This site is for all enthusiasts of Swiss Railways,
especially
those in the Manchester and north-west England area.
Ideally, for best results and to avoid 'jagged catenary' syndrome, digital pictures for our projector should be 800 pixels wide, except vertical ones, which are best avoided but if used need to be 600 high. Setting up your show and then re-sizing all the pictures at once can be done (on a Windows machine) using the free IrfanView program, downloadable from the link here:
Here's what you do once you have it installed:
Make a note of where the pictures you want to show are on your computer.
Put in your memory stick and create a new folder on it to contain the show.
the run Irfanview and
select File - Batch Conversion / Rename
Select 'Batch conversion - rename result files'
Output format: JPG - JPG/JPEG format
In 'options' next to Output format make sure the Quality slider is set to 100. All the boxes should be 'un-ticked'
Tick 'Advanced options' and press the 'Advanced' button, and click the following items:
RESIZE, Set new size; set one both sides to; type 800 in the width box, leave the height box blank; preserve aspect ratio; use resample function. Click OK.
In the 'name pattern' box, type some letters (e.g.your initials) followed by ### e.g. ch### or maybe davos### or whatever. The ### will generate a 3-digit sequential number on each image. This will ensure your original files are not over-written!
This will make sure the filenames have the right format (e.g. ch001.jpg) to display in order in the slide-show software.
Using 'browse' against the 'Output directory' box, find the folder you created on your USB stick.
Use 'browse' against the 'look in' box, find the pictures on your computer that you want to show. You can add them individually by clicking one and then the 'add button'. Select them in the order you want to show them: you can move them up and down using the 'move up' and 'move down' buttons if need be.
If they are all in the same folder already and in the right order, you can 'add all'.
When you have assembled your show:
Click 'Start Batch' and wait for the results! If you want to be clever, you can also use IrfanView on the resulting 800-wide versions to edit individual pics, add captions, etc. Experiment with all the features - There's always the 'undo' button, and the original pictures on your hard disk will remain unchanged.
This may seem long-winded, but you will find that IrfanView will remember the settings for the next time you use it.
Written by Charlie Hulme July 2013.