Imgares allows you to shrink/rotate batch of photos in a few clicks. You can also add text, change images format and create slideshows. The application can read and create all the popular image formats, like jpeg, gif, png, tif, bmp and ico files.
This can't be easier:
1. Drag&drop photos from any folder to the left window (alternatively, you use "Add Files" or "Add folder" buttons).
2. Change the size (for example to 20%)
3. Press "Start" button.
That's all - the images will be modified. When the process is over, you will see a window with a list of result images, and a few options. First of all - you can drag&drop the photos from the result window to anywhere you want - for example, if you want to send them via e-mail, open your e-mail client (like Outlook, The Bat etc) then drag&drop the images the "New message" window.
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By default the original images are resized, if you'd like to create rather a copy of those files, specify the "output folder" in the main application's window.
The best option is to use the percentage values. In case you want to specify width or height - note that if you specify only one of those values (e.g. width) the second one will be calculated for each image to keep the sizes proportional. But if you specify both values (width and height) it may happen that the result images will not be proportional.
General information: In Imgares you can apply multiple effects at once, this is actually all Imgares is about. So, to create a movie slideshow, with added background and text - do all of these things and press "Start".
By using "Background" task - you can put all the images on a background of specified color. Examples are at the end of this document.
By using "Text" task, you can add text to images. The text you insert here will be applied to all the images, however, you can use insert "tokens" (dynamic variables) to the text template, they'll be replaced with their corresponding values. For example "%fTitle%" will be replaced with the file title. That is, if file's name is "Me and my boat.jpg", and the text you enter is: "Holiday 2006 - %fTitle%" then the full text will evaluate to : "Holiday 2006 - Me and my boat" (%fTitle% will be replaced with file title before putting the text on the image). "%Note%" token will be replaced with text you added to individual images (by clicking them and choosing "Edit note").
"Colors" task allows you to change light and contrast as well as the levels of red, green, blue colors. Trick: to create a "sepia effect", click "grey scale" checkbox, and then increase the "red" level to about 150%, and "green" level to about 125%
"Create slideshow" enables you to create .avi movies from your photos.
Remarks (creating slideshows):
- the better quality the bigger file will be created
- adding "transition effects" will also increase file size
- you can mix "transition effects", that is, select more than one, e.g. "Lighten, zoom in, enter from left" will make the picture coming from left, in the same time it will be becoming more "visible" and bigger.
- some effects are contradictory, like "zoom in" and "zoom out"
- if you want your photos in the movie to have a background or other effects applied, simply use the other tasks like e.g "background"
The list (located on the left) keeps the collection of files which will be processed. You can add files and folder by using the "add files" or "add folder" button, or you can simply drag&drop files or folder from any folder (e.g. you digital camera's images directory) to the list.
To remove file or files, first select them and hit "Delete" or use context menu (right mouse button).
If you want to add notes to images, which then can be printed, right-click and select "Edit note". Then use %Note% token in the "Text" task (see above at "Text" task).
To rotate image(s) you can select one or more files and click "rotate left" or "rotate right". But, you can also press mouse middle button, move it (like you do when you drag&drop) slightly to the direction you want to rotate it. All the selected images will be processed.
In case you don't like the effect, use Ctrl+Z to undo it, rather that rotating it again. You can undo most of the operations in Imgares.
You can copy the image files (Ctrl+C) in Windows Explorer and then paste (Ctrl+V) them to the image list (which will add the images to the list, just like "Add files" or "Add folder" or drag&drop do).
To see the result of your changes, click the "refresh" link just above the preview image. Imgares can't do this automatically (every time you change something) because in most cases this takes too much time to generate a preview. And, in the preview window itself, you can left-click to get a larger view.
Anytime you can press Ctrl+Z to undo last operation (batch processing, rotating etc).
You can drag&drop image files to the Imgares application. For example you can create a link to imgares.exe on your desktop and then drop image files on it to convert them.
There are two types of image file compression algorithms: lossy and lossless. Lossless compression algorithms reduce file size with no loss in image quality, although compression effects are generally weak. Lossy compression on the other hand, allows to significantly reduce image size, but in most cases its quality is reduced as well.
The most popular lossy compression algorithm is jpeg (jpg). Most probably used by your digital camera. The TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a flexible image format, it can actually hold a variety of other (moslty lossless) formats. All the other formats understood by Imgares are lossless formats, except for GIF, which is limited to 256 colors (whereas the rest of formats can store up to 16 million colors). All formats (except for BMP) uses some compression methods.
Generally, if you have photos in jpeg format - there is no reason to change that - converting them to e.g. png or tiff will not increase image quality - since it is already lost.
If, on the other hand, you have your images in one of the no-compression formats (uncompressed tiff, bmp) it is reasonable to convert them to png or jpeg if you're going to send them via the internet.
Additionally - the rule of thumb is - use gif/png to for line drawings, black and white images, and jpeg for photos.
 Original |
 Resized to 30% (aspect ratio preserved) |
 Width set to a constant: 200px, height calculated to keep the ratio. |
 Width and height explicitly set to some values, since the image had a different width/height ratio, in the result the image has wrong proportions. |
 Added white background with frames around the image and the background itself. |
 Added text. |
 Added background and text. |
 Another background & text. |