Copyright: (c) 2000 HarmWare
Citation: Batch Thumbs Help


Introduction

Introduction to Batch Thumbs

Batch Thumbs will create Thumbnail images from Source images that you specify.  It will make them the size you specify, and it will convert them to a different file type if needed.  It operates on several files at a time, and can make all the new files a uniform size.

But, there's more!  It can also create copies of files, rename files, and convert files from one format to another.

It uses a wizard type interface, allowing you to choose appropriate options before proceeding to the next step.

It was created for use by web authors who have large amounts of images that they need to add to their web pages, but it can be used by anyone who wants to organize graphics on their hard drive.


Credits

This program was developed using Borland Delphi 5.  It incorporates a few freeware components:

  dxForumLibrary  - dxfLabel, dxfProgressBar

  Raize Components - rzTreeview, rzFileSys, rzListBox

  TGIFImage - GIFImage (Anders Melander)

  RXLib - RXSlider, RXSecretPanel, RXRichEdit

  URLLabel

  And a couple of my own - GradBtn, HarmFade

I'd like to especially thank Anne Gerdes for her interest, she motivated me to complete this project.  Visit her site for some beautiful graphics:  http://gerdesdesign.com

Thanks also to Walter Schick, who helped with some of the program logic.

And thanks mostly to you - the people who use my software.  I appreciate you taking the time to download it and try it out.


Getting Started

The basic steps to creating thumbnails are:

1.  Select Input Files to be processed.

2. Select a Destination Folder

3. Choose Thumbnail size and quality

4. Confirm settings

5. Press GO

The steps for Renaming, Copying, and Converting files is essentially the same, except for the size and quality.  There are other options that you may choose as you step through the dialogs, they're explained in more detail in the Individual Screens section.

Even if you use the defaults, you still must choose input files.  If you allow everything else to default, you will end up with some files named Thumb001.jpg that are a very high quality Jpeg with a width and height of 96 pixels.

At each step, you set the options and click Next to proceed to the next screen.  You can go in reverse by clicking Back, to change previously chosen settings.

Finally, you are presented with a confirmation screen, where you click GO to start processing the files you selected.


Input File Selection

The first step is to Select Source Files for processing, and to choose the type of processing to be performed on them.

There are two Radio Buttons on the lower left which allow you to either Create Thumbnails or Rename, Copy, or Convert Files.

Create Thumbnails will re-size the new files to dimensions that you specify in a later step.  During thumbnail creation, you can choose to convert the new files to a different type than the source file.

Rename, Copy, or Convert Files will not change the dimensions of the image.  Further options for this are specified in subsequent steps.

The directory structure is represented on the left.  Use it to navigate to the directory that contains the images to be processed.

Use the File Types combo box to select the types of images that will be processed.  If you want to process a combination of different file types, you can type directly into the edit area.  Separate the types with a semi-colon.  For example, if you want to limit the list to jpg and gif files you would type in:

*.jpg;*.gif

You can limit the selection further by specifying part of a file name:

im*.jpg;th*.gif

All matching files of the type specified are shown in the File List box on the right hand side.

You can preview files by clicking on them.  They'll be shown in the upper left in the box labeled Preview Window.  Hover the mouse over the preview to see the image dimensions, or click on the preview window to see the actual size image in a new window.  To close the separate actual size image window, just click anywhere on the image.

Files are selected for processing by hi-liting them in the right hand window.  You can select a block of files by clicking and dragging the mouse, or by selecting a file with a click, then holding the Shift key down and clicking the last file desired.  To select files that are not contiguous, hold the Ctrl key down while clicking on files.

You can also use the buttons to select all files, invert the selection, or unselect all.

A couple more buttons are provided for convenience - you can delete files that are hi-lited (either to the recycle bin or to never-never land), or you can do a single file rename.

The helpful hints box will provide basic steps for this screen.

There are also some additional capabilities that are available from a popup menu, which is invoked by a right-click on the directory or file windows.

When you have hi-lited the files you wish to process and chosen the appropriate Radio Button, click Next to proceed to the Output File Options step.


Output File Options

Once the Input files have ben selected, you must decide how the output is generated.

The second screen will have different objects depending on the options you chose:

Create Thumbnails,  or

Rename, Copy, or Convert Files.

The one thing you must choose for all options is how to name the files.  There are two choices available from the Output File Naming Option combo box:

Use Prefix and Sequence Number, or

Combine Prefix Value and File Name.

Here's how they work:

Use Prefix and Sequence Number - Files will be named using the value in the Prefix for Output Files box and the Seq # box.  For example, if the Prefix box contained MyNewImage and the Seq # box contained 088, the new file names would be

MyNewImage088.???

MyNewImage089.???

MyNewImage090.???

and so forth, where the ??? is the file type.

Combine Prefix Value and File Name - This incorporates the Prefix value with the existing file name.  It doesn't use the Seq #, even though that box may still be visible.  For an example of this option, assume that you have selected two files for processing called MomAndDad.??? and Fireworks.???, and that the Prefix value is Small.  The new file names would be

SmallMomAndDad.???

SmallFireworks.???

where ??? is the file type.

More information on file types and other options is found in the sub-topics:

File Types

Naming Options


Thumbnail Options

This screen is only displayed if you chose Create Thumbnails on the first screen.

Here, you specify the quality of the thumbnail images in the Resize Speed box.  Fast Resize is suitable for your personal files, but if you plan to put your thumbnails on the internet, you'll want to use Quality Resize. (Quality Resize is fairly fast, don't worry).

You can specify a Width and Height for the new images to force a uniform size.

Or, you can select Maintain aspect ratio to keep the width and height of the output at the same relative size as the input image.

If you use maintain aspect, you must specify a Maximum width/height.  This means that one dimension of the thumbnail will be the max width/height, depending on which is greater.  If both width and height of the original image are smaller than max width/height, then the image is kept at the same size as the original.

As usual, when you have selected your preferences, click Next to proceed.


Confirm Selections

When you reach this screen, you have ALMOST finished selecting all the required options.  If you're just renaming files, then you HAVE finished specifying options.

If you're converting files or making thumbnails of type jpg, you'll see a slider bar in the lower left corner where you can set the jpg compression value.  A higher setting means that the new file will be slightly larger ( in terms of bytes, not width/height) but will have a higher quality image.  Lower settings will reduce the file size, but image quality will suffer.  This may take some experimentation to find a value that produces results that are acceptable to you.

You will also see a check box titled Overwrite Files.  This ominous sounding option is asking if you want to write over files with the same name in the destination directory.  There may not be any, but you may have been warned from a previous screen that some images may end up in this situation, depending on the Output Naming Options you chose.  Here's your chance to allow or disallow files to be overwritten.  More information on this can be found in the Warning Dialogs topic.

Read the information carefully to make sure it's what you intended, and when satisified press GO to start the processing.


Processing...

When you get to this screen, file processing begins on the files you selected with the options you chose.  Progress is marked with a progress bar and a counter.  You can press Cancel at any time to stop the process.

When all files have been processed (or the cancel button is pressed), the Cancel button disappears and two new buttons appear:

Do HTML and

OK.

Do HTML will create an html document that dislpays all the images in the directory where you just created new images.  It pops up a new window with the HTML source code.  From this new window, you can launch your default web browser to view the thumbnails or images you just created.

Pressing the OK button will return you to the first screen, so you can start the process all over again.


Create Thumbnails

On the Input File Selection Screen, make sure the Create Thumbnails radio button is selected.

Use the Directory tree to navigate to the folder where the image files reside.

Use the File window to select files for processing, by hi-liting the desired files.

Click on the Next button.

You now must choose the output directory where the new images will be created.  It can be the same folder as the input files, but I recommend placing them in a new or different folder.

Use the left pane to navigate to the destination directory.  You can use the right pane to preview files or to see what files are in the destination folder, but you can't delete or rename files from this pane.

When you have selected the folder in which to store the new thumbs, choose the thumbnail naming options.

Finally, choose the file type for the new thumbnail images.  B.T. can convert them to *.gif, *.jpg, *.bmp, or *.emf/wmf.  Or if you prefer, it won't convert them at all, it will leave them as the same file type as the original.  Indicate your preference by choosing the appropriate option in the Convert Files to Type combobox.

Note that when this screen was displayed, the list of files you selected is now displayed in the upper part of the B.T. window.  You can click on a file in this list to preview it.

When you have completed all Output File Options, press Next to continue to the Thumbnail Options screen.

Two choices must be made on the Thumbnail Options page:  Resize Speed and Thumbnail Size.

B.T. uses two different methods to 'shrink' files into thumbnails.  One method is slightly faster, but the resulting image quality is not so good.  I recommend the Quality Resize option.  It's not much slower than the other option, and the image quality is much better.

You have two options for the thumbnail sizing.  You can specify the width and height of the output thumbnails, and the input images will be 'stretched' or 'squashed' to fit those dimensions.  Or, you can choose to maintain the aspect ratio.  In other words, if the source image is twice as wide as it is tall, the thumbnail will retain that relative measurement.  The aspect ratio uses just one value:  Max width/height.  The thumbnail width or height will have this size (in pixels), depending on which dimension of the source file is larger.  If the Source File is smaller in both dimensions, the thumbnail size is the same as the source.  For example:

Source File Dimensions      Max Width/Height    Thumbnail Size

Width 400, Height 300             100           W-100  H-75

Width 100, Height 200             128           W-64   H-128

Width 96,  Height 50              100           W-96   H-50

Once you have chosen the Thumbnail options, click Next to proceed to the confirmation screen.

Make sure the settings are what you intended.

If you're converting the thumbnails to jpg, you'll see a slider bar in the lower left corner of this screen where you can set the jpeg compression level.  A higher number means a better looking image.

Also choose the Overwrite Files option.  Same-named files in the ouput directory will be overwritten without prompting if you select this option.  If left unselected, same-named files will not be overwritten, and you won't be warned that any files were skipped.

Once you determine that all settings are OK, click the GO button to start processing.


Rename Files

On the Input File Selection Screen, make sure the Rename, Copy, or Convert Files radio button is selected.

Use the Directory tree to navigate to the folder where the image files reside.

Use the File window to select files for processing, by hi-liting the desired files.

Click on the Next button.

On the Output File Options Screen, make sure the Rename Files radio button is selected (lower left corner).  You should see a large message indicating that Renames are done in the same directory.

Choose the Output File Naming Option.

Note that when this screen was displayed, the list of files you selected is now displayed in the upper part of the B.T. window.  You can click on a file in this list to preview it.

When you have completed all Output File Options, press Next to continue to the Confirm Settings screen.

Make sure the settings are what you intended.

Note:  The overwrite Files option is not available for Renaming files.  In the event that a file already exists with the name you have chosen, the Rename operation will stop and display an error message.

Once you determine that all settings are OK, click the GO button to start processing.


Convert Files

On the Input File Selection Screen, make sure the Rename, Copy, or Convert Files radio button is selected.

Use the Directory tree to navigate to the folder where the image files reside.

Use the File window to select files for processing, by hi-liting the desired files.

Click on the Next button.

On the Output File Options screen, make sure the Copy/Convert Files radio button is selected.

You now must choose the output directory where the new images will be created.  It can be the same folder as the input files, but I recommend placing them in a new or different folder.

Use the left pane to navigate to the destination directory.  You can use the right pane to preview files or to see what files are in the destination folder, but you can't delete or rename files from this pane.

When you have selected the folder in which to store the newly converted files, choose the Output File Naming Options.

Finally, choose the file type for the converted images.  B.T. can convert them to *.gif, *.jpg, *.bmp, or *.emf/wmf.  Indicate your preference by choosing the appropriate option in the Convert Files to Type combobox.  Choosing No Conversion will result in a File Copy operation.

Note that when this screen was displayed, the list of files you selected is now displayed in the upper part of the B.T. window.  You can click on a file in this list to preview it.

When you have completed all Output File Options, press Next to continue to the Confirm Settings screen.

Choose the Overwrite Files option to write over same-named files in the destination directory, or u-select it to leave the original files as-is and not process the conversion for the same-named file.  No errors or warnings are issued for these situations during processing.

Once you determine that all settings are OK, click the GO button to start processing.


Copy Files

On the Input File Selection Screen, make sure the Rename, Copy, or Convert Files radio button is selected.

Use the Directory tree to navigate to the folder where the image files reside.

Use the File window to select files for processing, by hi-liting the desired files.

Click on the Next button.

On the Output File Options screen, make sure the Copy/Convert Files radio button is selected.

In the Convert Files to Type box, select No Conversion from the list.

You now must choose the output directory where the new images will be created.  It can be the same folder as the input files, but I recommend placing them in a new or different folder.

Use the left pane to navigate to the destination directory.  You can use the right pane to preview files or to see what files are in the destination folder, but you can't delete or rename files from this pane.

When you have selected the folder in which to store the copied images, choose the Output File Naming Options.

Note that when this screen was displayed, the list of files you selected is now displayed in the upper part of the B.T. window.  You can click on a file in this list to preview it.

When you have completed all Output File Options, press Next to continue to the Confirm Settings screen.

Make sure the settings are what you intended.

Choose the Overwrite Files option.  Same-named files in the ouput directory will be overwritten without prompting if you select this option.  If left unselected, same-named files will not be overwritten, and you won't be warned that any files were skipped.

Once you determine that all settings are OK, click the GO button to start processing.


Creating an HTML File

When processing has completed, you have an option to Do HTML.  This will generate HTML text that shows all the images you just processed.

Clicking the Do HTML button will generate HTML output into a text file and display it in a separate window.  From this separate window you can save the HTML, or modify it further.

The HTML editor has very limited capabilities.  There are some 'speed' buttons to launch Notepad or Wordpad, you can copy the text and paste it into one of these more sophisticated editors for processing.

If you want, you can just view the HTML through your default browser.  If you haven't saved the file, you'll be prompted.

When you click the Do HTML button, you are presented with the HTML Options dialog.  You can just leave the defaults, and the html will be created so that the files are referenced to the explicit location on your hrad drive.  The defaults work fine if you plan on leaving the images in their location on your hard drive;  if you intened to use the html and images on a web site, you'll want to choose one of the other options.

The HTML options may look intimidating, but they're not bad.  I'll try to explain the Link options as best I can.  These descriptions apply to both the Original and Thumbnails.

Local Hard Drive:  This builds the html so that the browser looks for the file on your hard drive, using the entire directory path.  It takes all the guesswork out of it, but the html must be changed if you plan to move your files to a web server.  An example of this notation is:

file:///C:\Graphics\Thumbs\

This indicates that there is a folder on your C drive called Graphics, and in turn there is a folder in Graphics called Thumbs.  The file resides in the Thumbs folder.  If you were to move your files to your web site, the world cannot access your hard drive to load the images in the web page, you would have to change the html reference.  This option works best if you just need to look at the thumbnails and images on your hard drive, and don't intend to publish on the internet.

Explicit internet:  This implies that you will publish your files to the internet, and you already know the location where they'll reside.  It requires you to complete the information following the http:// - since Batch Thumbs can't guess where that might be.  An example of this might be:

http://www.users.uswest.net/~sharman1/

REMEMBER TO ADD THE TRAILING SLASH...

This will make the browser look on the internet for the files in the web location you specify.  This option works well when you are preparing to publish your web page to the internet.

Relative Reference:  This is a little trickier, but has many advantages.  It allows you to 'describe' the location of the images using the unix-style directory notations, so that the images can be separate from your html.  An example of this:

../Textures/

or

/Images/

The .. means to 'go one directory higher'.  The '/' means to look in the current folder.

Let's look at the first example.  Suppose you have a folder on your C drive called My Documents, and in there you have a folder called My Webs.  In My Webs there is another folder called Personal, in which there are two folders;  one called Textures, and one called Html.  Here's a diagram of the directories:

C:

 - My Documents

   - My Webs

     - Personal

       - Textures

       - Html

Or in DOS notation, there is

C:\My Documents\My Webs\Personal\Textures   and

C:\My Documents\My Webs\Personal\Html

You have stored your thumbnails and original images in the Textures folder, and you are storing the html file in the Html folder.  You can reference the image files with:

../Textures/

This tells the browser to 'go one directory higher than the current one, then look for a directory called Textures'.  So, in this case, it would back up to Personal, and look for a folder called Textures.

The second example indicates a slightly different directory structure.  The location of /Images/ tells the browser to look in the current directory for a folder called Images.  It implies the following:

C:\My Documents\My Webs\Personal\Html   and

C:\My Documents\My Webs\Personal\Html\Images

where the Images folder is 'below' the Html folder.

This option lets you keep the same folder structure on your hard drive as on your web site, so that you don't have to make changes when you publish.

Generic:  This option adds no reference information to the files;  it implies that all the images are in one big folder along with the html file.  This will work fine for simple web sites that don't have files in folders other than the default.

Other options you can set in this dialog:

Original Image Display

  Open in Same Window

  Open in New Window

When the Open in New Window option is selected, the Anchor tag is created with the TARGET="_blank" keyword.  When the thumbnail is clicked, the original image is displayed in a new browser window.  Otherwise, the image is displayed in the current browser window.

Page Colors

  Background

  Text

Although there is no text on the page other than the 'Banner' title, this sets the default for you in the event that you actually add some text later.

Web Page Title/Banner text

  You can specify a banner that gets printed across the top of your page, and the size and color of its font.

HREF to original file

Border

Show Statistics in ALT

HREF to original file - If this option is selected, a link to the original file will be added to the HTML for each thumbnail.  Clicking on the thumbnail image will cause the browser to load the full-sized image.

Border - This is the size of the 'link' border surrounding each image.  It has no meaning if the HREF option is not selected.

Show Statistics - If this option is selected, the Original File name and Original File Size are added to the HTML, so that when the mouse moves over the thumbnail in the browser, a "hint" pops up with this information.

As I said, this is not very sophisticated stuff, it's really just a means of verifying that your thumbnail operation worked successfully.  You really need an HTML editor like Netscape Composer or FrontPage Express.

NOTE - When creating HTML, you should be aware of how different browsers treat different file types.  gif and jpg are the only file types that are 'universal' (as far as I know).  Some browsers can natively display bmp and emf, but some won't.

My favorite is jpg, it's got the best image quality for the file size.


File Naming Options

On the Output File Options screen, you can select how Batch Thumbs handles the naming of files.

First, I'll mention the last part of the file name - the bit that follows the '.' at the end of the name.  It's the file type, which is one of jpg, jpeg, bmp, gif, emf or wmf in this application.  I call it the suffix - it is controlled by the options in the Convert Files to Type combo box.

In addition to the file type, the program uses three other sources of information on how to name files.

First, there's the prefix.  It can be anything you want - or, it can be nothing at all.  It's valid to have a blank prefix, if you so choose. (Except for renaming files, since there would be no new file name that way).

Next, there's the Seq # (sequence number).  This can be any number, and leading zeros are honored.  I use leading zeros to force the new files into proper sort sequence.

And finally, there's the Output File Naming combo box that controls how the previous two options are used.

Use Prefix and Sequence Number will do just that - it will take the prefix and append the Seq # to it, and add the suffix depending on the conversion option.  Each succesive file name will have the sequence number incremented by 1 each time.

Combine Prefix Value and File Name - this will take the prefix, add the original file name to it, and then change the suffix depending on the conversion option.  The Seq # is not used with this option.


Prefix

The Prefix is used to determine new file names, in conjunction with the sequence number.  The prefix can be anything that's a valid part of a Windows file name.  It can be letters or numbers, underlines, etc.

It is attached to the 'front' part of the new file name during processing.


Sequence Number

The Sequence number is used in Output File names.  It is used in conjunction with the Prefix to 'number' files.

It's attached to the end of the prefix, if that option is chosen.  It must be three digits.

To get files with numbers higher than 999, add a '1' to the end of the prefix:

Prefix:  Thumb1

Seq #: 000

This will result in a file name of Thumb1000


Hi-liting Files

Files are selected on the Input File Selection screen by 'Hi-liting' them.  Clicking with the default mouse button will hi-lite a single file.

A block of files can be selected by clicking on the first desired file, then holding down the shift key and clicking on the last desired file (much like windows explorer).

Another way to select a block of files is to click and drag until all desired files are hi-lited.

Non-contiguous files can be selected by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking on files.


Thumbnails

Thumbnails refers to the hard bits at the ends of your fingers.

Thumbnails also refers to a small version of an image, that is often used in web pages to give a clue to what the full-sized image looks like without having to load the whole huge thing when browsing.


Overwrite Files

This option shows up on the Confirm Settings screen as a checkbox.  There are a couple of different situations where this may apply.

1.  You have chosen a target (destination) directory (folder) with existing files.  If existing files have names that match the new names you have chosen, they'll either be destroyed by the operation you perform or not, depending on the checkbox.

2.  You have selected files with the same name except for the suffix, and have bypassed the big blue warning dialog.  You have also chosen to convert the images, and are using the Combine Prefix naming option.  In this case, MyPic.gif is named ThumbMyPic.jpg, but it's wiped out by the next file to be processed MyPic.bmp is created with the new name of ThumbMyPic.jpg and Overwrites the file you just created with the same name. (Assuming you allowed Overwrites).


Supported File Types

File Types

Batch Thumbs currently supports bmp, jpg, gif, emf, and wmf.  In the future I hope to add support for png and maybe tiff, but it may be a while before that happens.

Bmp is the native Windows file format, but the filesize is prohibitive for use in web pages.  The gif format is very popular, but it is limited to 256 colors and there are licensing issues for program developers.  My favorite is the jpg format - it has very good image quality with a very small file size, and can support up to 16 million colors.  This format works great for web pages.  The Emf/wmf file format is kind of obsolete, and not really suited to web pages, but B. T. can convert all your old files into jpg or gif.


Warning Dialogs

As you navigate through the screens in Batch Thumbs, you will eventually run into one of the warnings or prompts.  Here's a description of some of those warnings, and why they occur.

There are various confirmation popups for operations that can erase files.  It's just a measure to make sure you don't inadvertently do something you didn't intend.

The first thing you may run into is a simple dialog that complains about No Files Selected.  This means you have not Hi-Lited any files in the file box (right-hand pane) on the first screen, the Input File Selection tab.  There must be at least one hi-lited file in the file box in order to proceed.  Acknowledge this and choose a file(s) by clicking with the mouse or use the Select All button.

Another annoying complaint dialog is the Big Blue Warning box.  It will rear its ugly head if somewhere in the list of files you have selected there are two files whose names are identical except for the file suffix.  It's warning you about two files, like abc.jpg and abc.bmp.  Although these files now have different suffixes, they may end up both being jpg or gif during processing.  The dialog will point out the two files that caused it to trigger, right up top.  You have to decide what you want to do about the situation.  Here are your options:

Click cancel to return to the first screen and find the files mentioned in the dialog.  Hilite one of them and use the Rename Manually Now button to change its name to something that won't trigger the warning.  Using the example I cited above, you could change abc.jpg to abcjpg.jpg or abcfirst.jpg or abc1.jpg.

Or, you could delete one of the files.

Or, you could un-hilite one of the offending files to remove it from the list to be processed. (Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking to unselect single files).

The other option is to click OK to continue, and ignore the warning.

While this may sound a bit cavalier, it may not actually matter that two of the input files have similar names.  It all depends on the Output File name options you choose.

If you're renaming files, it won't matter.

If you choose No Conversion, it won't matter.

If you choose Use Prefix and Sequence Number, it won't matter.

Otherwise, it matters, but if you don't care that one file gets overwritten by another then this is not a concern.

Finally, the other warning you will probably see at some point is the Input/Output Directories are the Same dialog.  This happens when you choose to put the output files in the same folder as the input files.  This may or may not matter, depending on the file names and the naming options you've chosen.  However, I would strongly urge you to direct the output to a different directory, and later move the files using windows explorer.

You may see other various errors if you put letters in a number box (like making the Width a 'T'), or other things along those lines.


Popup Menus

The directory and file boxes on the first two screens have some handy popup menus that you invoke by right-clicking on the panes.

They are slightly different on the second screen, but they provide access to the Create Directory and Remove directory commands.  If you find yourself looking for a new directory to store the new files then you can create one via the popup menu.  It can be very handy, and saves the trouble of starting windows explorer to accomplish that task.


Release Notes

Version 1.2 of Batch Thumbs has a couple of major usability enhancements.

1.  The program no longer is scaled for different screen resolutions.  In prior versions, it was difficult to read the text on monitors set to 640 x 480.  This won't affect too many people, I think.

2.  The HTML options have been greatly expanded;  you now have control over the file references, the page colors, the title and banner, and how the linked image is opened.

Screen resolution was the only reported bug, so I didn't 'fix' anything else.


Files can be converted from any supported type to any other supported type.  For example, from bmp to gif.


Batch Thumbs supports gif, jpg, bmp, emf, and wmf file formats.


Quality can refer to two different things in Batch Thumbs.  The quality of the thumbnail during resize, or the jpeg quality when converting files.


Batch Thumbs can create thumbnails with the exact width and height you specify, or it can maintain the aspect ratio of the original images.


Source Images refers to the original image files before any processing is done.


Thumbnails are small versions of larger images, which can be opened and viewed more quickly than their large counterparts.  It saves bandwidth and makes web wites with lots of graphics more manageable.


A wizard is a type of program that leads you through a process one step at a time, gathering input from you at each step on how to proceed.