How to resize images but keeping proportion

Question

I have a lot of images at either square (500px), 500px width,
or 500px height. What I am trying to do is to fit them into a 200
by 200 area.
Now, the problem is that I am getting the images (their
location rather) from a php database that I created. Which is fine,
except because I set a repeat area (so that I don't have to put in
every picture manually) on the css, and it seems to require a
predetermine width or height to be either auto or a certain size
(in my case, 200px),
And that's the messy part. Those images with... say...
500x146 will be out of proportion. (since the 500 will be shrunk to
200 while 146 will be expanded) Square is perfectly fine because
they are getting reduced by the same increment. But the rectangles
are really giving me problems. (Defining either width or height to
be 500 and leaving out the other to be auto is not an option
either, consider I have images that are 500x321 or 321x500)
Well, the obvious solution is to resize everything to the 200
px proportion. Yet, that presents 2 problems;
1) I want to let dreamweaver do the resizing so that I can
still show the 500px images when open in new window.
2) I can't seem to find an automated way to create a square
image in photoshop then copy the 500px images onto it, resize,
save, and close. (I tried, the sequence is impossible... or unless
someone has a much more clever solution than I do. Or maybe they
can write me a script?) If I do it manually, its hundreds of images
that would require days.
Do anyone have any clever solutions that can either tackle
the aspect of the original data images (thus, some solution with
photoshop) or some blatantly obvious solution that I can do with
dreamweaver. Any help that can help me accomplish my task is very
welcomed. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You have to do this in two steps if you are doing it in a
graphics editor.
Figure out which dimension is the one 'out of size' for your
final 200x200
max limits. Resize that single dimension first. The other
will be no
greater than your 200 max.
If you are using PHP you can find some nice resizing
algorithms on
http://www.php.net.
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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"Bih Wang" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:[email protected]...
>I have a lot of images at either square (500px), 500px
width, or 500px
>height.
> What I am trying to do is to fit them into a 200 by 200
area.
>
> Now, the problem is that I am getting the images (their
location rather)
> from
> a php database that I created. Which is fine, except
because I set a
> repeat
> area (so that I don't have to put in every picture
manually) on the css,
> and it
> seems to require a predetermine width or height to be
either auto or a
> certain
> size (in my case, 200px),
>
> And that's the messy part. Those images with... say...
500x146 will be
> out of
> proportion. (since the 500 will be shrunk to 200 while
146 will be
> expanded)
> Square is perfectly fine because they are getting
reduced by the same
> increment. But the rectangles are really giving me
problems. (Defining
> either
> width or height to be 500 and leaving out the other to
be auto is not an
> option
> either, consider I have images that are 500x321 or
321x500)
>
> Well, the obvious solution is to resize everything to
the 200 px
> proportion.
> Yet, that presents 2 problems;
> 1) I want to let dreamweaver do the resizing so that I
can still show the
> 500px images when open in new window.
> 2) I can't seem to find an automated way to create a
square image in
> photoshop
> then copy the 500px images onto it, resize, save, and
close. (I tried,
> the
> sequence is impossible... or unless someone has a much
more clever
> solution
> than I do. Or maybe they can write me a script?) If I do
it manually,
> its
> hundreds of images that would require days.
>
> Do anyone have any clever solutions that can either
tackle the aspect of
> the
> original data images (thus, some solution with
photoshop) or some
> blatantly
> obvious solution that I can do with dreamweaver. Any
help that can help
> me
> accomplish my task is very welcomed. Thanks in advance
>