Resizing Product Images
From i.STAR Help
Tools and Information on Resizing Product Images
When it comes to e-commerce, pictures MAKE a web site. In the absence of a brick and mortar store to see and touch an item, consumers rely on pictures to know what they are buying. Loading product pictures will undoubtedly be the largest task you will undertake in the implementation of your new i.STAR web site. But, the rewards will be great when you have a web site that is easily browsed by your customers. Size matters for quick download! Buyers won’t wait for a slow picture to appear. Product pictures and department pictures (if used) can be loaded as any size. However, there are ideal sizes based on the page layout and for faster page loading. Here are some things to remember:
Product Pictures The product picture loaded into Retail Star is the enlarged view of the product. Our software will resize it for the smaller thumbnails used on the product detail and product listing pages. Should be roughly 650px to max 750px range, and we recommend keeping width and height proportional and if possible constant throughout all images. You have the option of loading alternate views (i.e. back/front, fabric details, logo view etc.) and additional color images from the admin area of your website, after we get a copy of your database and setup your server here.
Department Pictures (Optional) Should be same height so they line up properly. Width should be proportional. If you are having a hard time sizing your department pics to the same height and having them appear properly, you can also think about using a particular “canvas” size in your photo editing program and then setting the picture on top of that so you are not having to stretch pictures to fit a space. And, remember, you cannot size pictures UP without distorting them. But, you can always size them DOWN.
File Size of Pictures Most digital cameras will have an image size of 2 or more Megabytes. While this is great for image clarity, this is not all too good for your website. The maximum recommended file size is 100KB. Some photos are persistent to being shrunk down below this number and attempts to do so only serve to distort the image. Do the best you can, trying in both .jpg and .gif formats, to get the file size down as far as you can without distorting the image or losing to much on resolution.
Here are some suggestions for image editing software: IrfanView and Gimp
Resizing Multiple Images
One method to resize these images is to use a Powertoy from Microsoft called ImageResizerPowertoy.exe. Download the program from the following link Resizer Powertoy
Once you download it and install it, I would suggest backing up the originals and test it on the images before you save them into Retail Star or CAM32.
To use the tool, simply right click any image you wish to resize and choose the resize option. You can even resize multiple images by selecting more than one.
Here are some other suggestions for bulk image resizing software:Fast Stone and Picture Resize
