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Well there goes the weekend and I hope yours was every bit as good as mine. The weather was great here and we actually got out and enjoyed some of it but now it's time to get back to work for another week. Let's start the week with some interesting freebies that I someone pointed out to me yesterday.

Now in this business one of the most tedious jobs of all is resizing images. We generally get the images we use for our marketing from the content providers in sizes that are way too big to use on a free site or gallery and so we have to resize them.

Most of us start of by resizing them one at a time but that sure does get old very quickly. However it's hard to find good batch image resizing software that comes at a price most of us can afford and if you're just starting out in the industry then probably all you can afford is something that's free

So here is a list of batch image processors that are free. Yes, you read that right, all these pieces of software are free. Now I'm not going to make your life too easy here, I'll give you the name of the program but you're going to have to search Google to find where to download it. Hey, free doesn't always mean 'easy' ok?

BIMP Lite is a batch processor for people who use Windows. It handles all the major image file types and even allows you to rename the images as you go. It also includes an FTP tool as well.

Phatch can be used on Windows, Mac and Linux systems. It can batch, resize, rotate, and do a whole bunch of other interesting tasks too and from the reviews I've read it seems that just about anyone can use it.

If you're one of those elite people who use a Mac then you should have a look at photo Drop - note that spelling if you're searching Google. It's 'photo Drop'. It's said to be a great program for anyone who wants to save presets that you will use over and over again ... and that's just about all of us here in adult.

Ifran View is perhaps the best known of all the freebie batch processors and you will often see it recommended on Webmaster boards. It's been around for years but it's still just as good as it ever was.

If you're one of those people who are hooked on Gimp as a graphic program then you'll like David's Batch Processor - yep search for that three-word term. It's a plug-in for Gimp but it is limited. All it does is resize images.

Image converter.exe - again search for that three-word term - is a free image converter for Windows users. Reviewers suggest that it's a little different to some of the others mentioned here for it gives you a conversion wizard to work with. That means that it's a good choice for anyone who doesn't know much about resizing images.

FastStone Photo Resizer is another piece of software that's made for those of us who use Windows. Reviewers suggest that the user interface is one of the best around and it will do all the things you want an image batch processor to do.

Pixillion Image Converter is yet another batch processor made for Windows and the best part of this one is that it will work with PDF images.

It's interesting to note that there seem to be more free batch processors for thos of us who work with Windows than for those who love their Macs. There are certainly some simple ... and good ... image resizers around for Mac users but they're not free. Perhaps those people who write software for Macs don't think that Mac users are short of a dollar to spend on good software.

Directories
If you've been around for a while you'll remember the days when it was said to be imperative to get your sites listed in DMOZ and if you were working in mainstream then it was important to get your sites listed in the Yahoo Directory.

A DMOZ listing was free ... but you couldn't always guarantee that you would get your site listed because ... well ... some of the volunteers who reviewed sites for DMOZ were hard to please ... I guess that's a diplomatic way of putting it.

The Yahoo Directory on the other hand did charge for a listing ... about $300 a year if I remember correctly and the Yahoo reviewers were a little choosey about what sites were listed too. However their basis for rejecting a site was all about quality so a listing there was a sign that your site had quality.

A listing on DMOZ and the Yahoo Directory also added some weight to your site when it came to appearing in Google so it was important to get both those listings if you could. Google even suggested that Webmasters should get their sites listed in those two directories.

However last week Google removed all mention of DMOZ and the Yahoo Directory from their information for Webmasters. Perhaps Google no longer sees either of those directories as any indication of quality.

It's something to think about as I head off to slay a few dragons between now and next Friday.