Need a few software testers
 

Hi guys,
I've thrown together a little utility that lets me compress, resize, and crop JPG files, mainly so I can upload digital photos to Pelican really quickly.

I was going for a "one click" kind of thing...it will let you enter your desired dimenstions and file size, then find the best quality setting given your specs. It's really easy to use.

I'd like to get maybe 5-10 people to play with it and let me know if they find bugs or problems with it. I've been using it for about 3 weeks and it's pretty stable. Here's a shot of it:<BR>

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1067559511.jpg
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If you want to try it out, you can get it here. There is an HTML file with it that has help. You can also start it up, press SETUP, then HELP.

Please do post a followup here so that I know you have it, and let me know how it works. I'm not charging for this - it's a hobby when my garage is too cold to be in.

And remember...it's a beta. ;)

Thanks!
Colin

Looks cool. I just downloaded but haven't tried it out. I'll let you know soon... It would be great to have a "batch mode" where you could select a group of files for compression and then save-as with an appended name...

Then again, maybe you did this already...

I'll try it out for you tonight, Colin!

Our work server doesn't allow *.exe files... :rolleyes:

That's great that you developed your own app, but what's wrong with irfanview?

Irfanview's great, but I did this:

-to optimize image quality given a desired file size (dunno if Irfanview does that or not)

-to get true one-click operation. Drag the jpeg to the app, click the button, and you're done. 10 seconds to crop, compress, resize, and post to Pelican.

-Just for the hell of it. I was done with my engine rebuild and got bored. We've all got to do something for creative outlet.

Colin

Hmmm I crashed it with a Runtime Overflow '6'. When I went to rezie with "Go" it stuck on "finding optimum quality settings...

Okay, so other than that I like it... But defintiely if you could do a Multi-select on the file list on the right to convert them all at once, instead of doing it one at a time, I'd use it ALL the time...

Thanks!

That is always an acceptable answer. :D I can't even begin to count the number of times I've "reinvented the wheel"!

oops...

Hmmmm. Were the dimensions of your original image really huge? I thought I had cured all the overflows.... I've tested with images up to 2300x1500 or so, but maybe I need to go bigger. Does it crash every time or was it just once?

About the multi-select, I had thought of doing that, but never got around to it, mainly because I like to crop each image individually before saving. But I'll revisit it when I get the chance.

Hey Bluesky, this isn't a reinvention of the wheel...you can pick the file size you want, and get the best quality level automatically. This comes in handy because you are limited to 100K with Pelican posts. You don't have to guess. Try it out...or not. :)

Thanks for the report back Chris!
Colin

It was just the one time. Ran fine after that.... Picture was 1600x1000 or something like that...

I really like the auto-file size thing... Set mine at 99k for Pelican.

Let me know if you do the multi-select thing. I asked for it because I often post 7-10 pictures at a time on pelican and it takes a long time on my slow computer to wait for each one to re-size then go to the next one.

I to like the auto-rename feature. Tres Chic!

Not problem, but suggestion. Tie the windows together. I wanted to move the app in the window, found I had to move 3. Also, I'd recommend an hour glass cursor while the app is resizing images. I couldn't tell when it was done.

This is one sharp little app though! I like it a lot.
Thanks

Hi MM, thanks for the feedback. The windows actually should move together automatically (the main form is subclassed and tied to the others).

What system are you running? Win 2000, XP, 95? Maybe the API call I used is not supported under one of the operating systems? I've tested under Win2000 and XP Home.

Thanks, and keep the comments coming!
Colin

PS Chris, there's a batch mode now if you want to download again

Thanks, but unless it runs under Wine I won't be able to try it out until I get back to work on Monday.

Colin, I'm running this from home with Win 98.

I downloaded it today, Ill play with it tonight or tomarrow.

just in case you're still checking, I've been using it for quite some time now with great results. however, tonight no matter what I do, it comes back with run-time error '13', type mismatch. any suggestions? I was contemplating an un- and re-install. but it's not on your site anymore :(

I also use this tool regularly. I think I liked the previous version better though. My screen even at 1024 res. can't fit the whole menu.

Can I test drive your car instead?

really? which version is that? I got mine from the "get it here" link above, and it fits the screen just fine

soooooo. you wouldn't happen to have a copy of the install file, would ya? :D

Tried to download it and nothing happened...

JoeA

Wow- I didn't realize anyone was still using it. I use it at home to upload photos to the web and send them over email. I'll try to dig up the install file and relink it to the first post.

Chris, I think you need 1152xWhatever resolution to fit the whole thing. I had to compromise to get a small menu and not eat into the picture's real estate.

Note that Wayne also has implemented automatic compression and resizing, so if you just want to upload to this site, you don't really need this software anymore.

THANK YOU! :D

it still is a damned handy utility to have for doing a quick compress of images for whatever purpose. I use it mostly on the fly when sending pics by email to friends who still have dial-up accounts, and when doing a bit of web development work. my favorite attribute about the app? it just plain works

p.s. if you need to have it hosted, we can work something out

Thanks for the kind words...that makes my day.

Colin,

I'm still a satisfied user as well. Thought you'd want to know.

Thanks again,
Mark

Thanks Mark.

The link in the top post should work now. It's the VERSION 2 of the program, so if you like the older one, install this one in a different directory. But this one has fewer bugs.

Colin

hmmm. looks like you could use a slightly different front end. maybe I'll just have to design one for ya... :D

ronin,
Yeah, I think the first version was actually better looking.... Oh well, some people can't stop changing the way their 911s look either. :D

I've kind of lost my fascination with programming (having a 15 month old son will do that to you) so I'd be glad to drop the VB6 source code to anyone who wants to tweak it. It's probably incredibly difficult to read and needs a bunch of optimizing. But hey, it's free.

PS - it's actually just a graphical shell that uses the Imagemagik freeware JPG processing library. It just handles display and sizing, and sends the actual transforms to a command line.

still not bad. and since it's in VB6, it wouldn't take much for me to whip something up in vb.net. I'm hellaciously busy these days, but I think it would make an interesting spring project. maybe even add a few enhancements or something