Re- Sizing Images for Projection using IrfanView on a PC

Club projected images for competitions are required at the default size of the projector. In the case of my club the size is 1600pixels x 1200pixels (previously 1400 x 1050). This tutorial describes a very easy method of resizing an image, adding a frame / border and filling the the background to extend to the required projection size.

If you use a PC and want to try simple way to resize and add a frame/border to an image for PDI, then this tutorial.tutorial.is for you

To prepare images for PDI we will use a free image editor called IrfanView. At the time of writing IrfanView is on version 4.6 (). However this only can be installed on a Windows PC.

Download from here www.irfanview.com. This is a great programme for many other image processes. Batch converting format is just one of these.

Anyway, back to sizing and adding borders etc.for PDI.

Without and With a border of 1px

Resize the Image

With the image open in IrfanView, go the the Image tab and select Resize/Resample .

Make sure the “Preserve aspect ratio (proportional)” is ticked.

We are now going to tell IrfanView the size we want the image. MKCPC currently uses 1600px x 1200px.

I always take around 5 pixels off these values for the initial scale (will correctly scale later). I do this because sometimes not all the borders will be projected. So instead use 1595px for the width or1195px for the height.

OK so now we know the dimensions in pixels, we can re-scale the image. How we rescale will depend on the format of the image, landscape or portrait.

If it is landscape change the Width to 1595pixels. If it is portrait change the Height to 1195 pixels.

In both cases, as we have kept the aspect ratio, the other value will automatically be set to the correctly. In the example below, which is in portrait, I have set the “Height” to 1185 pixels. As we have the aspect preserved, the other dimension will automatically be scaled correctly. Use all the other settings as shown.

Adding a Border.

The next step adds the border. With IrfanView this is very easy.

First load the Border/Frame dialog from the Image tab. For a

white border select Plain White. The default is 15px so change

Border 1 to 1px . If you want a different colour change Border 1

colour. You can experiment a little such as having a white outer

bor der of 1px and an inner one of black 1 or 2 px (border two).

However for a PDI, borders are mainly used just to show the

distinction between the image to the background, so keep them

simple.

Without and With a border of 1px

Add a Background

Now we need to add a background with the size of the PDI, in this case 1600px x 1200px.

This is simple to do in IrfanView.

Open the Change Canvas Size dialogue from the Image Tab.

Select Method 2 and enter the required Width and Height , the Anchor to “Centre” and the canvas color to black.

Click OK and then from the File tab, save the image to a new name.

And that’s it. “Easy Peesey”.

Here, I’ve used IrfanView as it seems to be the simplest of all the editors and is free. It also makes the adding a border so easy to do and the tool to do this doesn’t seem to be available in any other image editors. If you don’t want a border the technique of resizing and making the background black can be done in other viewers/editors, however the commands may have different names and