Shrinking photos, which software?

Cuchulain · 4 Oct 2006 at 14:51

Sounds odd I know, but is photoshop really the best thing to be using to shrink photos? I'm not talking about file size, purely height and width but still retaining the best quality.

Alex53 · 4 Oct 2006 at 15:11

I find that as long as you use bicubic resample many different programs are just as good. I do have a feeling (although no real 'scientific' evidence) that the smart resize setting when you resize an image in paint shop pro is even better.

Take me with a pinch of salt though, I'm not any kind of expert.

Cuchulain · 4 Oct 2006 at 15:13

Fair enough, PSP is seriously bloated nowadays so I'll give that one a miss, perhaps 640 width is a little too small, they seemed far better quality at 800.

Alex53 · 4 Oct 2006 at 15:33

I forgot to mention I still use version 7. The last one before the bloating. Its a good lightweight programme to use for quick operations when you dont need photoshop. (Also good to use on my laptop since Photoshop slows it down too much.)

PS: If you give me a link I can resize the image for you on PSP 7 and post it to see if you prefere the result

Noodles · 4 Oct 2006 at 19:10

Alex53 said:
I forgot to mention I still use version 7. The last one before the bloating. Its a good lightweight programme to use for quick operations when you dont need photoshop. (Also good to use on my laptop since Photoshop slows it down too much.)

PS: If you give me a link I can resize the image for you on PSP 7 and post it to see if you prefere the result

I use http://www.irfanview.com which is very easy to use and gives good results. It also useful for simple contrast and brightness adjustments.