Many of the updates are made at the suggestions of users. If you have any ideas for improvements let me know. Check for updates using the option on the Help menu.
If you find my program useful please consider making a small contribution via PayPal.
If you have any comments, bug reports, feature requests or just to say hello -
Installation
Image Cropper is supplied as a zip file. Extract 'Setup Image Cropper' and double-
To uninstall use the Windows Add-
Requirements: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 -
A word about Embedded thumbnails and EXIF information
Most digital cameras include a thumbnail image and information about the image, called 'exif', in the jpeg files they create. From Version 3.00 onwards Jpegs saved by Image Cropper include this extra data. Some TV sets include a memory card reader for directly displaying camera images and these sets use the embedded thumbnail to provide their catalogue. They can take a long time to generate thumbnails when not included. For display on a TV it is useful to use Image Cropper to resize to 1024 x 576 (or 1920 x 1080 for HD) with a jpeg quality of around 80. This will make smaller files while the quality will still be good.
Image Cropper can also add the Author's name and a Copyright message when these are not already present.
Image Cropper by Paul Marshall
Overview
Use Image Cropper to -
- Easily maintain a specific aspect ratio
- Create anamorphic images for widescreen TV
- Resize if necessary with high quality (choice of 4 algorithms)
- Crop for printing or publishing or the web in landscape or portrait
- Batch process with you choosing where to crop
- Adjust levels and colour saturation
- Batch process automatically taking best fit to width or height, or any preset position
- Reduce the size and resolution for Digital Photo Frames
- Add a caption including filename and/or exif data, and 'watermark' text
- Add a frame and border
- Comprehensive File Renaming
- Do all this as easily as possible
- Automatically save a second image
The main purpose of this program is to make it easy to crop a batch of images to a specific aspect ratio. There's a batch mode with each picture presented to you in turn. All you have to do is decide where to crop and hit 'Save'. It is not even necessary to hit the crop button, the crop is made when you save. An important feature is that the black (or coloured) border area may be included if necessary. The Safe Area can be shown so you can make sure none of your image will be lost off the edge of a normal TV screen.
You can add a frame and captions, semi-
Resizing is carried out at high quality with a choice of algorithms. A note about
potential quality loss (or lack of it!) with Jpegs can be found here -
Applications
Screenshot Version 2.70
Image Cropper was originally designed to crop images for inclusion a in video production where they have to fit a standard 4:3 aspect ratio, or a widescreen 16:9 ratio. At that time few programs would create the anamorphic image that was needed for widescreen.
If necessary, the image can then be saved in 720 x 576 pixels (for PAL, or 720 x 480 for NTSC) so that it matches standard video. If cropped to 16:9 and saved at 4:3 this will result in an anamorphic image which will be stretched by a widescreen TV set so that it looks correctly proportioned.
Presets for several standard TV output sizes including Full HD are included for resizing if necessary. It can be useful to reduce the resolution especially when working with big mega pixel images. You can create your own presets.
Note: if your video editing program can work in 16:9 then don't save as an anamorphic. Normally there is no need to worry about the actual pixel size. The new HD formats such as 1920 x 1080 do not need anamorphic.
Original 4x3 image
Cropped to 16:9 widescreen
Anamorphic 4x3 output
Fit to the safe area and include a black or coloured border
Image Cropper is also useful in preparing photos for printing. For instance, the
common print size of 7"x5" doesn't fit the common 4:3 aspect ratio of many digital
cameras. Instead of leaving it to the photo printer to crop out the central area
you can choose which area to print, and maybe also zoom in a bit. A selection of
common sizes is included or custom sizes can be entered. No scaling need be done
and there's no need to get involved in dots per inch, just get the height and width
in the right proportion and leave the rest to the printers. Re-
Crop photos for printing in Portrait or Landscape mode.
Two ways to use a portrait photo in a video -
Point mouse to see alternative.
Add a semi-
A batch facility is included so that a large number of images can be processed quite quickly. This works by allowing multiple files to be selected which are then presented to you one by one so that all you have to do is select the area you want and click Save.
Alternatively, if you just want to crop to the best fit, width or height, then the whole batch can be processed automatically. Optionally, for landscapes the selection fits the width while for portraits a black border is included each side. You can also lock the selected crop area so that a whole batch can be processed in the same way automatically. You can open a File List to monitor the progress of the process, either manual or automatic.
Using the safe area option it is possible to add a frame with surrounding border area automatically, as in the screenshot.
View the Image Cropper Help file included with the application for more information.
A note about potential quality loss can be found here -
These usually have fairly low resolution so apart from cropping the aspect ratio, by resizing to fit the frame you can pack a lot of photos on to a small memory card. Use up those little ones that come with cameras!
Using some of these frames can be confusing. Some of the pixel ratios can be odd. Image Cropper will help you get the sizes right.
For instance, this one (from Argos) claims "Screen resolution 1440 x 234 pixels (480 RGB x 234)". Although the frame is physically 16x9 the image files need to be 4x3. ( Anamorphic, like widescreen TV). An image saved at 480x234 gives a small squashed picture. For this frame an image has to be saved at 1440x1080 to make it fill the frame properly. Unfortunately the resolution is not really this high!
With Image Cropper you can also adjust the brightness, contrast and colour saturation. There is a histogram display and a reading of RGB value at the mouse pointer. Extreme highlights and can be shown in red and low lights in blue. The preview image is lower resolution for a quick response but you can zoom in and pan around if required.
Other effects include rotation, inversion and mirror, and Black & White or Sepia tones,
See the Image Cropper Help for more information
A note about potential quality loss (or lack of it) can be found here -
Feel free to download and try this program, it is fully functioning but has an annoying nag screen at startup.
You can eliminate this and take advantage of Image Cropper's quick startup by making a small donation through PayPal. Something like $15 would be much appreciated.
Then register the program by email and I will return an unlock code. Please note, this is a manual process. I will normally respond on the same day but there may be an unforeseen delay.
- New to 3.43 21/08/2012
- Rename Files Utility now has Undo
- Bug fix to Rename Files Utility
- New to 3.42 06/08/2012
- Recent input (source image) folders stored
- ‘Browse folders’ option on file menu for easy access to recent folders
- Web site address changed to ‘DarkwoodDesigns.co.uk’
New to 3.40 11/07/2012- Can open TIFF and GIF image files (first image only in a sequence, transparency ignored)
- Bug fix in levels affecting non-
24 bit images
- New to 3.30 16/12/2011
- Improved captioning. Can include selected EXIF data as well as filename and/or user text.
- May be justified left, centre or right.
- New to 3.20 28/06/2011 This update is highly recommended.
- Bug fix -
resizing could under certain rare circumstances caused unwanted blocks - New -
Bilinear, Bicubic, Lanczos3 and Mitchell. - New -
Secondary Image can have an additional border added, sized from 0 to 8 pixels - New to 3.02 17/04/2011
- Thumbnail displayed with Exif Info
- Exif and File List window positions are retained
- Utility to update or add exif info
- Bug fix -
help not found - New to Version 3.00 22/03/2011
- EXIF information is now included in Jpeg images. Most data is preserved from the original but the thumbnail, size and orientation are updated
- An Authors' name and copyright message can be added when not already present
- Image information such as camera type and exposure details can be shown in separate window
- Images can be automatically rotated according to camera orientation data when present
- Support for languages such as Greek, Chinese, Russian, Cyrillic and other languages requiring Unicode character sets
- Menu layout revised.
- Undo / Redo (6 levels)
- Windows 7 style (in Windows 7) Note: The settings files have moved -
now found in the folder C:\Users\ User Name\AppData\Roaming\Darkwood\Image Cropper. Your old settings can be copied across if need be.
Latest Revision information
"Your software 'Image Cropper' is great software" -
Disclaimer:
This software is provided 'as is' with no guarantees of any kind. No responsibility can be
accepted for problems arising from it's use. Please read the full licensing agreement
during installation.
Automatically save a second image.
Perhaps for a thumbnail.The thumbnail could be a link to the main image. This second image can have a caption such title, date etc that is not on the main image. An optional thin line border allows a picture with a white border to stand out on a white background, such as on a web page
© Paul Marshall 2011
Some comments from users...
"... thanks a bunch for making Image cropper. I used it today to crop 100 or so photos
and it fits my needs perfectly." -
" I really appreciate your program. I hope it makes you rich and famous!" -
" Congrats on a nice tool... " -
"I think your program is fantastic. A couple of clicks and everything shrinks into
shape. Thanks so much for making it available." -
" Many thanks, and well done with such a great tool, written with the user very much
in mind." -
" Thanks for developing Cropper it is a really nice program and works well for me.
" -
" I love this program!" -
" Thanks for producing such a useful little program " -
" Your Image Cropper is absolutely great." -
"Thanks for an excellent program" -
" Your program is great! ... I’ve wanted some of these features in the past and neither
Paint Shop Pro nor Photoshop (at least the versions I had) supplied useful tools
for seeing the right aspect ration, down sampling, etc. without a LOT of work." -
"That's amazing, it does just what I want, thank you for all your work." -
"Worked like a charm! Wow! This is going to save me a lot of time" -
"...thank you for this great program which does just what I want" -
"We just LOVE the batch system" -
"... this program makes my life a lot easier and makes my DVD slideshows look better"
-
" Thank you -
" Thanks for taking time to create good utility software at a fair price" -
"...I would miss your program a lot if I couldn’t use it." -
" This program is exactly what I was looking for. Normally I use Photoshop and lightroom
to manipulate and workflow my photography, however when working on presentations
and web site I often want a quick resize or more often a fixed crop to say 100,150px
for thumbnails. Untill finding your program I have had to go into Photoshop for this
as it is the only way I have found to crop a fixed size and aspect ratio in one action,
still enabling adjustment of the crop location to give me a decent remaining image
content." -
" Nice program that’s simple to use & pretty much idiot proof! Well done. ...it
appears ‘Image Cropper’ deletes the embedded original thumbnail and does not create
a new widescreen thumbnail. " -
"I just love it!" -
“I am very happy to donate as it will save me hours!!!!” -
“…you and your programming have saved me a lot of time and mouse clicking!! “ -