Image Cropper

by Paul Marshall

Overview

Use Image Cropper to -

The purpose of this program is to make it easy to crop a batch of images to a specific aspect ratio. The black border area may be included if necessary, and the colour of the border changed. The Safe Area can be shown so you can make sure none of your image will be lost off the edge of a normal TV screen. There's a batch mode with each picture presented to you in turn. All you have to do is decide where to crop and hit 'Save'.
 

Stills for Video

Primarily designed to crop images for inclusion a in video production where they have to fit a standard 4:3 aspect ratio, or a widescreen 16:9 ratio. 

If necessary, the image can then be saved in 720 x 576 pixels (for PAL, or 720 x 480 for NTSC) so that it matches standard video. If the crop is 16:9 this will result in an anamorphic image which will be stretched by the TV set so that it looks correctly proportioned.

Presets for several standard TV output sizes are included for resizing if necessary. It can be useful to reduce the resolution especially when working with big mega pixel images.

Note: if your video editing program can work in 16:9 then don't save as an anamorphic. Normally there is no need to worry about the actual pixel size.

 

   Original 4x3 image

 

  Cropped to 16:9 widescreen

  Anamorphic 4x3 output

 

Fit to the safe area and include a black or coloured border

 

Photo Printing

This program is also useful in preparing photos for printing.  For instance, the common print size of 7"x5" doesn't fit the common 4:3 aspect ratio of many digital cameras. Instead of leaving it to the photo printer to crop out the central area you can choose which area to print, and maybe also zoom in a bit. A selection of common sizes is included or custom sizes can be entered. No scaling need be done and there's no need to get involved in dots per inch, just get the height and width in the right proportion and leave the rest to the printers. Re-sizing is not really relevant here, its just the aspect ratio that matters. However if you do you wish to change the size, either larger or smaller, Image Cropper can do so with very good quality.

 

      Crop photos for printing.

 

Two ways to use a portrait photo in a video - crop to the width or include the full height with a border

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Automatically add a text label
 

 

Batch Processing

A batch facility is included so that a large number of images can be processed quite quickly. This works by allowing multiple files to be selected which are then presented to you one by one so that all you have to do is select the area you want and click Save.
Alternatively, if you just want to crop to the best fit, width or height, then the whole batch can be processed automatically. Optionally, for landscapes the selection fits the width while for portraits a black border is included each side.

View the Image Cropper Help file included with the application for more information.
 

 

Electronic photo frames

These usually have fairly low resolution so apart from cropping the aspect ratio, by resizing to fit the frame you can pack a lot of photos on to a small memory card. Use up those little ones that come with cameras!


Using some of these frames can be confusing. Some of the pixel ratios can be odd. Image Cropper will help you get the sizes right.
For instance, this one (from Argos) claims  "Screen resolution 1440 x 234 pixels (480 RGB x 234)".  Although the frame is physically 16x9 the image files need to be 4x3. ( Anamorphic, like widescreen TV). An image saved at 480x234 gives a small squashed picture. For this frame an image has to be saved at 1440x1080 to make it fill the frame properly. Unfortunately the resolution is not really this high!

 

 

 

 

 

Levels Adjustment

With Image Cropper you can also adjust the brightness, contrast and colour saturation. There is a histogram display and a reading of RGB value at the mouse pointer.

       

 

See the Image Cropper Help for more information

 

Free Download

Feel free to download and use this program, however if you find it useful you could consider making a small donation through 

If you have any comments, bug reports, feature requests or just to say hello - send me an E-mail. Then if I make any changes I can let you know.

Requirements:  I developed this under Windows XP. Some users have reported problems when using Windows 98 but regrettably I can't.investigate.

 Disclaimer:  This software is provided 'as is' with no guarantees of any kind. No responsibility can be accepted for problems arising from it's use.

 

 

 

Download Image Cropper Version 1.7.0 

 

Screenshot: V.1.5.0

 

Older versions

Download Image Cropper Version 1.6.0 

Download Image Cropper Version 1.5.0 

Download Image Cropper Version 1.4.7 

.Note: This version is designed for a 1280x1024 or larger screen.

 

Download Image Cropper Version 0.93.1

For users with a lower resolution screen. Designed for 1024 x 768 screen.

 

 

If you have any problems or suggestions for improvements send me an E-mail.

Use of this program is free and unrestricted. However, if you find my program useful please consider making a small contribution via PayPal.

 

 

Installation

 Extract the program file cropper.exe and the help file folder  Image Cropper Help  into a new folder. Make a short-cut to cropper.exe. An .ini file will be created in the same folder. No registry entries are created. To uninstall simply delete the folder!

 

A word about Embedded thumbnails and EXIF information

Most digital cameras include a thumbnail image and information about the image, called 'exif', in the jpeg files they create. Jpegs saved by Image Cropper do not include this extra data and normally this is not a problem.  However, some TV sets include a memory card reader for directly displaying camera images and these sets use the embedded thumbnail to provide their catalogue. They can take a long time to generate thumbnails from other jpegs such as Image Cropper files. One way around this is to use Image Cropper to resize to 1024 x 576 with a jpeg quality of 80. This will make smaller files while the quality will still be good. 

 

Version History

version (0.3)  includes output resizing. (A bit slower than some programs maybe, but the quality is very good.)

version (0.3b) Same as 0.3 but compiled with different compiler due to jpeg module bug.

version (0.4b) includes border colour selection and safe area guide. Help reinstated.

version (0.5b) added: exit Preview mode with any key, enter custom resize

version (0.7b) added: Options to fit selected area to Safe Area. Safe Area can be varied. Preset resize options. Fully auto batch mode.

version (0.8b) added: Rotate image by 90° or 180°.   Enlarge border area.  Toolbar buttons to access features.  'Save' doesn't show save dialogue - but 'Save As...' does.   More preset resolutions.   Improved help in html format.   More status-bar information

version (0.91b)  Settings are saved on exit.   Selection bounding box is restrained to useable area.   Image list can be hidden / shown.   Aspect Ratio can be unlocked.

version (0.95b) Functionally the same as 0.91b but rearranged screen layout to suit 1280x1024 screen or larger only.

version (0.92b) Custom size width and height swaps with Landscape / portrait change. For the 1152 x 864 screen. Likely to be the last in this screen size.

version (0.93.1) Re-designed for 1024x768 screen size. Control of selection box improved. Style of box can be changed to improve visibility.

version (1.10):  Decided to take it out of beta test! Versions before 1.0 will be 1024x768; after 1280x1024 from now on.

version (1.20):  Control of selection box improved. Style of box can be changed to improve visibility.
                Handling of square pictures improved and Square added to aspect list.
                Custom resize values can be set to current aspect if required.
                1.2.2 Annoying warning message about resizing removed.  1.2.3 Custom Aspect Bug fix

version (1.30):  Levels adjustment function added.
                            1.41 Toolbar button  1.42 Option to save settings between visits
                            1.44  Additions to presets lists such as A4 aspect ratio
                            1.46  Show Clipping added to Levels. Memory leak in batch mode fixed.
                            1.47  Autofit to  Width / Height option added

version (1.50): 28/12/07 Screen layout redesigned again, now adjusts to different screen resolutions. File list dropped..

version (1.60)  6/2/08.   Text overlay function such as to add a copyright message or filename. Basic print function added. Rotate by any angle added. Invert speeded up. Other angles still a bit slow I'm afraid! Aspect Ratio list revised, 'As Image' added. Help V1.5.

version (1.70)  12/5/08.  Can add a Frame to the outside of the image. Settings can be saved and loaded to/from a named file. Fixed bug in filename when no extension given.  Change to way resizing by corners works. Help V 1.7


                         

 

Use of this program is free and unrestricted. However, if you find my program useful please consider making a small contribution via PayPal.

 

 

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© Paul Marshall 2003