Help with resizing (not cropping) Photos please!

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.

Select the pics in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. In the resulting you have a number of options, including the opportunity to change the file size (Jpeg Quality)

Regards

TD

I went on the assumption that the OP was referring to File Size and not photo dimensions because s/he referred to uploading to a site with a 2MB limit.

Of course, this is not the only option available in the Export dialogue. Yes you can change the dimensions in the export dialogue as well you don't have to go to Graphic Coverter or an external editor to do it.

I think the general theory about not offering the option to reduce file size inside iPhoto is that it would be a waste of disk space to have a reduced quality version of the same photo. Better to make that reduced version on a case by case basis. And if you want to keep the reduced quality version then you can export and re-import. Though the obvious thing to do if you're not sending the original file to MobileMe is to simply use the Optimised setting on the MobileMe uploading dialogue in iPhoto.

Regards

TD

Hi Glenn: Hopefully TD doesn't mind if I leap in here. From within iPhoto, using the export function, the options for resizing are quite extensive. Dimensions (Height, Width) can be changed to preset values or to any custom size. File compression can also be changed to several preset values.

Hopefully this will help the OP
Stedman

Thanks stedman1 (I use to live on Stedman St.).

I just wish this were an option from WITHIN iPhoto so you didn't have to export the image just to resize it.

Larry, I was not suggesting the original should be modified when a photo is resized. This modification could be saved right along with all the other modifications that iPhoto is capable of performing - in a modified COPY of the photo.

I can think of one reason why you would want to resize a photo without having to export it. I want to take a 12MP image in my library and add it to one of my MobileMe galleries. But the monster size prohibits using the original size for the gallery. If we could edit the size WITHIN iPhoto, and then drag it right to the gallery album, this would eliminate the need to have to export it out to a photo editing application, then back into iPhoto just to add it to an online gallery.

I wonder, Terence, if the poster meant actually "size" (height and width) of the photo as opposed to 'file' size. If I'm not mistaken you can't actually resize photos in iPhoto. You need to export the photo and edit the size in a photo editing application (I use GraphicConverter myself), then re-import it back into iPhoto. Am I correct?

Why? Resizing has no use "within iPhoto" - only when exporting photos for use outside of iPhoto

One of the key features and benefits of iPhoto is that your original photo is always preserved and you have non destructive editing - This plus common photo management procedures require having the unmodified original photo - the digital negative - always available

LN

I need to change images to a preset size ( for example 2.5 inch width) to fit the pre-configured space assigned to them on a web site. Do I have to export in order to resize so that I can then input into our database? Seems pretty bizarre to have to go through all that when Photostudio would do it so easily. Surely there is an easier way to do a simple resize.

I need to change images to a preset size ( for example 2.5 inch width) to fit the pre-configured space assigned to them on a web site.

inches have no meaning to digital photos - they are measured in pixels not inches - if you want a photo to display 2.5 inched wide on a standard 72dpi display then it should be 180 pixels wide (72x2.5)

Do I have to export in order to resize so that I can then input into our database?

Yes

LN

My question about resizing concerns exports using the JPEG Quality=Maximum: I have an image file of certain pixels dimensions and 461KB file size. When I export it at maximum quality (with no change in pixels dimensions), it becomes 1.3MB, and it remains 1.3MB when I drag it back into iPhoto. I would appreciate knowing what precisely I have gained -- I mean, where has that increase in file size come from? and what are the applications in which I could find that gain useful? My sense is that in going from 461KB to 1.3MB, "something" has been created out of "nothing."

Thank you for your prompt reply. A bit of follow-up, with thanks in advance for your attention to the details.

I am aware of an analogy to a knitted blanket that been stretched out -- the holes that one can imagine forming between the knitted strands (as the blanket is stretched) are filled by interpolating the nearby colors. Is that what this stretching of 461KB to 1.3MB is? The analogy continues through the idea of creating a larger file that can print the image on a larger paper with less fuzziness than the smaller image file would yield (should it suit you I can provide a reference for this analogy). Is that the purpose of the iPhoto export choice of JPEG Quality=Maximum? My work right now involves uploading images (with file sizes that I know are ok) to a website and using reduced file sizes to create thumbnail images suitable for emailing; I'm not interested right now in prints of images. Do you think I'm correct in concluding that I don't need the maximum export quality for these purposes?

Also, if that "maximum quality" (in the iPhoto export sense of the phrase) means stretching the data, is the only real gain in "quality" the better print one could make (see above)?

I am aware of an analogy to a knitted blanket that been stretched out -- the holes that one can imagine forming between the knitted strands (as the blanket is stretched) are filled by interpolating the nearby colors. Is that what this stretching of 461KB to 1.3MB is?

I would use a different analogy.

Think of that knitted blanket folded (compressed) down to 2 x 2. Now unfold it some, so that it's 4 x 4. Same blanket. Same number of threads, same weight etc etc, just not folded as tightly.

Do you think I'm correct in concluding that I don't need the maximum export quality for these purposes?

Yes.

is the only real gain in "quality" the better print one could make (see above)?

It really makes little difference.

Regards

TD

You've gained nothing. A lower level of compression has been used, that's all. Think of it this way: your 461kb of data is now stretched over 1.3 MB.

Regards

TD

Again, thanks, especially for the new analogy.