software for cropping

<p>Shooting a lot of soccer I need some maybe simple software to crop pics in thumbnail view without need to open them each other.<br>

Regards<br>

Martin</p>

<p>Do you mean "crop" or "resize" <strong><em>to</em> a thumbnail</strong>, or do you want to crop looking at a thumbnail of the image?</p>

<p>For batch resizing (and other basic operations, including cropping I think) I would recommend <a href="http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm">FastStone Image Viewer</a>.</p>

<p>I use Photoshop for that and create batch actions.</p>

<p>I mean crop with a fixed ratio and I cannot use photoshop batchwork, the crop isnt at the same place in the images</p>

<p>Use Irfanview:</p>

<p>1. Select the images to be cropped and copy them to a new directory. This prevents/hinders you from accidentally overwriting the originals, and, in addition, it saves keystrokes compared to using the "Save As" command.</p>

<p>2. shift-C = (Edit / Create Custom Crop Selection) Enter your ratio or actual size, pixels per inch, etc.. This data will be remembered on the next image.</p>

<p>2. Drag the crop box around by holding down the right mouse button.</p>

<p>3. cntrl-Y = Perform the actual cropping operation.</p>

<p>4. cntrl-S = Save the cropped version.</p>

<p>5. click on the arrow pointing to the right in the tool bar to move to the next image in that directory.</p>

<p>It couldn't be faster, simpler, or cheaper. I've done two or three per minute this way.</p>

<p>BTW, if you are concerned about the slight loss of quality because of opening and re-saving JPGs, Irfanview also has a lossless crop plug-in that would replace steps 3 and 4, above. </p>

<p>HTH,</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

 

<p>Thanks, but maybe I need something faster than 2 or 3 per minute, it should work like this:<br>

a window containing all the thumbs, I draw my crop rectangle, enter, next...</p>

<p>The speed of 2 or 3 images per minute that I stated is typically limited by me trying out and tweaking various crop locations and orientations. If I simply use the first crop location that occurs to me, I could easily speed this method up to one image every few seconds. </p>

<p>Don't forget, if you use the lossless crop plugin for Irfanview, once you have made the working copies, and are past the 1st image in that set, the only steps you repeat on every image are:</p>

<ul>

<li>2b (2a is remembered from image to image), </li>

<li>Clicking on the "lossless crop" menu item (...this saves as well as crops, all in one step), and,</li>

<li>Clicking on the right arrow button.</li>

</ul>

<p>ie, a total of three mouse clicks per image. </p>

<p>What steps in the sequence I just outlined do you think could be possibly be eliminated by other hypothetical SW? </p>

<p>Tom M</p>

<p>PS - BTW, why do you keep mentioning thumbs? Unless your needs are very modest, I seriously doubt you will have enough accuracy in placing the crop box on a thumbnail sized image. With the method I stated, there is absolutely no time penalty for displaying a full-sized version of the image and placing the crop box on it.</p>

<p>Tom, I do maybe 500 or 800 shots per game, after deliting the unsharp etc. there stay about 300 to 400 and its not important that the crop is very sophisticated done, so my needs are more on the modest side. ^^<br>

Images are displayed on the net and if someone is willing to get a print I do the crop more carefully.<br>

I thank you for your tip and if you say it tooks only some seconds to crop I will give it a try with Irfan.<br>

Thanks and Kind Regards<br>

Martin</p>

<p>It seems to work, with ctrl+arrow down I can change the size while keeping the aspect ratio, Thanks<br>

Martin</p>

<p>Hmm, I am a little unclear, after going to the next image in the directory I dont have the crop tool, pressing shift+c brings the menue, is there a way to get the rectangle directly without menue?</p>

<p>Hi Martin - If you don't want a constained crop, ie, one with a fixed size or aspect ratio, just use the LH mouse to drag whatever sized rectangle you want over the image. I didn't mention this because in your 2nd post in this thread, you asked for a fixed ratio.</p>

<p>Tom</p>

<p>PS - I do understand the need for economy of keystrokes in projects such as this. 500 to 800 shots per game is not extraordinary and is about as many per game as I used to take as well. </p>

<p>Tom,<br>

I need fixed aspect ratio, no fixed size, but didnt find a way to get the crop rectangle without opening the menue. <br>

You can find my soccerpics (uncropped) under www.jungekicker.info</p>

<p>Martin, You may be interested in this free tool: http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/<br>

You can set a default aspect ratio, open an entire folder of images, adjust the crop handles on each image as you want, then crop them individually or all of them at once. Cropped images can be directed to an alternate directory and the originals untouched (or so they claim).</p>