Compress Images

[katielong]

I used my digital camera as we went on a shape scavenger hunt throughout the school. We were importing the pics to create a flipchart explaining our findings. I'm finding that I forgot to resize the image size when I took the pics :( so they're really big and even though I'm resizing them in the flipchart they're still taking up a ton of space memory wise and I was wondering if there was a way to compress the images within the flipchart. I know for next time to adjust my camera, but does anyone know a fix for now?
Thanks,
Katie Long
Kaplan Elementary School.

[davidlloyd]

There's a free photo editing program called Gimp (Google it). That should be able to resize the photos for you.

[katielong]

Thanks! I'll try that.

[Alison]

I did this. In fact, I do it all the time! All I do now is to insert all the photos in to a Word document, then use the camera tool to capture them. You lose a little of the quality, but it works a treat. +wave+

Alison

[davidlloyd]

Ooh just add another thought. Put the image on the flipchart page and double click on it to bring up the Object Edit Toolbar. Open Properties (the red tick icon) and go to Position. You can then change the numbers for height and width. this should reduce the size. If not use the camera tool to snapshot the resized image on the page and remove the original. You don't then need to have word.

[markrobinson]

http://www.irfanview.com/

I used this free software for years... It has an option for what is called "batch processing" where you can make it resize many images in one go.

On MAC - there is a hidden tool called Automater - with that you can make your own program that sits on your desktop and any image that you drop on to it gets processed to be a standard size (say 800px max) AND put straight into the Activ library.

BUT for a real tool... Nigel Pearce made this.. (only works on PC - but it processes image libraries into flipcharts and resizes/makes them smaller)

http://www.Prometheanplanet.com/blog/files/digiflip.exe

[Nigel Pearce]

Please note that the Digiflip program will only run on a Windows computer that has Activstudio (or Activprimary) installed.

[Westlake]

This looks really interesting - great to have all the options on one screen. Can't wait to have a play with it.
Thank you Nigel.
Hilary

[Rosie MacAlpine]

This is fantastic Nigel. I just had a go with some excursion pics (just the thing you want to use in a flipchart) and it's a great time saver. Cheers! :)

[Nigel Pearce]

Thanks Rosie. Glad to know DigiFlip might be of some use.

I wrote this app last Sept after my wife and I came back from a 'holiday of a lifetime' driving around San Fran, Yosemite and Las Vegas. America is simply an amazing place.
When we got back I found we had 4 Gb of images on 3 SD cards and wanted to get some of the best shots into a flipchart. As Katie mentioned, this is quite a time consuming exercise and can result in enormous flipcharts. Hence DigiFlip.

Images taken with a digital camera today are HUGE! A single image can easily occupy 50-100Mb of memory when loaded into Activstudio (or any other image program). In terms of onscreen size, these images can be anything upto 10,000 pixels square, ie 5-10 times bigger than the average projected computer screen resolution! The sheer amount of pixels in these images is complete overkill when all you want to do is show them to your audience.

DigiFlip will compress images to be more 'flipchart friendly', without too much loss of quality.


FYI. The DigiFlip splash screen shows us both eagerly waiting to 'take off' to the Grand Canyon. That day was awesome !

[htemske]

Nigel,

I wanted to throw in my thanks as well. I played around with some school pictures yesterday and it was so much quicker and easier. You guys never cease to amaze me.

[beachteacher]

Nigel,
Do you know if digiflip with work with ActivInspire?

[Nigel Pearce]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay. I've been walking the fells in the Lake District.

Currently Digiflip only works if you've got Activstudio or Activprimary installed on the same machine.
I'm looking at modifying Digiflip so that this is not necessary.

Watch this space!

[beachteacher]

{} Thanks Nigel.

[srchlc]

I just tried it out. Worked like a charm. Nigel....you're brilliant! :D

Holli

[Nigel Pearce]

OK folks, here is another version of Digiflip for use this time with ActivInspire. Again this is for Windows users only.

Download the attached zip file and unzip the program 'Digiflip Inspire.exe'. You can place the program anywhere on your system, but it might make sense to put it in the same folder as the main Inspire program which is normally to be found here...

c:\Program Files\Activ Software\Inspire

This version of Digiflip will only run if ActivInspire is installed on the same computer, but it does not require Activstudio or Activprimary to be present.

This version also differs from the previous version slightly, the main difference being that the output from Digiflip is now automatically opened by ActivInspire to allow you to view it and save it as a flipchart.

Let me know (a) if it works and (b) if it behaves itself.

[beachteacher]

[clap][clap][clap][clap] :D:D:D:D :cool::cool::cool::cool:

Nigel,
What a fabulous program. Thank you for putting it together for ActivInspire. I was able to download and unzip it very easily. It quickly took 110 pictures and put them into individual pages into a flipchart. I just need to make sure I have exactly the pictures I want in a folder before I use the program since it puts all the pictures from the folder into the flipchart pages.

You are the best!!!

[DavidFhu]

It is a wonderful program. Wonder will Promethean make it a standard application within Activsoftware? Wish all the luck.