New user, just looking for info about an app that seems not to exist (?)

[shawnblog]

So, I use iPhone and iPad to do my work each day. I take a lot of pictures and use a proprietary that sends my reports into the office so they can take data I have gathered in the field and produce a report.

A large portion of my data is pictures. The problem is that the proprietary app does not shrink or compress the images which I take with my iPhone 4. The result is that the report is too big to send.

I'd like to be able to resize the images without going back to my desktop so that I can complete the reports from the field and not bring my MacBook Pro out with me at all (it's almost as long in the tooth as me... I'd also like to stay home, but I'm sure there's no app for that - yet).

Searching around, I have been unable to find even one app that will enable to me resize images. Even Photoshop Express, which I thought would be the answer for sure... no deal though.

Ideally, this would be a batch operation, so I could select a bunch of images that I have taken (usually around 30-40 per report) and resize all of them at once into a specific location either on the device or to a "cloud" type app like Dropbox.

Of course, Dropbox, along with the multiple file selection and folder manipulation functionality that still doesn't exist, should include the ability to upload compressed images. But it doesn't.

I use Pixelpipe from my iPhone to upload and that app does have a low quality upload option, but it's not quite low enough (the images are still around 1MB after uploading the "low" quality version) and, they all go into one folder on Dropbox... but I need to be able to move them into different folders so the staff at the office can easily find the pictures for each report.

OK, so much for my intro. Not much to say about me. I can be found on my blog and elsewhere online. I'm not looking for a date or anything!

 

[iPadCharlie]

PhotoPad will re-size images (one at a time) and allows you to email them.

 

[appsmonkey]

You could try an app called OneEdit for iPad - Batch Image Editor & Uploader. According to their description:

OneEdit executes multiple tasks on multiple photos at ONE time. You can also export your edited photos to photo library, Dropbox and Facebook by ONE click.

Good luck!

 

[shawnblog]

I bought it (through your link even)... and here's my inital analysis of the app:

Right away, the program only runs in landscape. I guess I understand why, given the way the GUI is set up, but I hate having such a restriction (if you wanna call it that... I call it that)... not really a big deal, just a pet peeve of mine.

For some reason, the app wants my location. So now I'm using more battery, right? I guess I could have denied that request, but then I might be limiting the app in some way. It's not telling me why. I always like to know why. I'm a kid like that.

Selecting photos: and done. So awesome. I am happy so far...

"Selected Tasks" (the middle pane) was not all that intuitive, but not a stumper.

"Resize" is not really what I want to do either... I want to compress the image file size (and perhaps resize it also). Obviously, resizing the image to a smaller size will reduce the file size. Also, the options are "Fixed Width & Height" and then, the separate "Width" / "Height" options. In my case, some pictures are portrait and some are landscape, so this kills me. I don't want a bunch of square images!

Output format? Simple choices presented. I chose JPG for ease of use (web) to my end user who may not even know what PNG means. Of course, they probably don't have a clue what JPG means either, but they are trained for that one.

Okay, so the "Execute" button is followed by a popup tab and another "Take Action" button. Whatever...

It starts processing the batch. I am EXCITED here.

I get a "Process is completed" alert followed by an "Output" button. Pressing that closes the popup tab.

In the output, a bunch of the images are rotated 90 degrees. It looks like they're all the portrait images. I suppose I could train myself to only take landscape aspect pictures when I'm in the field to eliminate the next step - rotation.

Linking to my Dropbox account was easy and fast. Uploading the files in a batch? Oh my. How awesome is this app?

When I select a folder to send the output in Dropbox, the app will only let me create a new folder within that folder for my output. Moving forward, I'll just create the folder at that time. Previously, I have created the folders before doing the work so I would have it ready in Dropbox after taking the pictures. No big deal there.

Not a bad app overall. The developer could do some work on the GUI and process flow. After processing a batch, clearing the selected photos and the tasks is simple, but the output remains in the third pane and there is no "clear" way to remove previous output, but it does disappear when processing a new batch. That's just a little confusing the first time (I'm on my third batch of pictures now, as I finish writing this).

This app really does what I need! With a few minor adjustments to my own workflow, I think this is the best $2.99 I've spent during this millennium (seriously).

Thanks for the info. I can't believe the app is 5 days old. It's like a developer was reading my mind (or more like this functionality is needed and should have already been built into Dropbox).

Thanks again!
SH

 

[shawnblog]

I got some clarification from the developer...

I just wanted to pass this along if anyone is following:

1. "Location warning" is an iOS 4.2 hook for allowing any app access to multiple image selection. OneEdit will not use any location information for processing.


2. For "Resize", I overlooked the options to select only width or height (instead of both), so the corresponding width or height is perfectly calculated according to the aspect ratio of photo.


3. The seemingly arbitrary rotation of images after they are processed must be something that gets stripped out of the image when it is resized. Since taking my first iPhone 4 pictures (I do not recall if this was an issue on my 3GS), all portrait oriented pictures I have taken were flipped 90 or 270 degrees in the process of resizing.

The developer said, "We will consider to add different settings for Landscape and Portrait pictures so that user can use different settings for different orientations."

This app is fantastically useful if you need to process batches of images on your iPad. In fact, if you need that functionality, you need this app right now. It works as advertized and the developer is responsive and open for comments.

Thanks again for finding this app for me!