-144 kb.
[/edit]

JoBee wrote on Dec 7^th, 2009 at 4:51pm:

This is an interesting topic, though I wouldn't expect much in the way of visible differences. Without being able to compare them side-by-side differences are harder to spot. Given they all started with the same source material, would it be possible to list the file size for each software product? I would also be interested what the results would be if you used MSPaint. Great idea! cheers, Joe

Thanks Joe. I might as well name the software in the order they were posted. No point in keeping it secret.

1. GIMP
2. Photoshop Elements 6
3. Photo Pos Pro
4. BDSizer
5. PSP 7
6. Paint.NET
7. IrfanView

All except 2 & 5 are fully functional freeware (not trial versions). BDSizer was developed specifically for resizing images. The others are graphics editors with advanced features like Layers. All have a feature allowing you to set the required file size when saving in JPEG format. (You need a plugin to do this in Irfanview.)

I've never been able to understand MS Paint. It took me a while to figure out how to resize an image. There's no way of setting the amount of compression when saving so it's unsuitable for this job. This came out at 96.1 Kb.
http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test_paint.JPG


Quote:

[edit] What I meant to say was what was the file size of the pictures, not the software. And they are all 142-144 kb. [/edit]

They actually vary between 141 & 147 Kb.

PS. Here's three more I forgot. There's plenty of quality Freeware applications around for anyone who cares to look.

PhotoFiltre
PhotoScape
Magix Xtreme Photo Designer 6

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test-PF.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test_Pscape.jpg

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/da-Test_XPD6.jpg

you CAN resize an image without loosing any of the material IN the picture..

OPEN MSpaint, either paste, or open the picture you want to resize.

Next to the SELECT box, you will see Crop, Resize, Rotate.  Click Resize, and then put the bullet on PIXELS. in the top box set it to 1024 (forum limits).  This will resize your photo to the width allowed, and you will NOT crop out the picture, it will either get bigger or smaller.   **CAUTION** if you go too big, the resolution will go down and become crap and you will have to start over.  If you go too small... same thing.

when going from a .bmp to a .jpg the compression in MSPaint is HORRIBLE however. So for all the programs that I have tried... Paint.net, Photoshop 7, Irfanview, Gimp, MSPaint.... I would suggest Irfanview, Paint.net and GIMP in that order.

Thanks allot!!! If it weren't for you posting this I would never have been able to post pictures here because I would never have known about BD sizer 8-) :).

hyperpep111 wrote on Aug 1^st, 2011 at 11:33pm:

Thanks allot!!! If it weren't for you posting this I would never have been able to post pictures here because I would never have known about BD sizer 8-) :).

I'd forgotten all about this. Glad it helped.  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

It's not easy to find but I posted a proper walk-through on using BD Sizer here --> http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1269110775