Wesley's Tool-Box

Resizing an image seems to be a straightforward task. You tell the app how small or big the image should be, the app scales accordingly, and the result is saved. So when you want to do this on iOS, you might as well just pick any free image resizing app out on the App Store and be done, right? If quality is of your concern, it's not so simple.

"The Toon-Box" photographic web cartoon on this blog is generated on my iPhone 5S (currently on iOS 7.1b3) and resized to a specific dimension before being uploaded. In choosing the right app for the resizing task, I came across four apps that claimed to do the job:

- Resize Image 4.5 (2013-03-04)
- Resize Photo 1.0 (2011-03-24)
- SimpleResize 2.17 (2013-12-11)
- Crop-Size 1.0.0 (2013-11-21)

The version numbers and release dates are for the latest release as of this writing (2014-01-14), which were used for the testing. So how did they fare? What was the best free iOS image resizing app? Keep reading to find out.

The Iridium 42 featured in today's "The Toon-Box" was a frame from the series of burst shots I made with iPhone 5S. You can see the video of these shots as this YouTube video.

Device: iPhone 5S
Settings: 30mm - ISO 320 - 1/15s - f/2.2
Filters: None
Time: 2014-01-09 17:55 KST
Location: Seoul, Korea

In contrast to the flare spotted in the less light-polluted spot, Iridium 52's flare in the low altitude among one of the heaviest light pollution in the country is far less dramatic. Even the -5.2 magnitude brightness is nearly washed away in the background. See the YouTube video below for the faint flare in action.


Device: iPhone 5S
Settings: 30mm - ISO 1250 - 1/15s - f/2.2
Time: 2013-12-24 18:29 KST
Location: Seoul, Korea

While visiting Ulsan, there was a bright flare at -6.4 magnitude of the Iridium 40 satellite in the southern sky last evening. It was so bright that my iPhone 5S had no problem recording it in its burst mode (10fps at 8 megapixels). It was quite a sight to see. Here are two ways of seeing it in action:

1. Youtube Video


2. Animated GIF (click the thumbnail)


Device: iPhone 5S
Settings: 30mm - ISO 2500 - 1/15s - f/2.2
Time: 2013-12-27 18:38 KST
Location: Ulsan, Korea