Image cropping program for Windows XP

February 14, 2005 2:50 PM

I've made a website for a relative; she wants to be able to add photos to it. I'm get her using WordPress to update the site, and she's got no problem with its upload procedure.
The problem is that she hasn't got good image editing software. None of the various options avialble to her (she's running Windows XP) allow her to crop an image to an aspect ratio; most don't even let her crop an image to a particualr pixel size. She shouldn't have to spring the big bucks for Photoshop. So my question is, what freeware/shareware is out ther for Windows users that allows users to crop to aspect ratio and pixel size?
posted by eustacescrubb to Computers & Internet (18 answers total)

Best answer: IrfanView does everything you need. You'll probably need familiarize yourself with it, then make up a step-by-step tutorial for her, as it's not point-and-click.
posted by pmbuko at 3:02 PM on February 14, 2005

If she wants photos as a part of a post, IrfanView will work just fine, but if she wants to do something with galleries, you might want to try both of the following (both are free):

Picasa. It does way more than what she might need, but it allows to crop based on traditional photographic print aspect ratios. (no numeric cropping, and no resizing though)

Web Album Generator is quick and dirty and my personal fave. It does resizing of an entire photo album if you like. (no cropping, though)
posted by tweak at 3:09 PM on February 14, 2005

Perhaps the Gimp? It's free and open source so if it doesn't work, all you're out is a little time.
posted by stet at 3:22 PM on February 14, 2005

Best answer: check out Paint.NET.
posted by tumult at 3:26 PM on February 14, 2005

There's a starter edition for Photoshop Album. I haven't played with this version, but the demo I saw included good cropping, etc. The "free" crippling is about the organization tools, mostly, not a time or imprint thing, so it might be a good option.

Super easy to use. Perhaps too simplistic, depending on her skill level.
posted by Gucky at 3:35 PM on February 14, 2005

You can also look into Paint Shop Pro less than $100...kind of a poor man's Photoshop. Get a Free Trial here. I don't remember how long the trial version lasted, but it was a generous amount of time...maybe 180 days.
posted by lobstah at 3:46 PM on February 14, 2005

I use VuePrint as an image editor. Easy and lots of keyboard shortcuts.
posted by acridrabbit at 3:49 PM on February 14, 2005

seconded the.gimp; for such basic needs, gimp should work fairly well.

also, for wp I highly recommend iimage browser to make the uploading/thumbnailing/etc. process much easier.
posted by dorian at 3:50 PM on February 14, 2005

Just took a second look at the PSA-starter download. Super easy, crops and down-res, free. A little bit of upsell messaging in the interface, but no functional limitation on what she needs to do.

Having set up others with GIMP before, I'd recommend against it unless you're doing some serious "and here's how to do this" training. It's cool and free, but a pain for anyone who's not familiar with image editing.
posted by Gucky at 4:19 PM on February 14, 2005

Definitely have her use Picasa as recommended above. It is remarkably easy to use and very efficient.
posted by sled at 4:32 PM on February 14, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. IrfanView and Paint.NET both look promising. I know already that Picasa and Photoshop Album don't allow cropping to pixel sizes and/or non-preset aspect ratios.
posted by eustacescrubb at 4:34 PM on February 14, 2005

You might want to try PixResizer. I think I found it via a previous askmeta thread.

I have found it really easy to use, plus it has a really easy "batch" option that lets you select pixels.
posted by chaz at 4:47 PM on February 14, 2005

Win XP Power Toys has an image resizer. It's convenient, in that you can access it by simply right-clicking a file.
posted by crunchburger at 5:28 PM on February 14, 2005

I use XNView
It is small, free, very easy to use, and does all the basic non-paint editing & browsing.
(rectangular cut & paste only, no file size target)
Only 9 basic aspect ratios, but it has easy drag & crop, shows pixels in selection while you drag, drag the selection after you set the size, crop.
resize to pixel size or %,
set canvas size in %, pixels, inch, or cm to add border, etc.
Maybe less intimidating for a novice.
I use it for my website photos.
posted by Charles the Friend at 7:41 PM on February 14, 2005

Windows Paint (yes, the humble accessory that comes with XP) can crop and resize images.

Crop: select a rectangular region (keep an eye on the pixel dimensions shown in the status bar while selecting to get the aspect ratio right), Edit->Copy, File->New, set the blank canvas to 1x1 pixel with Image->Attributes, then Edit->Paste.

Resizing is under Image->Stretch/Skew.

It ain't pretty but you already have it.

That said, IrfanView can automagically turn a folder full of photos into a thumbnail-browseable web page.
posted by flabdablet at 4:10 AM on February 15, 2005

I just got myself an older copy of Photoshop 7 -- I do mostly simple cropping/resizing and it works perfectly.
posted by ph00dz at 7:16 AM on February 15, 2005

In Windows 98 there's something called PhotoEditor which will crop and resize images. I've also seen PhotoEditor in more recent Windows versions.
posted by rjs at 10:22 AM on February 15, 2005

I have to agree with crunchburger the Windows XP Power Toy for resizing images is really simple to use and does exactly what you're looking for.
posted by daveirl at 3:38 PM on February 15, 2005