Using Fotosizer

This short video will show you how to use Fotosizer to re-size your pictures to make them more suitable for uploading to the Internet. Download Fotosizer Here

Settings for Fotosizer:

Resize setting:
Select – Side
Choose: Longest Side
Preset Size – 800px
Check – “Do not enlarge if smaller”
Check – “Maintain aspect ratio”

Effects:
(Don’t Check Anything)

Rotation:
(Don’t Check Anything)

Miscellaneous settings:
Quality: Change Quality to – 85%
Check “Change DPI to 96″
Check – PNG Optimization – Apply optimization to png images
Keep original file creation date

Destination settings:
Destination folder – “Save to folder”  –  ”Same as original”
Output Format – JPEG (JPG)
Filename – Custom
Filename mask – %F_%Wx%H (this gives your new picture a different name with the new dimensions)

Fotosizer is one of the best free tools for this and if you try it and use it a lot I highly recommend that you send the developer a donation for his time. He has put a lot of work into this and does a good job of keeping it updated. You can find a link for that on our website or go to Fotosizer.com (remember Foto is spelled with an “F” instead of a Ph). And by the way we don’t get any money for recommended this.

Fotosizer is really easy to use especially after you set it up once and that is what I am mainly going to go over here.

After you start Fotosizer go to the first dropdown section where you can choose to keep the settings as the same as last time or you can save your settings so that you have more than one set of settings to choose from.

Open the resize settings and for our clients we suggest selecting “SideLongest side and entering 800 and make sure this box says px for pixels. Then select “Do Not Enlarge if Smaller”. This will insure that all of your images are no taller or wider than 800 pixels. The only time you might need something bigger is if you wanted to use an image for a banner that fills the screen. If an image is smaller than 800×800 you never want to enlarge it as it will looks very grainy and blurry.

Skip “Effects” and “Rotation”. You don’t need these for simply optimizing images for your website.

Under the “Miscellaneous” section I would suggest selecting to Change the Quality to 85%, Check the Print Resolution just to make sure it stays at 96 dpi, Choose PNG Optimization and leave “Keep original file creation date”.

Open the Destination Settings and choose “Save to Folder”, Under the dropdown select “same as the original” (this prevents you from having to go hunt for your new pictures), Output Format change to JPEG. For Filename select custom and under ”Filemask” choose %F_%Wx%H. While you are here go ahead and put a check mark in “Force lower-case file extensions”. Some devices will make the extensions capital letters which may cause a problem with some programs.

So what you have done here is told the program to take your original images, optimize so that they are 800 pixels or smaller, give them the same name as the original except add the width and height dimensions at the end of the file name. This way you will instantly know the size of your images when you see them and you can also keep your original pictures intact to be used somewhere else such as a larger banner.

If you will go back up to the top and save your settings as something like 800x800x96 then you only have to do this once.

To resize some images open a folder with your original pictures in it. Simply drag the images over and drop them in the window. Push start and presto your images are not optimized for your site and ready to be uploaded.

To clear the pictures for the next batch just click on “Remove All”.

I hope this video helps. I know a lot of our clients have called because the selections did not match our old instructions and so they were a little confused.

As always, if you are a Caslewood client, feel free to email us or give us a call if you are still having issues with optimizing your images for your website.

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