Thumbnails as ‘Tom Thumbs’ of the real thing allow us to pack in more within the screen real estate. The ideal size of a thumbnail differs with use and the setting. Ideally, a scaled down but recognizable version of the real thing can be called as a thumbnail. For instance, Flickr generally uses 240 pixel-wide images.

There’s no end to the utility of thumbnails. From illustrations to photo galleries, they are thumbed for the bigger picture.

How do we go about creating thumbnails? Well, it’s easy as cherry pie (eating it… not baking!) with all the options on our thumb, err hands. I’ll be showing you the mechanical approach, as well as 4 free thumbnail generators in both Software and Online format. You have the freedom to choose which method you wish to use!

The Mechanical Path

Not the easiest but definitely the cheapest as we can work without spending a penny, using what we already have – the PrtSc (Print Screen) key and MS Paint.

1. Open the document/webpage/object you want to take a thumbnail of. Resize it by dragging the edges to set the area for the image.
2. Press the PrtSc key – the image is in the clipboard now. Alternatively, pressing Alt-PrtSc takes a snapshot of the active document or object only.
3. Open MS Paint (All Programs – Accessories – Paint). Click on Edit – Paste to paste the image from the clipboard as a new Paint document.
4. On the Menu, click on Image – Stretch/Skew Image.
5. Choose a percentage figure to resize the image – for the same proportions, enter equal percentage for horizontal and vertical stretch.
6. With the desired size, click on File – Save As. Save the file in a format of choice.

MS Paint can be substituted with the better image editors with enhanced image resizing controls (Example: Using Actions in Photoshop). For more demanding needs, we need to turn to the various free thumbnail generators that are available.

The Software Path

Easy Thumbnails

This 1MB software lives up to its name. The graphical interface is simple and it makes creating scaled down graphics a user-friendly task. The best thing about this free thumbnail generator is the batch processing feature.

Select an individual image file or an entire folder. Setting the rotation, brightness, contrast and size of your images is easy through helpful sliders. A unique feature for such a freeware is the range of compression settings provided which lets you reduce the file sizes; vital for a large number of web images. And the image window lets you preview (in real time) the thumbnail’s final look.

Easy Thumbnails runs on XP / XP64 / Vista / Vista64 / Windows 7 or on Mac OS / Linux in conjunction with Wine.

RightThumb

RightThumb is a tiny (398KB) context menu application which lets you create optimized thumbnails with a right click. Creating a thumbnail from any graphic file needs just a right click and choosing the option to ‘Create Thumbnail’. The program does not need to be installed which makes it ideal as a portable app too. To handle multiple images, just select all the images and right click.

With RightThumb, a thumbnail can be created as a Bitmap, JPEG, GIF or PNG graphic file or can be copied to clipboard, ready to paste. The only feature lacking are the image editing settings.

RightThumb runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista.

If you are looking for a free desktop variant for the Mac then take a look at Paparazzi! which takes screenshots with the option of thumbnails.

But what if you are on a public computer without these software on the PC? Then, we must look towards the internet.

The Online Path

Quick Thumbnail

It’s as simple as uploading an image (or providing a URL), choosing the resize options and downloading the thumbnail image. As added security, uploaded files are kept on the Quick Thumbnail server for only 10 minutes.

Use a slider to resize by percentage or choose absolute measures in figures. Fixed size choices range from 32 pixels to 750 pixels. Images can also be scaled by using a drop-down list of standard dimensions like 100×75 for avatars and 150×112 for thumbnails. Added options include basic filter settings and watermark inclusion.

Resizr

Resizr, like most image manipulation web apps has been designed keeping the unsophisticated designer in mind. Image resizing is free, requires no registration and also comes with some added options. The screenshot shows the options available. The slider easily lets you set the optimum size between small and big. Resized files can be saved as JPEG, GIF or PNG. The final image can be downloaded, forwarded to < a href=”http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook/”>Facebook or MySpace, sent to a cell via MMS (US only) or simply emailed.

There are other web apps of such ilk which make the thumbnail creation and image manipulation a snap. At MakeUseof, we have covered some of them over the course of a few posts such as WebSnapr: Free Website Thumbnail Screenshots and Thumbalizr: Website Screenshots.

Also read an earlier post by Kaly which started out by reviewing Resizr but soon jumped into other exciting apps.

Thumbnail creation by itself is something that any good image manipulation program can handle. It is about paying attention to the proportions and the quality. Which is your web app/software of choice? Do you use a dedicated application or an all purpose image viewer/graphics program? Share your experiences with us in the comments.

Image: flikr

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Annoyed and overwhelmed by tabs one can say that it would be easier to have some sort of “mediator” between you and your Firefox tabs so that you don’t go mad and close them altogether. How about the addont to preview Firefox tabs as thumbnails. This is where Firefox Showcase steps in, an application I came across which helps you do just that.

Managing your Tabs

This new Firefox tab preview addon compatible with all Firefox versions 1.5-3.2a1 pre allows you to quickly summon a window that shows you your tabs in thumbnail sizes so that you’re able to scroll through the tabs you need. This way you won’t need to second guess on a tab before opening it. You’ll just need to take one look at the tab thumbnail and know exactly which one you need. This saves you both browsing time and hair, as you won’t have to tear it out due to Firefox frustrations.

How it all Works

1. First you’ll need to download Firefox Showcase.

2. Once you’ve downloaded, installed, and restarted your browser you can click on the tools scroll down menu in your browser window, find add-ons, and select the options button in Firefox Showcase.

3. Now you’re ready to customize the way your tab manager works and views. You can tell the browser that you want the single showcase window to display your tabs in 200 pixel thumbnails or even smaller/larger sizes. You can also choose where you want your showcase window to display and how you’d like it to show you your tabs. These are just a few of the options and features that Firefox Showcase offers.

4. As soon as you’ve configured your new add-on you can find the button in the top right side of your browser window with the arrow pointing down, click on this button and instantly view all of your tabs in thumbnails.

Larger thumbnails:

Quick Overview

Once you’ve installed Firefox Showcase all you have to do is click on the thumbnail of the tab you want, and it’ll open up automatically. You can also right click on thumbnails to perform other tasks such as bookmark a page or send a page as a link.

You’re also able to select multiple thumbnails by left clicking and holding down the Control key [Ctrl]. The scroll ball on your mouse can be used to scroll through thumbnails. Use Control-F in Showcase to use the find bar and quickly search through thumbnails with keywords.

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this feature please feel free to comment below! Any other great Firefox tab preview addons? Please share them in comments!

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However, Google’s implementation of their product, although usable, feels very clunky and can be extremely cumbersome, combing through hundreds of thousands of images. Fortunately it seems like there is always another way with technology.

A strangely titled website called ‘Dear Computer’, takes the incredibly large index of Google Images and simply displays images only, nothing else. They have titled it ‘Google Image Ripper‘, and what it does is it removes the long drawn out process of individually clicking images through Google’s annoying search, and displays the file in its entirety.

Here is a comparison look:

Google’s Default Image Search of MakeUseOf:

Dear Computer’s Google Image Rip of MakeUseOf:

As you can see after submitting a search, you get many more images and a much easier interface, than you ever would with Google’s version. Once the images are displayed, you then have the ability to simply right-click on the file right from the screen, for easy saving and storage.

Along with the quick search and save feature, you also have some additional options to choose from while searching. You still have the option of choosing between sizes (small, medium, large and extra large) but also an additional ‘icon’ option as well.

Now let’s take a look at the search box. Here is where you can select your image size, safe content option or even look for ‘faces only’.

Along with the website, I have incorporated Firefox’s built-in keyword searching as well. If you bookmark this link- Google Image Ripper – you can simply type ‘im insert image name here‘ and you’ll quickly see Image Ripper’s display of images.

There isn’t much else to this web app, but I find myself using it on almost a daily basis, particularly for icons and smaller images. It also comes in handy when you would like screen shots of a particular application for a blog posting or software review. You may not find a use for it yourself, but just try it out anyway. It’s incredibly fast and of course free to use.

Do you know of any similar online products?

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Our artist thought he was going to have to do all the sizing and resizing manually because they needed to be various different sizes, depending on their dimensions.

He was used to using that little check box in PhotoShop that says “Constrain Proportions”.

This magic box allows you to approximately resize an image allowing it to retain its original shape.

My artist friend was under the impression that Photoshop had some uber magic that does this and it couldn’t be done any other way. Instead of going into Photoshop Actions, I downloaded for him a tiny itty bitty application called FotoSizer. I am going to show you how we can quickly resize a whole bunch of images for the web.

But first I downloaded a second FREE application to create our thumbnails. (Yes all of this can be done in Photoshop but with A LOT more work – and these apps are FREE. Did I mention that they are free??)

I grabbed Easy Thumbs from here and fired her up:

I pointed it at my source folder and quickly checked my settings:

I hit the “Make All” button at the bottom and my thumbnails went into production. What an awesome feeling; like you have thousands of little people inside your computer churning out your images!

Now I opened up FotoSizer and pointed it at the correct folder containing my original HUGE images. The original images were in the area 2600×2200 but there were images in that folder that were already sized, I didn’t want these images touched.

I decided I wanted the re-sized images to be close to 1024×768, maintaining aspect ratio (constrain proportions), and the option to not enlarge if smaller.

I chose my output folder and left the file name mask untouched. I hit the Start button and away we go!

In under 10 minutes I had all my images sized properly for the site. And now I could properly spend my time helping him design his site and get it online.

Not only did I get the job done quickly, I showed him two awesome free applications and now he can create the images for his site on his own!

Now all I need to do is show him how to use DreamWeaver…

Wish me luck! Do you have a favorite tool that does both of these jobs quickly? Let us know in the comments!

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