ya'll amaze me. i check out the free (yes, free to *us*) software and find that at least 60% of the replies are people saying "its free for you - shut up". but the WHOLE POINT of this site is for software creators to get people to try what they've got and give honest feedback. (NOT for you to get free software!) thus, honest feedback should be accepted, if not acclaimed. that's how it works. deal with it. if a program is not what you want, say so. if you think its freakin fantastic, say that too. but arguing over how its free to us, but overpriced for others is a moot point. any major programmer/software-user/etc can often tell you 10 other freeware options that are better, or at least cheap software that is better. that's how the internet works - those who know, learn from each other. those who don't, use crappy software like this. end of story.

CORRECTION: For the record, I was incorrect in the size (800 x 600) of the photos. They were not 800 x 600, but 2448 x 3264 (3.5 to 4 MB each). So it processed and made pages for about 472 MB of data in about 4 minutes.

RE: #49 / 66 - I'm not sure 13376 X 16059 600 MB photos are typically representative of the types of photos individuals would want to upload / download from the web. You wouldn't expect a $40 CAD program offered for free to have the capability that a $2,500 package would do, and you certainly wouldn't fault the $40 software for not having it. If it does what it says it does (and this product does), then that's all there is to it. You shouldn't be looking to GOTD for free, fully functional versions of Microsoft Office 2007 or AudoCAD.

For those interested in seeing some of my work, there is video on file at the Smithsonian of thier anniversary back in the 80's. While I was part of a team, the camera work at orchestra and first tier audience, as well as some main lobby photography is mine. Go see it, find the longest name on the list and feel free to post it back here in proof that you actually went to see professional work instead of whining about your failure to grasp reality.

ops forgot to add Bottom.

There is a watermark.
tab 4. Options,
options: 4 Images, click (Logo and text) bottom.

I am using this software with orthers. for I want to have seperate thumbnail websites in there own folders from each member of my family. starting with a cd2html (freeware)that puts your folder containts in web form then edit it with Evrsoft first page html editor (freeware), to my likeing and error cheecking. then a CDStarter for video files viewing. to finnish up a AutorunPro to lunch {from CD's} my main page that guides you to all the thumbnail websites, videos, starting music file if any, and loads help files at start up of cd. This Cd is for my family personal usage. I do not Know how to put it online.
This Express Thumbnail Creator 1.81 program I use a lot. does need to add Thumbnail for short video clips that all digital cameras with 5+ megapixels have. a costomise main page would not hurt. What about Digital camcorders long videos. a splash bitmap, a startup for cd user with music that user have; to put-in the program file form.(music not included in program user add it on thier own)

Sorry, I figured it out. Thanks.

I have downloaded this and followed installation instructions. It still tells me that I have to buy it after 30 days. How do I make this a proper free giveaway. I am obviously doing something wrong.

#58 Did you actually try this programme? Your "ezthumbs" didnt cut it for me at all . The Express Wizard is great and in an instant you can create a great looking Photo Album for upload to your own Web Space.Im hooked.

Hempman, ol' buddy...why don't we get a link to some of this fantastic work of yours you're always braggin' about? What about that sports team that you were commissioned for? We're tired of talk. We want some action! ;)

Great giveaway for my needs. Thanks GAOTD and Neowise Software.

Brief comment to #49 HEMPMAN; I'm sure you don't upload images to the web that are 100 MB plus, as a person on dialup would never be able to load your page. (However you didn't say, so I had to wonder...). You probably have Photoshop or some other high quality image re-sizer.

For those who don't have an easy way to re-size images prior to uploading to the web, here is an easy and FREE program to do just that.

http://bluefive.pair.com/pixresizer.htm

Enjoy!

A thumbnail creator is all about the sharpening process. This puppy does not cut it!
I have not found a better one to date than Easy Thumbnails, and it's free. To do a better job I would have to open up CS3 and manually do it.
Easy Thumbnails can be found here (http://www.fookes.com/ezthumbs).

For the average John Doe this software does what it claims to do. For all you other whiners that expect 'professional' quality results from a $40 software, all I can say is 'Go Buy Professional Software!'

Photoshop, Paintshop Pro & Fireworks all do batch conversions with more choices that you know what to do with and they do it fast. #49 will still have to wait a while for his images to render..... but it will sure as hell be quicker than doing it manually.

Remember the old saying:
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!

#49 I was in 2 minds whether to comment but feel so incensed; I am amazed that comments that are nothing more than personal attacks on other commenters are allowed through and onto this board. #29 expressed an opinion and was perfectly entitled to do so - why do you feel the need to consistently attempt to belittle people whose views do not happen to coincide with your own?

maybe you should go somewhere else... and let the grownups discuss things you can’t understand

This comment was totally uncalled for and was brought about by #29 saying that he thought the program was of good quality. The result? You, again, bragging about your personal computer related appliances and trying to bully others into being too afraid to speak their own mind.

You once tried to undermine me in much the same way (some of your post was edited out by the moderators, I would love to know what it said), I think that time you were talking about your XP Professional and Microsoft Office instead of your lifesize photograph producing apparatus, but failed to reply to my response. I was not going to post this but bullying of any kind absolutely enrages me and your comment to Kevin P was absolutely unnecessary - feel free to try and bully me, I genuinely could not care less if you own Vista SP4 blueprints but you are not better than anyone else and owning the latest technology does not, in fact, mean that your opinions are worth more than anyone else's. Far, far from it.

I actually have tonsillitis at the mo and feel quite dreadful so this is only a quick review. But I have 6,000 website backgrounds to giveaway on my website and needed a thumbnail creator with which to do so; I read the negative comments on here but have just had a look at this program and it is genuinely sensational.

Yes, there are other such programs for free etc - but not of this quality. You choose the folder or files in which you have your images stored and it does the rest, creating the most professional of index pages to FTP onto your site. The templates it uses from which you can choose are of spectacular quality and the program is just a sheer joy to use.

This one piece of software will save me hours of programming time and for that I seriously would pay the $40. People seem to nowadays come to this site, look at the cost and if there is a freeware alternative available give the program an immediate thumbs down - but that is in many cases like comparing apples to oranges; the quality must also be assessed and this program with its user-friendly and crisp interface, gorgeous templates and swift, internet ready results is genuinely sensational and much better than many other programs free or not.

I am using Vista Premium and every download I have tried to run once downloaded for the past 10 days will not function. I simply get a "Express Thumbnail Creator has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and nitify you if a solution is available." Then, I have two buttons, one saying "Debug" and the second "Close program".

These programs will not work, even 'start as administrator'. Have I got to re-configure my firewall? Does anyone have the same problem and have you found a 'fix'?
Thanks.

OK, it's downloaded and installed.

Simple install (they usually are if folks will read the README file FIRST to understand the order of installation, and then follow the instructions). Simple program, creates thumbnails AND HTML pages for you if you want, or you could place gallery HTML page in an I-frame. For the poster that asked how to get it on his website, simply upload all files you saved to (program lets you save any where you want), and FTP into the correct folder on your website.

You can go here (http://www.coreftp.com/) for an excellent FTP program (free for personal use). If you don't know what FTP means just Google it - plenty of free instructions.

I recommend this program for simple image galleries & ease of gallery installation (when you don't want to do one from scratch). Plus there are some attractive themes that go with it.

If you host your own web site and know how to use Cpanel, there are usually more in-depth galleries you can install with Cpanel/Fantastico, that are free with Cpanel hosting.

I may not use this a lot as I have some slick PHP gallery scripts I prefer, but I installed it anyway just in case I need a quick & attractive gallery.

LOL @ #47.

This program is similar to JAlbum but seems a little more user friendly to me. Not everyone will find software like this useful, but those who do will be pleased with this program. Like others have said there are several freeware alternatives that are great, but if you're in the market for a thumbnail creator this program is still of high quality and worth your time.

Just a quick observation targeted at those who are dissatisfied with the state of the GOTD comments page. Whiners who don't like the current GOTD offering really aren't the biggest problem IMO. Rather, there is too much whining about OTHER people whining. Most comments pages are brimming with gems of wisdom like "IF U DONT LIKE IT DONT DOWNLOAD IT" and "U ARE ALL BABIES STOP COMPLANING ABOT FREE STUFF!!! coupled with moral crusaders writing long dissertations on why people are wrong to complain. Is all this necessary?

For the record, this is the last you'll hear of me complaining about other people complaining about other people complaining. ;) Party on.

#29 -KevinP - If the retail price is irrelevant, then why does GAOTD list it? Because it is NOT irrelevant. Stop shaking your dusty old pom poms at us.

Your experience illustrates exactly what I said: for the eBay and amateur photog crowd where speed is not an issue (I paraphrase, but essentially that is what I said), this is an ok program. But, this is far from fast, compared with pro level tools available at little more than the asking retail price for this.

800 X 600 are snapshots by today's standards, not photgraphs. Try blowing them up to 8" X 10" and you WILL see artifacts. My webcam produces larger format pics.

My small format photographs (I'm not comparing the web cam) are 5792 X 7557 and come in at around 129 MB, and medium format is 9584 X 11808 producing files that are 332 MB. The large format pics (I did not use any for the test, thank goodness, or I'd still be waiting for it to finish) are 13376 X 16059 and weigh in at over 600 MB. I regularly blow up the large format photographs to 4 FEET by 6 FEET and the resolution is what you have when you print your 800 X 600 at 4 inches X 5 inches.

This illustrates exactly why price is relevant. In order to appropriately critique any offering, one must be able to discern a given program's value. They think it is worth $40, which shows that they have unrealistic expectations.

As for the awards, I read the list. Every one is for trialware versions given away on software websites. Also, every award is from websites that issue thier awards based solely on popularity and not how well the program actually performs, which is about as useful as the thumbs up/down here. Not one award was given by anyone related to photography, or even web page design.

To those who do not like accurate analysis of programs presented, get over it children. GAOTD is a commercial enterprise who acts as a go between providing software, and a forum where people are expected to talk about what they like AND dislike about any given program. That way, others might know if even a free download is worth the time.

And, since I've seen some vendors pointing back to GAOTD, the critiques are being used to promote the retail sales of thier software. That makes both discussion of flaws as well as the accuracy of the retail price compared to the true value extremely relevant.

I know that just gets your pom poms in a bunch, but maybe you should go somewhere else to be a cheerleader and let the grownups discuss things you can't understand.

Ok I downloaded the new one installed it .. and all went fine! I love the new features over the old version I have. I really dont care about the price at all since my past expirence with this program tells me I will not waste my money.

And geeeeeeeez I wasted a whole 15 seconds of my bandwidth downloading it!!! RE: #7 How much bandwidth did you waste on your foolish comment??

#45 ...LOL. I loved your response but I feel you are targeting 14 yr olds, and we all know that is useless.

I to have used this program since 2000 as #20 and purchased it. The time saved in that time period has been well worth the $40.00.

I can see why some may complain about the price .. it is hard to buy good software on the allowance your parents give you in a week.

Great product!

I was looking at this the other day and thought it would be useful but I wasn't ready to make the purchase. I am so glad you made it the GAOTD.

Thank you!!

The program is an easy tool for people who have not much idea about HTML etc (newbie website creators). It is available to them on a website they might check everyday to see if they have a software which might help their lives which have not been illuminated by the knowledge of technical and such. So people like me, who would not go out googling for such software (I have built my own website, a pretty decent one, in fact due to tools like this which fall in my lap, but am not motivated enough to search what is available to enhance my website). People who are unhappy because the price which they don't have to pay today (!!) is $40 rather than $5 may benefit by books like Dale Carnegie's "How to stop worrying and start living". Why don't you enjoy this software while you can and when your system crashes (if you failed to download computer programming software for free since their marked price was $80 instead of $5 which you thought it should have been), you are really under no obligation to buy this. You can google and find other freeware to use till your computer crashes again.

This software has won a fair number of awards and really can't me that shabby an offering for free (even if the real price would have been three gazillion dollars). Of course, if there are other freeware better than this, thanks to people who are giving links to those software, that is definitely helpful.

People who are angry because GAOTD is a commercial initiative and you feel is obligated to treat you better, dude, it is free for you. If you feel you are being treated as guinea pigs, call 911 and tell them that this website has hypnotized you and you are being made to come here and spend 10 seconds or more everyday to see what is being offered. The cops will surely take this website to task for FORCING you to waste your precious time here. Do you really have such sense of entitlement in other fields of life too? If so, I would refer you to Dale Carnegie's book again.

I do love looking at this website everyday, I like some offerings, I don't like many others. But for few seconds a day, it is a fun activity at least.

I tried this but it is slow moving. And $40 for this thing is insanity. I will be sticking with JAlbum. Try that one!
@21-BillW50-Nice, interesting trip down the Memory Lane. It is worthy to note that 10 months after, people still can not understand activate.exe before setup. Or will it run after Windows reinstall. And most amazing is Whiterabbit kissing only take up one line!
--Hvit Kanin of Norway

I agree with # 25. I also installed this program when it was offered here last time (same version; 1.81), and very easily I made a nice-looking photo gallery with clickable thumbnails for my organisation's web page. (A chess club - you may check the result at www.nittedalsjakk.priv.no/ > Bilder). Good program and very simple to use - one of the few programs I have downloaded from this site.

This is FREE people! Get it? You don't have to PAY for it...EVER. Stop complaining about the price...Please!

WOW! Awesome! I asked for this yesterday!!!!!!!! Just ask People! This looks great and runs smooth as anything! NO problems!! YAY!

No .gif support, very slow, and uses a LOAD of .html's instead of a packed .exe. I dislike this program.

well OK I downloaded... Added photos and am now clueless what to do with it!! The help isn't a whole lot of help as I keep getting an error when I try to use it. How in the world do you get it on your website?! So far I am not much of a fan of this program. :(

I haven't downloaded this yet - seems to be lots of neg. comments. I may still try it though. I've used a free gallery software for a while. It's a bit older (last update 2006) but works well. It has lots of options, so you might want to check it out.
http://www.minostudio.com/software/

If you like it the owner (not me - I just use it) loves donations.

Thanks GOTD.

A little primitive, but this program works. No phone home activity, and the small size make this valuable for the eBay and amateur photog crowd.

I chose a subset of my photography drive (175 pics). Fast, with tools like rotate and cropping on the image preview menu. Also available are tools for changing the position in the list of each pic.

Large photos took about ten times as long to load/manipulate as Corel Paintshop Pro X2's similar built in tool. Included in my test were several 330 MB files of a photos taken for a sports team for which I was commissioned took nearly five minutes to render, where those same pics only takes 15 seconds in Paintshop X2's album tool. Not exactly pro level, though I could see people who don't know any better spending nearly as much for a slow, limited capacity tool as they might if they did five more minutes of research.

Simple to apply display themes, and one can make an auto-run CD of images. There is no preview of how the gallery will look. Paintshop Photo X2 not only provides a preview, but the gallery is directly editible in drag and drop fashion.

Generating the thumbnails took nearly an hour. SSSLLLLOOOOWWWWW and painful. It certainly is anything BUT Express! It stalled frequently. It choked on a number of photos that Paintshop Photo X2 handled in less than five minutes. It took more time for "Express" Thumbnail Creator to resize each one of the large photos than it took for Paintshop Photo X2 to generate the entire album.

Also, despite having installed this on a different drive, the program used the system drive for temporary storage while operating. There seems to be no easy way to change this, if it can be changed. This is unacceptable.


For free, this works OK, even if it is painfully slow. Take it while it is free.

$40 is a joke. While the sale price on Paintshop is ended (it'll be back), for $99 Corel Painshot Photo X2 is a far better package. It also comes with Corel Media One, which does everything this program does and includes the ability to add video clips, and generates AVI's or web pages, and more (like fixing red eye or adding frames or other art type things). Paintshop also includes 2 hours of video training in using it, as well as a number of other resources even a pro finds extremely valuable.

Media one automatically updates online storage, automatic brightness and contrast repair, edit video clips, drag and drop positioning of photos, instead of the clunky list thing in ETC, hundreds of templates (ETC only provides a very few). Media One also has built in email.

If you have nothing to compare ETC with, it might seem fast. But it is anything but fast when compared to modern, professional tools that are available.

Again, for free ETC is worth getting for free if you don't have any real photo editing tools. But it is actually worth significantly less than the asking price of $40. I am once again reminded by Express Thumbnail Creator of those programs one finds near the cash register at Best Buy or CompUSA on clearance for $5.

I already see a problem with this prog. On Screenshot 6 of 12, Step #4 (Options){http://www.neowise.com/etc/ss/etc_step_4_3.html}, the program lets you set the thumbnail size. But it looks like it will only work with Landscape (wider than they are tall)style pics. What happens when the program creates thumbnails of Portrait(taller than they are wide) style pics?
Everyone is bound to have a mix of both Landscape AND Portrait style pics in their collections!

I just downloaded this and tried it out. It seems like an easy way to create a nice looking online slide show. I do some website design and I don't have a lot of time to deal with making a nice looking slide show (except a small javascript based type). This is a nice tool to help cut time. Would I ever pay for it? maybe, but not $40. I would say that from what i have seen, it would be worth maybe about $15 but no more.

Hello all! Today's 15-Minute Review is up! Check it out!

http://www.bladedthoth.com/reviews/15mrs/express-thumbnail-creator-v1-81/

At first I didn't see how this program would be particularly useful to me, but I downloaded it anyway. After playing for a little while, I decided that I may have a use afterall. The interface is clean, simple and easy to use. The wizard simplifies the whole process so anyone could use it; however, an advanced user could easily play with the code to make his or her own adjustments and create customized templates.

What I don't like is that it saves all of the images in jpeg regardless of the type of image of the source file.

All in all, a nice little program, but not worth 40.00. I'd probably pay 20.00 for it.

Hey man, this program is gr8, easy, fast, lots of skins and no advertise in finshed gallery.

Try as I might, I cannot get this program to make thumbnails with the measurements that I need. No matter what I check or uncheck, it would take one of the measurements [height or width] and change the other to keep it in the same proportion which is not what I want. I need to actually change the proportions, but was unable to accomplish this.
I had the same problem with Media Resizer Pro. It also insisted on keeping the proportions intact no matter what I checked or unchecked unless the picture was cropped which I don't want.
I have been unsuccessfully looking for a thumbnail maker that will allow non-proportional changes so I don't have to keep using Photoshop for this since Photoshop takes longer to load.

MY LITTLE RANT TO BEGIN WITH:

Let's stop the debate about what any application offered by GOTD is "worth" versus what it "might have cost" -- it's irrelevant, as evidenced by the fact that we are here at GOTD to begin with. If you have a better, free, alternative, or one that provides future upgrades, please post the site where we can more info on it. Otherwise, it sounds like you're treating GOTD like an entitlement program.

REGARDING THE SOFTWARE IN QUESTION:

It does what it says it does, and pretty darn quick. On my first test, it ran through 126 800 x 600 photos in 3 minutes and 50 seconds. It created pages that I could upload immediately. I didn't have to read a manual or learn anything new to do this. So ease of use is definitely a plus.

It doesn't rely on any server-side includes, like asp, or asp.net. The generated pages are simply html and css pages, that can be uploaded to the lowliest of web servers. You can just FTP them up.

Ease of use always usually comes at the cost of customization. No argument here. It would be nice if the program's 28 themes could be expanded (maybe categorized by a theme and a subtheme). This might be a major flaw for those who want more variety available in the themes.

Since the program simply generates regular html and css documents, a person fluent with CSS could create whatever theme they wanted. The hard part (creating the thumbnails) is taken care of by the software.

If you want to publish pics to the web, this is a no-brainer. Download it, install it, and use it.

Download No thank you because this sounds very much like the absolutely free Batch Thumbs program from harmware that I have used for yonks.As a freetip for you all and on a positive note I recently had the need to (preferably) batch resize a recent vacation's haul of 1000 large (2592 by 1944 pixels) 5 megapixel jpegs to a message board/web page friendly size and I suddenly realised that Batch Thumbs could do this if I selected instead of the usual small "thumbnail" but a large "toenail" of maximum width 640 pixels. Batch Thumbs I found also let you "force" the width to 640 so that portrait (vertical) orientated pictures ended up the same uniform 640 wide. This saved hours resizing in a picture editing program.

A "professional-looking online photo album" looks professional only IF the _photos_ look professional. I took a look at the sample galleries at program's home page ... and it is clear this program cannot make professional job in photo resizing (downsampling). Obviously it is not using a proper Unsharp mask etc. - I would pay for such kind of program and actually I am looking at a _good_ one allowing _fast_ and easy (batch) creation of web-size pictures from my original files giving _excellent_ quality ... but not found. (Easy Thumbnails (freeware) is quite good to prepare a lot of pictures for ordinary web galleries or as preview pictures ... but IMHO not good enough for dedicated photo sites).

As these reviews here, I would like to read comments from people who can appreciate the _quality_ of photo processing. If the processing quality is not a topic in comments about _photo_programs, we have no hope to get new programs giving us better results. Because creator of the programs think the quality is not important for the customers ;).

Just downloaded and tried this out. The installation was a breeze. The program worked fast and cleanly. The wizard was flawless, and when I started playing with the options, they all seemed to respond without complaint.

The main advantage of this program is its ease of use and speed. It can get a portfolio up in minutes. Compared to other programs such as Picassa (on the free side) and ThumbsPlus (on the commercial side) I'd say that this one is what I'll be using when I need a quick and clean portfolio.

Good giveaway, and thanks for sharing! I never would have seen this program had it not been for GOTD.

I have used this program since the last time it was offered here. It's great! A few quirky things, but I work around them. I have tried many of the freeware programs and haven't found one that so easily lets you create your own site's template. The end result photo albums are very professional looking with shadowed frames and all. Very good program!

@#23, no, it means thats when it gets removed from the webserver.

I guess GAOTD owners pay quaterly for storage rather than daily for individual items.

I have never downloaded a program from GOATD before. When I went to the download page of this program, it stated that the program was uploaded on 10/04/07 and would expire on 01/02/08. Does this mean that I can only use the program for free until 01/02/08 and then I have to purchase it in order to keep using it? Could a more experienced user of GAOTD please clarify this for me? Many TIA!

Geez, I read most of the lame comments whining about a 'freebie' and thought I would install it.

So i did.

I think it's pretty good, I have tried the freewares mentioned above in the past and I think this is better.

I think $40 (£21) now is a good price, however when the dollar gets better in exchange to the pound sterling I would not pay more than £21 for it.

Thanks GAOTD, activated and registered and working a treat.

This same version was here back in December 24, 2006. Read what they wrote about it back then.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/etc/

@ #7 So other people know not to waste their bandwidth. Free doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth downloading.

Everyone has different ideas about the worthiness of software. What may be a waste of bandwidth for you may be just the application that someone else may want / need.

Ian

WHAT IS THIS PROGRAM DOING HERE! A TOTAL USELESS program for $40, i feel sad for those who get it for $40

Positive points: some templates are very nice, it's fast, it does what it says and it's easy for people that don't need or have knowledge of coding etc.

Negative points: It has a bit of a poor interface, and if you select one pic and delete with enter it not works,you gotta use the (-) button or of course acess the menu with the right button of the mouse. Plus, png files are accepted but not rendered (it gives error) (I'm not including the price, for i paid nothing, but 40$ might be indeed too expensive)

I agree is very annoying the comments...seems like we are at a school and teachers think us all dumb. When i want to see other freeware i go directly to sourceforge, when i want to see paid software, free for a day i go to GOTD, is that simple...

Hey, thanks Nos. 7 & 8 - I was going to say pretty much the same thing, but you beat me to it! Please don't tell people not to comment on the negative aspects of a program.....as if anyone would listen!! "Keep it civil" would probably be more of an appropriate admonition. But what do I know....I'm just a hamster.

As for the program.......ah...nope. I lost Media Resizer Pro (the June 5th giveaway) thru my own stupidity. As much as I liked it, I just wasn't willing to part with $80 for it (see, thats what the developers hope you'll do, buy their product if you like it so much you want to keep it. And yes, I've paid for apps here I really like and don't want to lose). So I was happy to see this, but am pretty disappointed. Yes, it is easy to use, but the end product just isn't that impressive - the gallery templates look like the calendar pages that came with my scanner - not a flattering comparison. And the price.....nope to that too! I would not be happy after spending $40 on this (couldn't even get the index working in their help file).

So, if simple and easy is what you want, you got it. Just be ready to settle for simple looking as well. BTW, I really had hoped a watermark option would be on this - am I missing something, or is it just not here? And what are the freeware alternatives, 'cause I'm listening....Eh, I think its time to get back on my little wheel.
Cheers,

how does this compare to Irfanview's web album?