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Hack 65 Crop and Resample in One Step

Preparing a whole batch of images for a project
such as a slideshow can be a laborious process at best. This hack
shows you how to crop to size and resample, all in one swift
motion.

When I have a whole
folder of pictures that I need to adjust to the same
dimensions and resolution, I just smile. That wasn't
always the case. I used to curse, procrastinate, and question my
decision to work on the darn thing in the first place. That was
before I discovered hyperspeed cropping.

With this technique, you can resize your pictures to standard
dimensions, such as 640 480, and change their resolution at
the same time. It's high-speed cropping
and image resizing, all in one.

Open the first picture in your batch and click on the cropping tool,
as shown in Figure 6-6. You'll
notice that a new menu appears on the top toolbar. This is a
contextual menu that changes depending on the tool you select. There
are three settings you can adjust here: Width, Height, and
Resolution. The values for Width and Height are in pixels (px), and
Resolution is in points per inch (ppi). I've entered
640 px, 480 px, and 72 ppi, respectively.

Figure 6-6. Entering the parameters for your speed cropping

Now, all I have to do is drag the cropping tool across the image to select
the area I want to keep, as shown in Figure 6-7.
Notice how the selection area is constrained to the proportions that
I set in the contextual menu. When I double-click in the selected
area, Photoshop will crop the image to the dimensions
I've indicated and set the resolution too, all in
one stroke.

Figure 6-7. Selecting the area you want to keep

You can whip through an entire batch of pictures in just minutes by
using this technique. Keep these few tips in mind:

After cropping, use Save As to give the file a new name. You might
want to add crop or some other description of
the action to the filename to help you remember that this is a
processed image. Always keep your original master safe and sound.

When you're finished with the batch, be sure to hit
the Clear button in the contextual menu bar. This will remove your
custom settings, enabling you to crop at any size you want in the
future.

If you want to crop by inches or some other
measurement, use that determiner in the Width and Height boxes. So,
to make 4" 6" prints at 150 ppi, enter 4 inches, 6 inches, and 150
ppi, respectively. This is a great way to prepare a batch of images
to send to a print service.

Most pictures need some sort of cropping to improve their
composition. With hyperspeed cropping, you can do this quickly and
resample at the same time.