How to convert scans to reasonable size?

I personaly have good experiences with T++nypic I always convert my BMP scans into jepec with this programm , its very easy.I tried irfan too but it was to comlicated for me

[beutelwolf]

Originally Posted by Super8

I personaly have good experiences with T++nypic I always convert my BMP scans into jepec with this programm , its very easy.I tried irfan too but it was to comlicated for me

irfanview has some nice features, e.g. vlc produces png snapshots and irfanview allows to convert a whole batch of them to jpg.

But for converting scans... I usually scan at 600 dpi, producing bmp files that are commonly 180MB in size. Routinely I do a bit of gaussian blurring, then reduce to 25% (which is 25% in each dimension, so really to 1/16th) and then save as jpg. These days I usually use paint.net for these tasks, but when a bit of rotation is needed I use gimp, as paint.net does not support fancy rotations.

The problem with gimp is that it really stinks at rescaling your images when they are large to begin with, so I always leave that task to paint.net (when it comes to scans, rescaling smaller images is not an issue). Also: working with large images occasionally goes pear-shaped in gimp anyway, so I now avoid the "overwrite" option when editing bmps, I have lost some images that way.

Because Irfanview supports batch jobs I could do the whole of my basic conversion with Irfanview which would save me quite a bit of time. Paintshop Pro allows more sophisticated batch jobs (you can define macros, and run the macros batch on a collection of files), but realistically you don't need more than what Irfanview offers. How good it is at this job I don't know yet, have only used it to batch file type conversions.

[Jazz67]

I've been using gthumb for years for image tweaking/resizing - really simple interface, and it's fast.
It's a nice combination of image file manager and image tweaky tool.

[EvilElf13]

I agree with Beutelwolf; Irfanview is a neat and efficient little program for all your conversion needs. Actually, I end up converting most of mine while working in Photoshop...but if I forget to do so or just want to run a simple batch job for the purpose, Irfanview is my choice.

For the record, I scan magazines at 300dpi with the DESCREEN option enabled and set to "fine print". Then, I downsize that image by 25% - 50%. That usually gives a nice sharp image free of moire patterns. Finally I will apply a light sharpen to the image if needed.

[Jism Jim]

Originally Posted by beutelwolf

But for converting scans... I usually scan at 600 dpi, producing bmp files that are commonly 180MB in size. Routinely I do a bit of gaussian blurring, then reduce to 25% (which is 25% in each dimension, so really to 1/16th) and then save as jpg. These days I usually use paint.net for these tasks, but when a bit of rotation is needed I use gimp, as paint.net does not support fancy rotations.
.

I don't know what you mean by fancy rotations, but Irfanview does batch rotations up to a tenth of a degree and batch blurring too.