FastStone Photo Resizer 3.1

Though advertised as an image resizing utility, FastStone Photo Resizer is much more than just a tool to change names of image files in your photo collection. Actually, it comes with more editing features than many photo editors, and offers a much wider support for popular image file formats than well-known image conversion tools. It can also rename, frame, and add watermarks to your images – and all that for free.

The program’s interface is clear and intuitive. The program uses a two-panel design to help you select the images to be edited – all supported files will be listed (either by filename or as thumbnails) on the left-hand panel, and from there you can easily select and transfer all the files that need fixing into your conversion list (the right-hand panel). The resizing feature does not seem to be more relevant than any of the other editing functions available – actually, the program shows two main tags, one for batch conversion and another one for batch renaming. Resizing is “hidden” behind the “Use advanced options” label, together with cropping, rotating, color adjustments, or borders and watermarks.

This “Advanced Options” window is, by far, the most interesting part of the program. Here you can “activate” as many editing features as needed, and they will all be sequentially applied to the images on the list. The amount of settings that you can tweak and customize for each function is enough to make you dizzy, and more than enough to produce the high-quality results that you would expect from an application of this comprehension. The output image formats supported (JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF, and even PDF) are not as many as those in the input side, but they will surely cover most if not all of your conversion needs.

Regrettably, I believe that such a restrictive name doesn't help to make this interesting and free tool better known among the plethora of photo converters and editors that flood the market. Its clear and well-organized interface, its support for most known image file formats, its batch conversion/renaming/resizing capabilities, or its highly customizable editing features are just as good – if no better – as those you can find in commercial and shareware image editors and converters.