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Image Batch Resizer

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4.78/5 (62 votes)
26 Sep 20042 min read 283.7K   4.7K   138   64
A simple utility to quickly resize images

Introduction

I came back from my holidays, with tons of photos taken with my new digital camera. Normally, I prefer to take pictures using the best quality and resolution, and this - of course - implies having bigger files to manage.

Often, at a good resolution, a single photo in JPG format takes more than 1 Mb, and this is not so comfortable if you want to send your pictures to your friends via email, or to put them on a web site. You have to reduce the quality of your pictures, resampling them at a lower resolution.

I had this need of resizing pictures and - even if the world is full of image processing software capable of doing that - I decided to write my little piece of code to do it in VB.NET.

How the utility works

The utility I wrote is very simple: given an "input" folder, it looks for JPG pictures in that folder and - one by one - it takes them, reduces their sizes by a specified factor, and save them in a given "output" folder.

Image Batch Resizer user interface

In the "normal mode", when you press the "GO" button, the input folder is scanned, each single picture found is shown in the preview box and you are asked about the conversion of that specific picture. Under the preview box you can find the filename and the size of the image (size on disk, dimensions X and Y, aspect ratio).

The conversion can be done also in "batch mode" (that is: without human intervention, converting all the pictures found in the input folder) if you check the "Batch processing" checkbox before pressing the "GO" button. To stop the batch processing while running, just uncheck the option to revert to "normal mode".

Something about the code

The core reducing functionality is inside the Reduce() subroutine, specifically in this line of code:

VB.NET
img = New Bitmap(img, New Size(img.Size.Width * factor, 
  img.Size.Height * factor))

Notice that the reducing factor is applied to both picture dimensions (to preserve the aspect ratio); so, if the original picture's size is [x,y] and the reducing factor is F, the resulting image is sized [x*F,y*F] (hence its area is reduced by F*F).

It's easy to modify this formula to obtain different resizing behaviors. For example, if the set of the original pictures is not homogeneous in the sizes, you could want to reduce them not by a fixed factor, but to a specified size (regardless the original size).

The Reduce() subroutine also contains some lines of code used to compute the file size of the resulting JPG picture. This computation is simply done looking at the size of a MemoryStream on which the image is saved in JPG format:

VB.NET
Dim SizeKb As String
Dim ms As New MemoryStream()
img.Save(ms, Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
SizeKb = (ms.Length \ 1024).ToString() & "Kb "

A last thing to notice in the Image Batch Resizer utility is the persistence of the configuration settings between working sessions, accomplished by the use of the ConfigOpt class (described in a previous article of mine).

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here


Written By
Technical Lead
Italy Italy
I was born in 1970.

My first computer experience dates back to early 80s, with a Sinclair ZX81.
From that time on, as many "friends" say, my IT-illness has increased year by year.

I graduated in Electronic Engineering and earned the following Microsoft certifications:
MCP, MCT, MCDBA, MCSD, MCAD, MCSD for .NET (early achiever).

I worked in IT as a developer, a teacher, a consultant, a technical writer, a technical leader.
IT knowledge applied to real life is my primary interest and focus.

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
Member 1022520316-Sep-13 2:31
professionalMember 1022520316-Sep-13 2:31 
Questionsuperb Pin
george nepolian4-Mar-12 23:35
george nepolian4-Mar-12 23:35 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
Manoj Kumar Choubey21-Feb-12 22:06
professionalManoj Kumar Choubey21-Feb-12 22:06 
GeneralReally useful! Pin
Al-Benj7-Dec-11 5:56
Al-Benj7-Dec-11 5:56 
GeneralExcellent..! Pin
jdpatel02323-Nov-11 20:51
jdpatel02323-Nov-11 20:51 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
ankitj3120-Jul-11 5:08
ankitj3120-Jul-11 5:08 
GeneralThank you! Pin
AKB6-Mar-11 11:45
AKB6-Mar-11 11:45 
QuestionRecurse sub-directories? Pin
robbie19731-Aug-10 0:54
robbie19731-Aug-10 0:54 
AnswerRe: Recurse sub-directories? Pin
Alberto Venditti3-Aug-10 5:34
Alberto Venditti3-Aug-10 5:34 
GeneralRe: Recurse sub-directories? Pin
robbie19733-Aug-14 2:50
robbie19733-Aug-14 2:50 
GeneralThanks Pin
hardikdarji19-Feb-10 3:24
hardikdarji19-Feb-10 3:24 
GeneralNeed Documentation Pin
Abdul Zamrood11-Jan-10 9:20
Abdul Zamrood11-Jan-10 9:20 
GeneralRe: Need Documentation Pin
Alberto Venditti11-Jan-10 20:48
Alberto Venditti11-Jan-10 20:48 
GeneralRe: Need Documentation Pin
Abdul Zamrood11-Jan-10 22:17
Abdul Zamrood11-Jan-10 22:17 
Generalproportions Pin
mardav11130-Jun-09 5:59
mardav11130-Jun-09 5:59 
GeneralRe: proportions Pin
Alberto Venditti30-Jun-09 22:26
Alberto Venditti30-Jun-09 22:26 
Hi.

In order to set a specific height for resulting images (while mantaining the original aspect ratio), you basically have to modify the Reduce() subroutine.

Currently, this procedure receives a reducing factor and applies it to Height/Width of output images:

img = New Bitmap(img, New Size(img.Size.Width * factor, img.Size.Height * factor))

If you could supply a fixed "height" instead of a "factor", you could write:

img = New Bitmap(img, New Size(img.Size.Width * (height / img.Size.Height), height))

(that is: your reducing factor is now the ratio between the target haight and the original height)

So, if you want to minimize the modification to the code, you could:
- consider the "factor" variable and the txtRedFactor textbox actually as the image target height;
- rename the label for the txtRedFactor so that the user understand it *is* the image target height
- change this line:
img = New Bitmap(img, New Size(img.Size.Width * factor, img.Size.Height * factor))
in:
img = New Bitmap(img, New Size(img.Size.Width * (factor / img.Size.Height), factor))

Hope this helps (and this works, because I did't try it directly... Smile | :) ).

Cheers, AV
GeneralRe: proportions Pin
mardav1111-Jul-09 9:04
mardav1111-Jul-09 9:04 
GeneralRe: proportions Pin
Alberto Venditti1-Jul-09 22:04
Alberto Venditti1-Jul-09 22:04 
Generalout of memory Pin
sisprog28-Apr-09 11:05
sisprog28-Apr-09 11:05 
GeneralRe: out of memory Pin
Alberto Venditti28-Apr-09 23:32
Alberto Venditti28-Apr-09 23:32 
GeneralRe: out of memory Pin
sisprog29-Apr-09 2:46
sisprog29-Apr-09 2:46 
GeneralRe: out of memory Pin
Alberto Venditti29-Apr-09 21:07
Alberto Venditti29-Apr-09 21:07 
QuestionFfull?? [modified] Pin
juunas22112-Jul-08 4:59
juunas22112-Jul-08 4:59 
AnswerRe: Ffull?? Pin
Alberto Venditti2-Jul-08 5:35
Alberto Venditti2-Jul-08 5:35 
GeneralSimilar half-picture as luckydyno was having... Pin
buffbuh12-Jun-08 19:53
buffbuh12-Jun-08 19:53 

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