The BetterJpeg Team informed me, when I asked for its Adobe plugin to be given on this site, that Giveaway turned it down because you prefer to have stand alone applications.

I am sure we would love to have the Adobe plugin free too as a complement to BetterJpeg given away a few days ago.

Why is Giveaway turning down useful applications thereby depriving users the chance to have them free of charge?

Please reconsider and inform BetterJpeg that you will accept the Adobe plugin.

So-far so-good! I like it.

Nice software. Thank you GOTD and BetterJPG.

Is it possible to convert BMP photos to JPG without losing detail? That would be a nice feature.

BetterJPEG is not the only editor with lossless capabilities -> check out the public beta version of RealWorld Photos ( http://www.rw-designer.com/photo-editor ), which can do similar things and has much more image editing functions.

Does NOT work with WindowsME!

@#110- have you considered that the plugin version does just about that for photoshop or any other editor that can use .8ba and .8be plugins?

building another editor when you can add this to one already suitable in other ways seems like reinventing the wheel, no?

they also have a dll version on their site for the long way 'round....

this is a technology demonstrator, like the demo/freeware version of Neat Image.

think about it.

Two problems with this. One bug, one not. The bug is in the resize/resample. Unchecking the "lock aspect ration box" does nothing, enter in whatever dimensions you want, it still sizes it to the ratio of the original. i.e. if you try to resize a 600x500 image to 300x300, it ignores you and goes 300x250, whether that lock aspect box is checked or not. Not something you'd likely be doing in a program designed to save quality, but a bug none the less. The other is that it only reads jpeg files. If the idea is to come out with the best quality, having to convert bitmap, photoshop or paintshop files to jpg with another app first, kind of misses the point. Otherwise it's a nice toy.

GAWD! Just when it appeared we'd get through one 24 hour period without any personal jibes... and there has been a lot of constructive advice to less experienced users, which is appreciated (Thanks to mike, knowledge seeker, keith at al for sharing your knowledge... along comes a sharkhunter with a whopping great chip on both shoulders. I suppose caulbox's enlightening crane story from yesterday would be completely lost on such a bitter soul who, like Fubar's offspring, seems to lack a grammar checker.

This is a FINE program. It saves jpegs with ther most minimal amount of data loss.
I have read all the comments and yet again I am amazed at how many people just do NOT read all the info before jumping in and talking rubbish!!
You can NOT compare this to irfanview, photoshop, etc etc because they save JPEG files in the usual manner for that format: With a loss of data...therefore the saved file is not as good, in terms of quality, as the original one.
That is how JPEG works. So all you people saying Irfanview does just as good and much more and this is a bad program...well, you are just not able to either read or you just haven't the ability to understand some basic information!
In particular -
sharkhunter922: the guy with the enormous ego and tiny brain at comment #111. He insults everyone here and then, just to confirm what had become obvious after reading his first attempt at a sentence, he states that 'Your meaningless gibberish means zero to me.'
sharkhunter922: The same goes for you mate.
Except I suspect that your meaningless gibberish really is an attempt to communicate with your fellow human beings...but you just aren't able are you. too angry.
Come back when you have grown some small hairs my friend.

# 45 by Fubar and # 48 by Funkster

I just wanted to let you know that I have been taking advantage of the well-written informative information you have been providing everyone here and to say thank you. You do make a difference by doing so and it's appreciated.

I don't know my computer inside and out and you let me know whether this is a program I might be able to use without crashing my computer and sometimes you let us know what not to do so we don't damage our machines. This is the type of information people like me need and I'm glad you provide it.

brilliant for a tiny file, I've got lots of uses for this, just what I was after a small photo application, as to the guy who said about photoshop ive got v10 and its a pain in the bum to do something quickly as this program dose, fixed and cropped a photo etc and emailed it in less than 20 seconds, takes photo shop lat long to load with all the hype is full of. THANKS GAOD.

Julia.. I had the same problem. I had a friend help me for about an hour earlier. We uninstalled, reinstalled..

followed the instructions.. Activate, install etc.. still always had window saying I had 30 days trial.

so I will use it 30 days (maybe) and then try one of the programs others here have suggested.

I have phtoshop.. (tedious for most easy projects) and Picture It .. both of which take a long time to do things. A simple program for some of these procedures is appealing to me.

I have Fuji Fine Pix Viewer which does batch rotations & reductions & love to use it.. but having one program to do all would be so nice.

I cant help you Julia, but I share your frustration

comment for #111... Why are you even here? You have nothing good to say in your remark, and if you think it's a waste of your time, move on to something more deserving of Your Highness's attention. Who's the moron whos wasting time to even take part in this forum? I guess even idiot's are given eqaul opportunity to speak and post their moronic comments. Next time how bout you just don't waste our time k?

Installed just fine, ran just fine for about 5 minutes, then crashed. I'm uninstalling this - I'll stick to Photoshop. Sorry guys, but if a program won't last for more than 5 minutes before crashing, I'm not keeping it. Maybe it will do better for you, but I'n done with it. I run Win XP sp2. BTW, I ALWAYS do a system restore set point BEFORE I install any software.

Good luck with this, two thumbs down for me.

The only thing I see here is a bunch of back side kissers, wanna be power users & 99% garbage software. Who cares if it's free if it's 99% junk?
You morons have a ball. When your reformatting, recovering from a manufactures recovery console or trying to clean some nasty spyware, I'll be laughing by back side off!
Now, how about 25,000 no votes from you morons. Who cares? Your meaningless gibberish means zero to me. Imagine that for Friday night Smack Down!

This feels like a missed opportunity. The ability to minimize jpeg recompression this way could be valuable, but it should be integrated into useful programs instead of this hollow shell. The majority of the time, recompressing once is not going to leave any visible damage, so this is most valuable for images that are going to be worked on multiple times. But why would you be using these simple functions on the same image multiple times? Do you frequently edit photos while intoxicated and save over the originals? I would like to know that this tech is in use in the background while I work with photos, but its not high on the list of things to consider when choosing an editor.

I happily installed this on a computer whose hd is soon to be wiped, but would never burden my personal computer with software of such limited use, even for free. But come back with a fully functional editor which happens to boast this as a feature and I'll snap it up.

I'm not getting a prompt for activation code, also. When I click on 'about', it states this is an unregistered version. I have been downloading from GAOTD for a while now, and I have followed the steps correctly. I even clicked on 'register' to see if it would automatically fill it out. No such luck. Can someone help me out here? Thanks.

To #59, Sheila
"HELP! Damn firewall at work won’t allow me to “activate.” If you’re not going to use your key please let me know. I could really use this for playing with photos."

Why not turn off your firewall whilst activating?

This Is The Same THing As Office Photo Manager

Thank you, GOTD for the free software you give away, I

find most of them useful,,, this one too, I am going to use it.

I always save in jpeg format, as it saves with a smaller file,

and if this one saves with better quality, then it is what I am

going to use from now on. And so easy to use! I like the

thumbnail preview pane, and the toolbar.

I followed the instructions in the readme file to the letter,

installed it within 1 minute and began using it the second

minute! I use windows XP professional 2002 service pack

2. In my profession, we ALWAYS read the instructions

first, and have to follow them exactly, or we may get wrong

results.

#91,,, there is this free cool little software, called 2pic, just

what you are asking for, pastes pictures (but only 2,

though) side by side, horizontally or vertically. You will just

have to repeat the process if you are stitching more than 2

pictures. Here’s the link: http://2pic.moor-software.com/.

There are other free software out there, that can stitch or

merge more than two pictures, but this serves my purpose.

Just a note on registration. As already stated, you'll need to run Activate.exe then Setup.exe to install and register this application.

If your computer has multiple user accounts, as ours do, you will then need to log on to each account and run Activate.exe only(before the end of giveaway period, presumeably). Otherwise if you try to use this app from a different account to the one you've run the installation, you'll only get a 30-day trial.

Message to GAOD staff:
Thanks for your great work, and today's fine offering. In the future you may want to consider adding a note about multiple user accounts and necessity of running Activate.exe for each in the readme. Regards.

I find it interesting that others are having the same problem I am having with my posts. They don’t get posted.

Earlier today I posted a bunch of links regarding this software thinking it might be helpful and they don’t get posted Just tried again and it didn’t take. Lets see if this goes through. Wonder why that is happenning?

Hay joe they only let certain posts go through. This may not. But the software today is GREAT this is going on my Motherinlaw's computer tonight.

@#91, try Composite Maker 4 to 1 1.0, it's on freewarefiles.com-

@#95, lossless rotation only works at 90 degree intervals. xnview orks to 1/10 degree, but does save lossy.

could any one advise me the registration key no, to be entered as I am unable to get it.
thanks

I find it interesting that others are having the same problem I am having with my posts. They don't get posted.

Earlier today I posted a bunch of links regarding this software thinking it might be helpful and they don't get posted Just tried again and it didn't take. Lets see if this goes through. Wonder why that is happenning?

I have used better more detailed programs, but this is perfect for light jobs and newbies in the photo world. Loaded it for Mom and two clients who just got their first digital cameras and it was WONDERFUL! VERY VERY user friendly, easy to get around and figure out how to do what you need to!

WTF? Downloaded, installed, registered, but even though I did NOT click the little box for "No icons" in the install wizard, I have yet to spot any type of icon - desktop, quick launch, nada. And, yes, I did restart my computer, just in case the icons were hiding until restart.

Sure, I can launch the program from the Start menu in Vista, but I'd rather have the other options to choose from.

Also, this is the first time I've EVER failed to find a downloaded program in Revo Uninstaller. Don't like that one bit.

Do I place this by itself in Program Files or in my PSP file?

And, why o why do I hardly never receive the activiation or regiatration files? Please someone help me?????? :(

Please ignore my request for help.
I was able to open the file with WinRar
Regards

The download links don't work!
I save the downloaded file on my desktop and when I try to open it I get the following error message!

ERROR LOADING C:PROGRA~1\WINZIP\WZVINFO.DLL

Am I doing something wrong?
Appreciate if some one can help.
Thanks

I take pictures of books and often need to fine tune rotate them along with crop, resize and save. I didn't see anyway to twist a picture the degree or two to get the spine straight or bottom edge with the edge of the finished picture.

Seems to work well otherwise.

~~~~

@#'s 33 38 41 49 58 67 77 78 83 84 85: seems you've missed the point; this program isn't trying to out feature most editors, it does a basic set of operations and minimizes the impact on the areas not changed deliberately. it's not for SPFX, nor applying general editing to most of the image.

there are lots of programs that do lossless rotation and lossless cropping- (the latter many don't fix the embedded thumbnail) fewer do that without operating on the original file, (one oops, forever sorry) and even fewer yet that can come close to the options better jpeg has without recompressing the entire image afterward.

without CHDK my camera has no raw output, and what quality the images it captures have, (pretty darn good most of the time, IMO) I want to retain as much as I can get.
And I want the original untouched.

this does that better than the GIMP, XNView, Irfanview, Picasa, and a long list of others including stock PhotoShop (I still use v6) as soon as you step past rotate and crop.

I'm certainly going to look over the Lossless JPEG Toolbox, but in the meantime this is a program that's likely to stay in my toolbox and glad to have it.

Thanks GAOTD and Better JPEG!

@#70, try an exif cleaner unless it's watermarked on the image- then yeah, you could blot it out.

@#66 Phil "The optics and card along with the internal working"

the memory card used (unless defective) makes no difference in quality.

by the time the data gets to it, the only difference it can make is in recycle time if it's too slow. optics, sensor & processing (front-end and back-end) are done before the data hits the storage.

The camera is the film.

If you look to the 'about' when you launch the program, it does say that it is regestered to giveawayoftheday. Does it automatically.

Would appreciate a WORKING activation key with a REGISTRATION KEY!!!! GOTD typically gives a registration key in the pop up window once the program is installed. This is NOT so with this program. So it's not worth even bothering with this one!!!
NOTE: It does not matter whether you run the activation first or not. I've tried it both ways and IT just WILL NOT activate for a fully usable program! Very disappointed with this this one!

It's an okay, basic program which does what it say it does. I use FastStone Image which seems to do the same stuff plus a bit more and is always free.

The reason I even tried this is that I've been trying to find something that will let you copy and paste 2 pics side by side and save them as one. My previous PC came with MS Image Composer which did it simply. I can't find any others. :(

Activated and installed with no problems on Win XP SP3.

Easy to use. So far I've only used it to rotate some images that were taken sideways. I can't really validate their claim that that process is lossless. The rotated images look fine to my old eyes.

#82


It's all spelled out in the readme file. You run the Activate.exe first, then the setup.exe.

Thanks GAOTD! This is a great little program. To let you know how much I like it, I put it on all my computers, even my laptop.

Two thumbs up.

I paid for this software and have used it for a long time. They recently came out wit a new version that requires paying for an upgrade. Now I don't have to pay! AWESOME!!!

#73, as per my post right above yours, yesterday's giveaway will definitely tell you if it hadn't been registered.

#82, I didn't see any pop-up after I had ran Activate.exe. Try running the activation again.

It's a good, easy to use program. I'm not sure that it's worth $29.95, though. I usually use Serif Photoplus 6, http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PhotoPlus/photoplus.asp which is free. Don't get me wrong,I do like this program. I guess if you work a lot with digital photos it would be worth the cost, but for someone who doesn't do that much with them, it's a little pricy. Thanks GAOTD and The Better JPEG Team.

Well.. A lots of freeware and online tools are available to do these things..

I feel GIMP is the best as its freeware and has a lots of tools.. But not handy..

Being a gfx artist, I tried this app and found out that:
This one is only slightly better than MS Paint, really.

did anyone else NOT get the promt key to register?

I have no registration number/code & checking the program I am on for 30 day trial

@Spiritwolf #73:
I would have loved to help you out, but I missed yesterdays GAotD.
Perhapse you will be helped with
http://smoz.sourceforge.net/
And don't be embarrased, overlooking things happens to everyone once in a while.

I like the resizable display of thumbnails on the left AND the easy cropping (ala PS Elements) to 4x6 or 5x7 size.

MUCH appreciated!

I get a memory error when I run Activate.exe. I'm attempting to install on Windows XP Pro SP3.

"The instruction at "0x00404337" referenced memory at 0x00000004". The memory could not be "read".

Unhandled exception at 0x00404337 in Activate.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x00000004.

Oh well, I really could have made good use of this application.

I use IRFAN WIEV for years its the best one out there and it has always been FREE. so easy to use too.

Why would anyone pay for this? There are many other lossless free alternatives with better editing features. Lossless with a JPG file is not that hard to accomplish. Better text editing features would make this utility more useful.

The price is right when it is free.

I'm a Photoshop-teaching, -using "expert", and i WILL be using this! I'd love to also get the plugin, but for simpler tasks this loads 5 times faster than PS, and the JPG quality may actually be better! (At least per kb.)

Also - the crop tool has SERIOUSLY useful "Guideline" options i've never seen before or even dreamed about! [Diagonal Guidelines] might be useful sometimes, [Rule of Thirds] is going to be handy (i was using the warp function as a workaround for this), and then we come to the great ones.

[Golden Mean-Grid] & [Golden Mean-Diagonals]: The golden mean is powerful psychology and can improve your composition by leaps and bounds. Shoot your subjects a LITTLE looser (zoomed out just a little) and play with these two, and people may think you've got a photography (or fine art) degree! It isn't a magic bullet, but it is one hell of a great tool!

And one final miracle (somebody wake the Pope or the Bill Gates): IT WORKS GREAT IN XP(x64)! Can i get a genuflect?

I had just about given up on GAOTD (how many video format changers can one organism use - even if they DO work?) but this restores my faith (and patience)! Take a bow, GAOTD!
—Keith—