Back in 2008 I would spend some of my Saturday afternoons sitting in a Laundromat, waiting for my clothes to smell good. I quickly realized these moments were perfect to bring my laptop with me and code. One of the first AIR apps I wrote was Shrink O’Matic, now you know where the name comes from.
It quickly became successful. It now has been downloaded 168,000+ times, a best-seller of sorts. Except it’s free.
But with success comes feedback, and with feedback comes feature suggestions. Most of them were included through updates, some of them didn’t make the cut. Probably because of me being lazy or because of AIR’s limitations.
Then AIR 2 came out, then I learnt Robotlegs… So I re-wrote it from scratch! Introducing Shrink O’Matic 2, the same quick and simple app but with more features and a nicer theme.
Here’s what’s fresh off the oven:
- Drop folders onto the app: every image in it (or in its sub-folders) will be shrinked.
- New “Rotation” settings pane: either use a specific angle or let the app read your images’ EXIF data and decide what to do.
- Custom name option: choose exactly what the output name will be using your own pattern and injecting the original file’s name (using $name) and/or its position in the queue (using $num).
- PNG files now keep their transparency when shrinked.
- Watermark: watermark your images, even choose where to place the overlay.
- Drop files onto the app while it’s processing, no problemo!
- No more dimension limits.
- Shiny new theme!
But! I decided some features had to go. I removed the “name preview” that used to be in the status bar. I also removed the ability to drop images from web pages. If you need these features and want them back, make sure to drop a comment and let me know!
That’s it, go get it!
Very nice work dude – it’s a default install for me on my systems…
Is it possible to add SWF Mousewheel for OS X ? Also the upload fonts kinda troubled a bit http://grab.by/bDgk thank you for making such a nice update
What do you mean? Scrolling the settings panes with mouse wheel? If so: yup, good idea! Hum, weird stuff with those fonts. Will try to fix this!
Sorry I wasn’t clear previously. Yes, that’s what I meant.
Thanks
I don’t know if its just me, but checked watermark option and then the drop / browse images is not working. Unchecked the watermark option and still drop / browse images not working. Had to close the app to make it work again.
Can’t sem to reproduce the bug. Did you pick a valid image for your watermark? To clear your settings, locate and delete the app’s Shared Objects. Folder is called net.tw.air.ShrinkOMatic.[SOMETHING].
I’m not sure about validity, I tested with create an image with photoshop transparent PNG, PNG & JPG, did delete the app’s Shared Objects, still can’t work with watermark. Here’s a screencap for an insight http://cl.ly/DXQE
Thanks for the video, strange indeed! Looks like a runtime error breaks the app. Will try to investigate on that, thanks.
Version 2.0.2 uploaded to fix all of these bugs!
Thank you, I’ll try it soon
Hi.
I love this app. However , I still need to use another one when I need to crop thumbnails.
Can you maybe include a crop option?
thx
I’m afraid not… I try to keep the app as focused as possible, sorry!
The new version is GREAT! Thank you!
Is it possible that some meta-data is being lost? It appears that some of the camera and exposure meta-data is being lost during shrinkage. Thanks!
You’re right, all metadata is stripped. In fact new images are created from scratch and only what’s visual is restored.
That’s really unfortunate! Meta-data is really important. I will have to stop using (and recommending) your program soon unless the meta-data gets copied over. It’s never very big. The only sizeable component of meta-data is the optional thumbnail, and that is the one thing that you could delete without harm. Thanks.
I understand, but it’s been like that since day one (of version one) and I do not plan on adding this feature… Sorry!
Feature Request –
I noticed that the resolution is automatically downsizes to 72ppi. Would it be possible to add an option to disable/enable that feature? There are instances where I need to downsize pixel dimension but not resolution.
Thanks
Is it possible to add support for TIF files as an input format?
@Dov: Shrink O’Matic doesn’t deal with PPI, it deals with pixels! The PPI unit only means something in Photoshop or when printing.
@Aaron: Sorry but no, I won’t add TIFF support.
What a great program – thanks! Have been working on decreasing page load times and obviously image sizes / optimization is a big one. Again: Thanks for a great app with a nice UI.
hey. There seems to be a bit of a problem with the latest version of Shrink O’Matic. I can’t set the pixel width any more. I can physically change the value (eg, “800”) but no matter what I type in, the image comes out 48px wide. I can set the ratio no problem.
Oh really? I’ll fix that as soon as possible!
An update has just been uploaded! 2.0.3 fixes the bug, thanks for reporting it.
Thanks Quentin! Works perfectly now.
Ditto re: default install on all my systems now. SOM rocks, HOWEVER…., I’ve just set up a Win 7, 64bit machine & the drag & drop images no longer functions! The only way to get SOM to work is via browsing for pics or folder. It’s just a bit.….annoying as I loved the convenience of D & D. Any ideas?
Hi Quentin,
I’m wondering how do you “create” the shrunk images without any lag?
I’ve tried using JPEGEncoder / PNGEncoder in my AIR app and it took a long time even for a 350×200 px image.
Really appreciate it if you can share. Thanks :D
Hey Gigi, SO’M uses JPEGEncoder and PNGEncoder!
Hey Quentin,
Thanks for the reply. Strange how SO’M encode the pics lightning fast!
The only different between SO’M and my app is that I create the JPGs from user’s webcam, and I use Flash Builder 4. Do you think that might cause the lag?
No, Flash Builder isn’t guilty here; I also used it!
Thanks Quentin for the clarification. I’ll try disabling the webcam and manipulate an image file like what SO’M did and see if the lag is still there.
Great Job on SO’M by the way, you’re an inspiration! :D
Hey again,
I noticed for some images being processed to get bigger instead of smaller after the use of SoM2. Couldn’t you integrate a test-sum of some kind which would compare file-sizes before & after and not process if the latter one is turning out to be bigger?
I love to just bulk-shrink my stuff but with these possibly negative outcomes I need to check every single file… Just a feature request essentially.
Regards!
Henning
When you say “bigger”, do you mean “heavier” (more bytes)?
Yeah, heavier. You can try and reproduce the error with this PNG: http://e-vance.net/images/shrink/button-download-hover.png
Before: 32.298 Byte
After: 34.391 Byte
Not much, I suppose but somehow inflated… Maybe I chose a shitty compression within PS or some like that? Then again, this could be made impossible by comparison of the two file-sizes.
You’re right!
Will try to fix that when I can!
Awesome! Really appreciate your effort.
Feature Request:
I realise the primary purpose of this program is to resize, but could you maybe make the resize into a checkbox so it is optional. I would love to be able to use this just for renaming all my pics without changing then size
I’m afraid this could be misleading, but if you’re looking for a renaming app I suggest you try Ant Renamer!
Sadly Ant is Windows only (or appears to be) and I use a Mac as well as windows. I was hoping for one program to do all the related pic stuff I need, and your program almost fits that bill. Thanks for the advise tho!
This app is just AWESOME ! :)
But it could be more awesome if we could keep the tags of the photo (i.e. date, time of the picture, and other photo info in EXIF)
I tried to install your program, but it failed
at the point where it was installing adobe air
because I already have adobe air installed
for several applications. Do you have and install option that doesn’t require adobe air first?
Sure! Just download the .air file directly by clicking on the version number (on the project page) under “Version history”! Then simple execute it and you should be good.
I would like to be able to resize to a specigic size as my images are varied in height and width. for example 95kb for all images in the file
Hi Lanny, unfortunately SO’M knows how to deal with pixels (sizes), but not kilobytes (weight.) Sorry!
+1 for hard crop function
Keep getting an error when trying to download to a Windows 7 laptop. It says it must install Air, but I already have Air installed. I get error message, retry, and immediately the same error message. Is there a place I can download this when I already have Air installed or does this not work with the latest Air – 3.4.
Hi Jae,
yes, there’s a big (worldwide) bug with Adobe AIR and Google Chrome right now, which prevents the install badge from working… So there are 2 options for you: either use Firefox or IE (I know) to install the app, or download and install Adobe AIR from Adobe (if you don’t already have it) and download SO’M directly on the project page (clicking its version number, under Version history.)
I hope this helps!
Hi I got your Shrink O’ Matic, Lthink it is a great idear but think something is mess up, I set the max with and high to 100X80 and it give me 59X80, if I change from 100X80 to 200X80 it still gives me the size of 59X80 how do i fix this. Thank you.
Hi Mike,
what you describe is normal! The values you choose are the size limits to be applied to your image, not the size the resulting image will be.
Shrink O’Matic remove all EXIF data! :-(
Hi, Nice app. I have a question please. is it possible to reduce the file size of GIFS but keep them animating. when i shrink them with this app it reduces my gifs to one layer – thanks!