How to resize bulk images for your website

In an earlier post, we discussed why it's important to optimize your website images, what that means, and showed you how to use a free online tool.

The tool we described is great for working with one image at a time. But, what if you need to resize a bunch of images, maybe for a slideshow or to display in a grid? You could work for hours resizing one image at a time!

Pick your orientation

A bulk resize tool works best when all your images use the same orientation (horizontal or portrait) and have the same dimensions.  Any needed editing should be done first.

One trick to give your images a neat appearance, especially in a grid, is to use pictures of the same orientation.  For instance, if most of your images are horizontal, but you have a couple portrait images, you can try to crop them to a horizontal size.

Once you have your images ready, you can start the bulk optimization!

The tool - Bulk Resize Photos

There are always many ways to accomplish tasks. The free tool we like for this purpose is Bulk Resize Photos.  The interface is nothing fancy, but it does the job quickly and easily!

To start, drag and drop your images into the outlined rectangular area or choose them using the image locator button.  Then, click the Next button below the rectangle.

 

The blue area above (1) gives you many options for resizing your images.  Depending on what you select, you can change the options on the right. For purposes of creating a grid or slideshow, we want to make the widths the same size, so click on Width (2).

Finally, to see the optimization options (to reduce the image data for digital display - read this article if you don't understand this), click on the Pro button.  (Unlike so many web tools, Pro does not require any payment!)

After you click Pro a few more options will appear.

First select the width you need for all the images (1).  To give you some references, 800 pixels (px) might be a good size for a full blog width (but not a full screen), thumbnail size for a grid might be sized at 200px, two side-by-side images might be 200 to 400px. You may need to experiment a bit.

From the dropdown (2), select JPG (lower quality, smaller file).  "Smaller file" is referring to the amount of data in the file, not the dimensions of the image.

Finally, use the Quality Slider (3) to adjust the size of the file. (Again, this is referring to the amount of image data that is retained, not the dimensions of the image.)  70 - 75% is usually a good size if you started with a high-quality image. 

You are ready to resize - click Start Resizing!

The Bulk Resize Photos tool will resize the images very quickly -- even if you submit hundreds of images!  When it's done, it will automatically download the resized images in a .zip file called ResizedPhotos.0.zip to the Downloads folder on your computer.  Unzip the folder and move the images to a folder on your computer.  You can now upload them for use in your website.

If you have been frustrated adjusting groups of images -- as few as four or as many as a couple hundred -- this is the tool for you! If you still need help or more clarification, feel free to contact us.

Have you found bulk photo optimization tools you particularly like? Add to the discussion below!