Image Optimisation Tutorial
Part Two - Using 'JPEG Resizer'

Optimising (compressing) images in 'JPEG Resizer' is a 4 step process that can be completed quickly and easily. The following part of the tutorial walks through each step in detail.

Step 1 - Select image files

This first screen that will appear once the software has loaded can be seen below.

We first have to select the files that we wish to resize. Click the 'Add File(s)' button. A dialog box will appear allowing you to search your computer for '.jpg' (JPEG) files.

To do batch processing of JPEG files you can select the 'Add Folder' button. A dialog box will then appear allowing you to search your computer, and select a folder containing '.jpg' files.

Once you are happy you have selected the files/folders you wish to resize you can go to step 2, 'size'.

Step 2 - Size of images

Click the size icon on the left hand side. This will bring up a list of options that relate to the dimensional size of the JPEG. Within this set of options there are powerful tools that allow you to shrink (or increase) the dimensional size of your jpeg. You can leave the 'radio' icon on the default 'Smart JPEG resizing'. In the 'Make largest side fit this amount of pixels' text box type the number in '512' (see red highlight in image below).

We can leave all other options alone at this point and move to step 3 - we have no need to use them within this tutorial.

Step 3 - Selecting where your new files will be stored on your computer

Next select the 'output' icon.

The first job is to select where we want our new files to be stored on the computer. We do this by clicking the browse button next to output directory. A familiar dialog box will appear allowing you to select from your computer a folder of where to store your resized files. For this tutorial we will put all our resized JPEG images in the 'My Pictures' folder.

If you want to specify a folder that doesn't exist, select the folder you wish your new folder to be created in from the 'Browse for folder' dialog box, click 'OK', then append the new folder name in the 'Output Directory' text box. The folder will automatically be created in step 4 (see image below). NB. Don't forget to type the '\' character before your new folder name.

Now we move on to the important option of the image compression factor. In the 'JPEG Compression' option area make sure the checkbox is ticked next to 'Change JPEG Compression Factor'. You will see you can move the slider to vary the proposed compression factor. This option will affect your resized JPEG's byte size, i.e.the higher the value the smaller the resulting file. For the purposes of this tutorial move the slider to value '33' on the compression factor scale.

We are now ready to go to step 4 'resize'.

Step 4 - Optimising your selected images

Click resize and a helpful 'log' screen will appear detailing information about the resizing process of your images files. once the log entry appears saying something like 'Successfully resized...' then the program has finished carrying out the operations requested.

If you encounter any error messages during the resizing process make sure you go back and scrutinise all the program options thoroughly. This is easily accomplished by clicking on the previous step's icons.

You can now view your resized images in the location you specfied in step 3.

And finally...

Open the new optimised file to make sure it looks ok and there has not been any visual corruption during the resize process. Looks ok? Compare the two images visually side-by-side on the screen you should notice there is minimal loss in visual quality between the two images.

Now for the purposes of this tutorial go back and compare the new file's byte size and dimensions against the original file. For Windows' users in order to compare these differences, first locate the original file and right click the file's icon and then select 'Properties' from the drop down list of options. A screen should appear like in the image below.

The information we are interested in here is the 'Size'. Leave this information box on the screen and repeat the same process to display the image information for your new optimised file. On comparison you should see a vast difference in byte size between the two files.

To find out the dimensional differences between the two files click the 'Summary' tab on each of the files 'Properties' box and then click the 'Advanced' button. On this screen compare the 'width' and 'height' attributes. The new file's width or height should read '512' which was set in step 2. The 'width' and 'height' attributes are given in pixels.

That concludes this tutorial. Hopefully you now feel confident about using 'JPEG Resizer' for preparing optimised images ready for uploading to your gallery space.