The BIRT window is split in to four sections:
The file selection area consists of a list of selected files and buttons to update this selection.
To add files click on the Add Files button and select the files to be resized. To select multiple files use the standard Ctrl-click and Shift-click methods. Note that any given file can only be resized once per run, so multiple selections of the same file will be ignored.
To add a large number of files contained within a directory tree use the Add Directory Tree. Select the directory that will be the root of the search and click "OK". This bring up a dialog showing the search process. Clicking stop on this dialog will terminate the search and add the image files found thus far to the selection list.
To remove files select the file(s) that are no longer required (again the standard multiple select methods are support by the list box) and click Remove Files.
The Remove All button will remove every file in the select box (whether selected or not).
The Clear Selection button will clear any file selection and leave the files untouched.
The processing options area is the most complex part of the interface. It consists of the output size (the maximum size of the new images), the strategy for handling the image width/height ratio, the quality of the resized images and the quality of the outputted image (affects only lossy compression formats such as JPEG).
The new size of the output images is obvious, however the images are only guaranteed to be this size if the ratio option is set to "Ignore Source Ratio". The current ratio options are:
Below is a table showing an example of each of the ratio handling strategies. In all cases the target size was 160x200.
Ratio Strategy | Dimensions | Image |
---|---|---|
Original | 320x240 | ![]() |
Ignore Source Ratio | 160x200 | ![]() |
Match New Width | 160x120 | ![]() |
Match New Height | 266x200 | ![]() |
Preserve Source Orientation | 200x160 | ![]() |
The Scaling Quality option provides a choice between a slower but smoother scaling process and a faster but unfiltered one. Unless it is necessary to resize a huge number of images in a very short time there is no reason to use "Fast Scale".
Fast Scaling | Smooth Scaling |
---|---|
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The JPEG Quality slider does exactly what it says: the lower the quality the worse the output images look but the smaller the file sizes (and vice-versa). For other image formats this option is ignored.
The output options area is where the destination and names of the new images are specified.
The Output Directory is simply the location where the new images will be created. This directory must exist and be writable for the resize process to be successful.
The Prefix and Suffix fields are added to the original name of the image file. The prefix is prepended to the start of the basename (i.e. after the last directory separator) while the suffix is appended to the basename, but before the extension (i.e. before the last period).
So with a prefix of prefix_ and a suffix of _suffix the following filenames ...
Rather obvious this bit: