Hot Tip April 2009

Resize multiple pictures using Photoshop Elements
Sometimes when you post photos on the Web or email them, scaling them down to a smaller size means your recipient can load them faster. Or, you may want to scale pictures down to get them to fit on a CD, memory card, or flash drive. Using ADOBE Photoshop Elements (version 3.0 onwards), there are two main methods of resizing multiple pictures at once.

Method One - Using Photoshop Elements Editor
Many people don't realize there is a powerful batch processing tool in Elements Editor. This method works best for processing an entire folder of images rather than multiple images from different places.

Open Photoshop Elements editor, and choose File > Process Multiple Files.

Set "Process Files From" to Folder.

Next to Source, click Browse and navigate to the folder containing the pictures you want to resize.

Next to Destination, click Browse and navigate to the folder where you want the resized photos to go. Using different folders for the source and destination means you don't accidentally overwrite the originals.

If you want to resize all images in the folder and its subfolders, tick the 'include all subfolders' box.

Go to the 'image size' of the Process Multiple Files dialog box and tick the box to resize images.

Enter the size you'd like for the resized pictures. Check the box for "Constrain Proportions," otherwise the images dimensions will become distorted. With this enabled, you only need to enter either the new height or width.

If you want to change the format of the resized images, check the box for "Convert Files" and choose a new format. JPEG High Quality is a good option. If the files are still too large, you may want to go down to JPEG Medium Quality, for example.

Since resizing images tends to make them softer, you could check the box for "Sharpen" on the right side of the dialog box. However, this might make the file size larger than if you had not sharpened.

Click OK, and Photoshop Elements will processes the files for you. The time to do this will obviously depend on quantity and quality of files involved.

Method Two - Using Photoshop Elements Organizer
If you're not resizing a whole folder of images, you can use Photoshop Elements Organizer to do a batch resize.

Open Photoshop Elements Organizer and select all the pictures you want to resize.

While they are selected, go to File > Export > As New Files(s).

The Export New Files dialog appears where you can set the options for how you want the pictures processed.

Under File Type you can choose to keep the original format, or change it. Because you want to change the image size, you'll need to choose something other than original. You may want to choose JPEG because this creates the smallest files.

After setting file type, go down to Size and Quality and select a photo size.

Under Location, click Browse and navigate to a folder where you want the resized pictures to go.

Under Filenames, you can keep the names the same, or add a common base name and Photoshop Elements will rename the files to that name and append a number string onto the end of each file.

Click Export and Elements will begin processing the files. A status bar will show the progress of the operation, and Elements will show you a message that the export is complete.

some suggestions for the new image sizes
800 x 600 pixels is a good size for photos that will only be viewed by the recipients, but if you want your recipients to be able to print them, you may need to go larger. However, the larger you go for size and resolution, the larger your files will be.

You can choose custom to enter your own size if one of the size options in the menu does not suit your needs. For printing, 1600 x 1200 pixels will give a good quality 4 by 6 inch (10 x 15cm) print. Setting the resolution to 200 dpi should give you medium quality prints, or try 300 dpi for high quality prints.

Also adjust the quality slider for the images. Try to keep it around 8, which is a good compromise between quality and size. The higher you go here, the better the images will look, but they will be larger files. If you use a large image size, you may need to bump the quality down to make the files smaller.