Resizing images is many times a necessary operation. Why it’s important to use properly-sized photos? There are several reasons you should not skip this stage of the editing process.
One of the main reasons is to optimize performance. Smaller image files load faster on websites and in apps and software, improving the user experience. This is especially important for mobile users, where bandwidth may be limited, and for SEO, as faster websites rank better in search engines.
Another reason has to do with compatibility. There are platforms and websites that require photos in specific dimensions to ensure they are being displayed properly. For example, social media networks, like Instagram or Facebook, have standard size requirements for posts or profile pictures. Resizing images ensures they fit without being cropped awkwardly or stretched.
The benefits of image resizing include increased efficiency in data storage and transfer, as smaller images take up less space on your drive and load faster online. Others need to resize images for printing purposes. Users adjust the dimensions so that the pictures looks sharp and clear when printed at different sizes for posters, business cards or perhaps photo albums.
If you’re searching for a tool to resize images on Windows, then this post is definitely for you. Below you can find a list of 10 Windows programs to help you accomplish your task.
Photos
Let’s start off by first taking a look at the native Photos app. Microsoft Photos is not only an image viewer, but also a photo editor that can carry out various operations, including resizing a picture. We included the app in our list not only because it’s integrated in your Windows computer, but also because it can make images smaller in a simple way. Here’s how to do it:
Open the targeted image in the app and click on the three dots located in top right corner of the interface. Next click on Resize image. In the newly-opened window, enter the new values for the width/height in either pixels or percentage. There are options to set the image quality (low, medium and high) and to choose the preferred output format (JPG, TIFF, PNG or BMP). The app will also display the current and new resolution and file size of your image. When you’re done, click on the Save button.
Photos has also useful features to crop, flip and rotate pictures, to make light and color adjustments, auto enhance images, apply filters, make annotations or change the background. Unfortunately it can’t process multiple files at once, which is a letdown if you’re working with dozens of images that require resizing.
Price
Photos is free to use.
BatchPhoto
BatchPhoto is a Windows tool to batch resize photos. The software is powerful enough to effectively process hundreds of files simultaneously, it is packed with features to optimize images for web use and it is really easy to use. The entire editing process follows three steps: add your pictures in Step 1, edit them with the built-in filters in Step 2 and choose your destination and output format in Step 3. Simple and intuitive.
BatchPhoto places at your disposal two methods to change the size of your images: Resize and Resize Advanced. The first method gives you the chance to manually type in the new dimensions for the width and/or height, expressed in either pixels or percentage. The second one allows you to adjust the document size in inches and the DPI resolution. The tool provides a preview area to see how your resized image looks and options to maintain the original aspect ratio and use an uniform DPI.
In addition to resizing, BatchPhoto offers other useful features to optimize and enhance your pictures. You can manually or automatically crop and rotate photos, convert them to numerous formats, flip, watermark and date stamp them, adjust the contrast, brightness, color levels or saturation, reduce the noise or apply various artistic effects like black & white, sepia and oil painting.
To improve your workflow, you have the possibility to save your frequently-used edits as Profiles and reuse them in other editing sessions. The tool makes it possible to edit your images using your saved profiles directly from Windows Explorer’s right-click menu.
Price
BatchPhoto offers a fully-featured trial version, with a watermark stamped on the processed images. There are three available editions to choose from:
- Home: $29.95
- Pro: $49.95
- Enterprise: $129.95
All BatchPhoto editions come with a lifetime license.
PhotoMarks
PhotoMarks is a Windows image resizer designed to be both efficient and user-friendly. The tool has the ability to process multiple photos simultaneously in a truly simple manner. All you have to do is drag & drop your files, apply the Resize filter and then select the image format and the destination of your pictures: save them on a local folder on your PC, upload them to SFTP or send them via email.
The built-in Resize filter allows you to adjust the image size using pixels or percentage. Select how you want to resize your photos: by width and height, fixed width, fixed height or fixed width and height, and then enter the desired values for the width/height in the corresponding fields. The program will preserve the aspect ratio by default and let you choose whether to upscale or not images that are smaller than the specified size.
PhotoMarks is equipped with other features to help you edit and prepare photos for web use. The tool allows you to add a copyright text or logo watermark to protect your visual content, to crop and rotate images, as well as decorate them with borders and frames. There’s also a useful option to save your current settings for later use.
Price
PhotoMarks comes with a fully-featured trial version (watermark applied to processed photos), without any time limitations. You can purchase a lifetime license for $29.95.
Fotosizer
Fotosizer is a PC program particularly developed to resize images in bulk. The software isn’t difficult to use thanks to the clearly structured layout. The left side of the screen contains your images with multiple viewing options, while on the right side you’ll find the editing and saving options and miscellaneous settings. You have the possibility to drag and drop your images, add an entire folder or directly resize them using the Windows right-click contextual menu.
Fotosizer stands out through its numerous resizing modes: Fit, Stretch, Side, Pad and Crop. The tool offers the opportunity to resize by pixels, percentage, cm, mm or inches. You can set a custom width/height, choose from a long list of preset sizes, resize by the longest or shortest side, change the DPI or make all your pictures the same size by adding a padding. The possibilities are quite extensive. The program keeps automatically the aspect ratio and can prevent image enlargement and reverse width and height by orientation.
With Fotosizer you have the chance to perform other useful operations. You can rotate and crop images, apply PNG image optimization, watermark them, as well as retouch your photographs. For that purpose you’ll find features to perform color adjustments, apply levels of blurring and sharpness and multiple artistic effects. A plus is the fact that you can save your settings as profiles. On the downside, the program doesn’t support as many image formats as others.
Price
Fotosizer comes with a free Standard edition, which provides access to basic resizing features. You can buy the Professional edition to enjoy extended features:
For Home
- Personal: $16.95
- Home 360: $34.95
For Business
- Business 360: $34.95
- Startup: $99.95
Light Image Resizer
Light Image Resizer addresses those looking for an in-depth resizing process. The tool provides a wide range of resizing and compression methods and settings to satisfy even the pickiest users. There are five resizing modes to choose from: Fit, Stretch, Center, Crop and Extend to square. This means that you can fit images into a custom resolution, stretch them to the target aspect ratio, center them in the target resolution (the background will be filled with a given color), crop them to center with custom resolution and make them square by extending the short sides with blurred content.
At the same time, the software places at your disposal a multitude of built-in profiles. Among others, you can resize images by 50%, to HD or 4K resolutions, compress them to 1 Mb or 250 kb, for email or for specific mobile devices and social platforms. In the advanced section, the program allows you to select the preferred resizing filter, to set the output quality and the output size in kb and change the DPI resolution. You can also tick the Progressive box to compress JPEG images in multiple passes with increasing details.
Light Image Resizer is a Windows utility that can do much more than just make pictures smaller. This software is capable of converting images to various formats, rotating, flipping and watermarking them, adding round edges and borders, sharpening and improving gamma levels. It’s even possible to create collages from a set of photos.
Price
Light Image Resizer is available with a free trial version, which lets you process up to 70 files at the same time. You can purchase the Pro version to remove this limitation for $24.95.
FILEminimizer Pictures
FILEminimizer Pictures is a Windows software designed to considerably reduce photo size. And when we say considerably, we mean it. The program claims it can generate a reduction of up to 98% in file size through its file optimization technology. We put it to the test with 24 images. The smallest decrease in size was 92.4% (from 2.25 Mb to 0.17 Mb), while the highest decrease was 97.7% (from 2.79 Mb to 0.06 Mb).
FILEminimizer Pictures comes with three compression levels: Web/Email compression, Standard and Low/Print. There are also custom compression settings available, which enable you to choose a specific screen resolution. In order to compress your images you don’t really have to do much. All that’s required is to load your files into the program, select one of the compression options and click on the Optimize Files button. Pretty interesting is the Pack & Go feature, which automatically optimizes your photos and directly sends them via email.
On the negative side, this is the only operation you can perform. There are no other features to further improve your photos. Also, if you care about the visual component, the outdated user interface might not meet your requirements.
Price
FILEminimizer Pictures is free for private users. If you plan on using it as a business or for commercial purposes, you need to purchase a commercial license for $34.95.
Fotor
Fotor is not your classic image resizer software. This is a tool which is not especially created to optimize photos, rather to retouch and enhance them. Of course, this doesn’t mean it can’t be used to perform optimization-related tasks like resizing, cropping, converting or renaming pictures.
The desktop version of Fotor enables users to batch resize images in a simple manner: by manually adjusting the dimensions for the width and/or height. All you have to do is check the Resize box, select whether to use percentage (by default) or pixels and enter the new values. The online version of the tool allows you to adjust the image size in three ways – you can select the Auto mode, customize the width/height by moving the sliders or select one of the predefined dimensions. One disadvantage is the fact that you can import a maximum of 50 files at once.
As mentioned in the beginning, Fotor is the ideal solution if you need to improve the overall aspect of your photographs, as well as create designs. The software offers numerous editing tools, scenes and photo filters to stylize your pictures, portrait retouching features and many more.
Price
Fotor offers a free version called Basic, which is limited to processing 3 files simultaneously. There are two paid plans:
- Pro: $3.33/month
- Pro+: $7.49/month
Image Resizer
Image Resizer by Tweaking Technologies is a modernly-designed solution to reduce image size. The tool is easy to navigate and allows you to quickly complete your task thanks to the clean UI. There are three phases you need to follow: load your files in the first phase, select your resize settings in the second and your output settings in the last one. No pop-up windows, no sub-menus. Simple and straightforward.
When it comes to changing the size of your photos, the program offers two possibilities. You can customize the width/height using pixels or percentage and save the new size for later use. At the same time, you can choose one of the predefined sizes, but unfortunately there are only four options available. In the same stage you can correct the orientation of your photos and flip them. The program also gives you the possibility to convert your images to various formats, as well as do some basic file renaming.
Price
Image Resizer comes with a free version, which allows you to resize up to 15 photos. To remove this restriction, you can upgrade to the rather costly Pro edition. This is subscription-based and costs $39.95/year.
FastStone Photo Resizer
FastStone Photo Resizer is another alternative to adjust the size of photos in batches on PC. The issue with this program is related to the UI, which feels outdated and somewhat unintuitive. For instance, in the main window you can only batch convert and rename files. If you want to access the editing features, including resizing, you have to go to the Advanced Options section. This and other quirks may deter some users for whom the design and usability are fundamental.
On the plus side, FastStone Photo Resizer offers multiple methods to correct the image size. You can resize your pictures in pixels, percentage, in print size or based on one side. The tool enables you to enter the desired dimensions for the width and height or pick one of the numerous preset sizes. You’ll find options to select the preferred resizing filter, to switch the width and height to match long sides, as well as smart cropping and smart filling settings. Additionally you can adjust the DPI and change the canvas size in various ways.
If you’re looking for other features to optimize your photos, you’re in the right place. The program allows you to rotate or crop pictures, to change the color depth, adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation or sharpness or add text comments and borders. To protect or promote your photos you can insert a text or logo watermark.
Price
FastStone Photo Resizer is provided as freeware for personal and educational (including non-profit organization) use. For commercial use, you need to purchase a license for $19.95.
Icecream Image Resizer
Icecream Image Resizer makes it possible to easily and quickly resize multiple photos at once. This isn’t a sophisticated software, boasting numerous image editing features. No, this is a basic tool designed to effortlessly reduce the size of your pictures. All you have to do is drag & drop your images into the single-window interface, choose your resizing settings and where to save the new files. Next just hit the Resize button.
Icecream Image Resizer offers two ways to make photo size adjustments. You can manually set the new dimensions for the width and height or choose from the multiple presets available. In that sense, the program comes with built-in sizes for email, desktop, social networks like Facebook and Instagram and more. A nice little feature is the fact that you’ll get to see the difference in Mb between the original and resized pictures.
Price
Icecream Image Resizer offers a free version, in which you can add a maximum of 3 files. To remove the number limitation and also access the watermark feature, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version. This one costs $19.95 and comes with a lifetime license.