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Resizing and Optimizing Screenshots


Di3sIrae

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Hey ladies and gentlemen!

Explanation:

Well, i like to take screenshots. A single screenshot from Skyrim or Fallout 4 in 2560x1440 usually is around 14mb. I like to keep ALL of my screenshots. Considering i have thousands (i have something like 4.058 FO4 files and 20.732 Skyrim files, roughly counting), this would need a HD only for screenshots and files (around 240 gbs only for screenshots? I don't have images only for these two games). I had to find a way to optimize them to reduce file size and keep quality and dimension. There are online sites that can do this, but too much trouble to upload them, download them, and sometimes the quality doesn't stay the same for a good size reduction.

 

So i found a way to do this. Reducing something from 14mb to 0.6mb to 1,2mb. WITHOUT LOSING QUALITY. Yes, impressive. And magical. I don't know how it works. I just know that using this ALL my screenshots folders together counts only around 19gb.



First of all: Converting image from bmp to jpg.

 

When taking shots using the game or ENB (i don't even consider Steam, but you can use your GPU software for this, i don't), they are saved as bmp. Jpg is smaller. Simple as that.

 

What I use: IrfanView.

 

This program is a good image viewer but what is interesting is it's function to batch conversion of images. I'm sure you can use other programs to do it, but this one is simple and effective.

 

How to:

 



Open IrfanView, and then press 'B' (or go to File>Batch Conversion/Rename).

This is what will appear:

 

asas.thumb.jpg.e437eee058429143b0b0e9abbcbca35e.jpg

 

1 - Batch conversion is what we'll be using. If you want to also rename, you can use it too. I stopped renaming my shots a long while ago, and the program i recommend for doing it is CKRename (couldn't find original website), because it has some functions that i value, like replacing all the name with 'charactername_' and adding number sequence to the end.

 

2 - JPG format. These are the options i use for the conversion.

 

3 - Choose the folder where your shots are. I usually remove them from the game folder and throw it all in an empty folder. For this, i have 3 empty folders in my desktop. You'll know why 3 later.

 

4 - If your folder have only the shots you want to convert, just hit Add All. If not, select the ones you want and click on Add.

 

5 - Output folder. I just use the second desktop empty folder. You can also use the same folder as output, but if not renaming, you will have a bit more of effort to delete them.

 

6 - Start Batch will convert the images. Just wait till it's over.

 

After the program is done, the pictures will now have something like 3mb to 8mb. Reduced, but not yet low enough. We now have jpg files with the same quality as the bmp ones.

 

I must say here that i compared the pictures a lot of times before deleting my bmp ones because i couldn't believe, but I couldn't see any difference. If you can, please show me. I zoomed in several times but nothing. Maybe some archives may show difference, nothing is perfect, i guess.

 

 

So, now we must optimize the jpg files:

 

Program used: RIOT (no, we're not going to play LoL)

 

Radical Image Optimization Tool is a very useful and magical program that can optimize images and even be integrated into other programs like GIMP, for example.

 

I just do batch optimizations, this way:

 



Open RIOT.

 

afaf.thumb.jpg.3d8dca913135a0663cd80df005398ec5.jpg

 

1 - These are the settings I use for the optimization. Be sure to check JPEG.

 

2 - Now click Batch. The program will close to open this new window in the center.

 

If you are doing like me with the 3 empty folders, click on Add all images from folder and select the second one where you have the converted jpg files. All images will appear here. Add Images if you want to add them one by one. Or just Add all and then remove selected ones.

 

Note: If you are using the same folder for original and output, you may want to check the settings to overwrite existing files or delete original files when complete.

 

Then select the output folder (now the third empty folder, if you're doing like me) and click on Start.

 

It may take a while, just wait.

 

When RIOT is done, now you'll have files with file size around 1mb. Using the 3 empty folder method you now can compare all the 3 images and see file size and quality.

If all the 3 of them are similar or equal, great! Delete the original bmp and converted jpg and enjoy your free disk space!

This was pretty much needed in a time when Nexus would only accecpt 1,5mb files, and uploading with 10mb internet is now much faster.

That's it, really, nothing else to add. Hope this works for you and can be of any help for those maniacs like me who like to keep everything they find.

All the best for ya :)

 

 

obs: i couldn't find something like this and it is really a simple thing that many may already know or do in a different way. I just wanted to share how I do it.

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  • 1 year later...
For windows users, I would recommend FastStone Image Viewer
 
I can't post screenshots at this point, but you can find these features under:
Tools / Batch Convert (F3)
 
It can batch convert/rename images, and do image processing (like resize, crop, watermark) in one step.
 
As far as jpg optimization, I use (YCbCr) 90-95% settings, but there's a preview mode where you can see the file size and how it would look like.
 
Edit:
Yay... I can finally upload images:
 
Spoiler

1.JPG

 

2.JPG

 

3.JPG

 

 

 

 

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