Do you ever spend time selecting your images for your online content or those of your customers? You sort them carefully and finally, they do not appear as you would have liked? They are stretched ou shrunken, off-center or, pixelated ? A developer has thought about the problem and offers you a small software allowing to Solve problems displaying your content. The tool is called CropScore: there is free, open source, 100% online, suitable for smartphones and you will discover it in this article!
The misadventures that led to the creation of CropScore
Here are two definitions that will be important for the rest of our reading:
- The resolution of an image corresponds to the number of pixels across its height and width. (eg. 1920×1080)
- The format of an image, or aspect ratio in English is defined by the aspect ratio of our image. (eg. 16:9)
These two elements are interdependent and it can sometimes be complicated to calculate one based on the other. Very often, the recommended resolutions are not communicated and can be different from one platform to another. Some sites offer a cropping solution when uploading, but despite this precaution, the image can end up pixelated or poorly framed. ????
The Instagram users As we all know, the visual part is what catches the eye first when we land on a page. And it's quite annoying when our most beautiful texts are ruined by an unsightly image. So, to save us the time of torment on Gimp or Photoshop, CropScore was created.
CropScore solves problems with displaying your content
After having selected your images, you can import your .JPEG and .PNG files or drag and drop them onto the small box on the right of the home page (see the article's presentation image). You then arrive at the editing window where the framing score (Crop Score in English???) is waiting for you on the right side of the window. Don't worry, we'll come back to that a little later.
On the left side, you can select the platform for which you intend your image. Each tab contains several presets (or presets in English) depending on where your image is going. The settings will be different for a banner on Facebook or for a profile picture on Twitter. Little bonus: these presets are set with higher resolutions than those recommended on social networks, as the developer anticipated future updates to these websites.
You can also set the format and its resolution manually in the tab custom size at the very bottom:
Once the good preset selected, the format is locked (Locked In) — you have to do it manually in mode custom size — and then it becomes possible to change the resolution by playing with the image.
Here for example, the selected format corresponds to the cover image on LinkedIn:
By zooming into the photograph, the resolution decreases, and therefore the CropScore as well. You will also be able to observe a visual of the image rendering:
The score obtained can be interpreted as a percentage of adaptability to the standards of the platform concerned. The ideal is of course to get as close as possible to 100%.
In custom, the score refers to classic image standards since the resolution is no longer chosen based on a social media:
Here the image corresponds to High Definition (HD), but the score is likely to indicate SD, Full HD or even Ultra HD.
With the blue buttons at the bottom of the window, editing your document is very intuitive:
All the main functions are present and usable in preset mode or in custom mode: zoom, cutting, movements in all directions, rotation.
Framing your selections will also be a breeze with the grid present in the background of the editing window:
Once your image is perfectly prepared, your files will be downloaded in .JPEG or .PNG format. These will be automatically concatenated using the suffix –cropped so you can easily find them in your folders. If .JPEGs and .PNGs aren't enough for you, take a look at Tiny Wow.
CropScore is a bit more than just an image editing tool. It solves problems displaying your content and constitutes a real ally:
- It recommends the right format for you based on the target platform.
- It provides you with an adaptability score in response to your changes.
- It accompanies you in your special ideas in custom mode. The most fanciful manipulations will be done on magic eraser.
Now it's up to you to try CropScore, it's located here !
