Thumbnail Creator for the Revolution Pro Theme

I’ve been unsuccessfully looking for a way to automate the creation of thumbnails for use in the home page of the Revolution Pro Media Theme. After trying dozens of shareware and freeware titles, each one with its own limitations, I’ve decided to write an Automator plugin to generate resized images that fit the slots in theme’s front page. The major problem with the lightweight shareware programs was either the lack of presets for specifying multiple dimensions for the icons, or the inconvenience of accessing those presets. A large program like Photoshop seemed an overkill for such a trivial and often repeated task.

The theme uses three sizes of images in its “featured” boxes, the most suitable dimensions being: 125 x 250 icons for the top feature, 260 x 150 for the bottom left and right features, and 110 x 110 for the sidebar posts. The plugin will create all three at the same time when activated from the contextual menu by right-clicking (command-click for single-button mice) on the source image in the Finder.

I’m making this available in case someone else is having the same difficulty in finding a quick way to populate the image boxes. The version I’m posting here relies solely on resources that come with Mac OS 10.5.2 (it might work with earlier versions, but I haven’t tested).

Here’s what it does:

1) Takes the Finder selection (must be an image file) and resizes it to the right dimensions. If the file is smaller than the box, it will be enlarged, otherwise it will shrink. Any excess material will be cropped to maintain the right proportions of the box. Basically, it will try to maintain as much content as possible.

2) A light sharpening filter is applied to make text more readable in small icons.

3) An appropriate suffix is appended to the file name so it can be easily identifiable: _topfeaturethumb, _bottomfeaturethum (for the right and left “features”), and _sidefeaturethumb.

4) The processed files are saved to the desktop ready to be uploaded or moved to a storage folder.

5) The icons are opened in Preview for inspection.

The original file should remain untouched and where it was but, as usual, be cautions and work on a copy.
This software is offered “as is” and comes with no guarantees. By using it, you are accepting all the responsibility for anything that happens. If your cat dies of asthma while you are using it, you agree that the software did not kill him, etc.

Installation:

Put the plugin inside: ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Finder/

Usage: command-click (right-click) on a image file and select More > Automator > RevoPro_ColorNoBorderNoTrimOS

Download: See the related post Revised Thumbnail Creator for the Revolution Pro Theme
 Obs:

1) It takes a while for it to do its work and, if for some reason it stops in the middle, discard the generated files on the desktop and try again.

2) I also included a standalone application as an alternative. Just put it anywhere convenient and drag the image source on it to run.

3) This is free but all rights reserved (PhaseLight.com).

Update (April 3, 2008): See the post Revised Thumbnail Creator for the Revolution Pro Theme

Related posts:

• Revised Thumbnail Creator for the Revolution Pro Theme (0)
• Apple Releases Mac OS 10.5.4 Update (0)
• Apple Releases Mac OS 10.5.3 Update (0)