Resizing Images on an iPad

Published July 7, 2021

I thought it strange that I had to download and purchase apps to do something simple like resizing an image and viewing the image metadata on my iPad. The two apps I downloaded were Image Resize and Crop Size.

As a PC user, finding the metadata and resizing images is easy. I’ve got a very old copy of Paint Shop Pro (version 8) that I’ve been using since 2003, so I’m familiar with performing certain tasks. As such, I know where to go to get the info I want.

Switching to the iPad has been a challenge. Something as simple as a right mouse click on a PC becomes an adventure in tapping on the iPad. Thinking I was a little slow on the uptake, I did an Internet search for how to either resize or find the meta information for an image on the iPad.

Resizing Images with a Shortcut

I came across a video that taught me how to create a shortcut to resize an image. The only problem was the shortcut was limited in that it resized every image to the same dimension. Not what I needed. Also, it didn’t solve the metadata issue.

Finding Image Info (Metadata)

After much finagling, I discovered I could find the photo information if I save the photo to a location accessible by the Files app. Once there, I light-tapped the photo to invoke the second menu option in which “info” was listed. One tap on “info” provided all the information I was looking for. That’s great but...

Who wants to constantly transfer images to a location just so it could be accessed through the Files app. What I really wanted to do was navigate to the photo library using the Files app, but that’s not possible.

Noodling a Potential Solution

Since accessing the information directly from the Photos app isn’t an option, I thought “Maybe I could somehow change the default photo saving location to a Files accessible location.” While it may be possible to do that, I’m not very comfortable with the way Apple does things and I didn’t want to solve one problem only to create another. So, I’m back to square one.

And the Noodling Continues...

Rather than change the default location, I thought, “Why not create a photos folder with the Files app?” I would then go to photos, select several photos, light-tap them to invoke the Share option. Then I would save them to the newly created photo folder in the Files app.

Once I got the necessary metadata, I could delete the duplicate photo. The obvious problem with that technique was there were too many steps. Also, it didn’t resolve my resizing issue.

No More Noodling - Time to Find the Right App or Apps

I needed wiser reinforcements in the form of a third-party app. I didn't want to go there, but apparently, I had to.

App #1: Image Resize:

Image Resize is a free app but has an overwhelming number of annoying ads. The ads not only take over the entire screen, but they’re loud. A real buzz kill! It costs $11.99 to remove the annoying ads. Compared to PC software, $11.99 is a steal. However, in the iOS environment, it’s a premium price to pay for an app that doesn’t completely serve my needs.

The app easily resizes images. All you have to do is open the app, select the image to resize and resize it. The app either replaces the original image or makes a copy with the new dimension. Settings is where you can choose whether to save a copy or replace the original image.

With Image Resize, you can also edit the image, apply filters, text, emoticons, stickers and more. That’s nice to have, but my main reason for the app was to resize images and find the metadata. While it does accomplish both, I still wasn’t completely happy. The weird thing is you can resize, but not crop the image. Go figure!

What Image Resize Was Missing:

I wanted some of the same functionality as I had with Paint Shop Pro. The one function I wanted was the ability to reduce the size of an image by selecting the percentage of reduction. Whether I wanted to reduce it by 30%, 50%, or 75%, just typing in the percentage was easy.

I could reduce the image using percentages with Image Resize, but I’d have to do a little calculating. For example, if I want to reduce a 4024 x 3025 image to 75% of its size, I’d multiply 4024 x 75% to get the number of pixels to insert for the width. Then, with the aspect ratio linked, the height automatically adjusts to the corresponding 75%. No, not earth-shatteringly difficult, but I didn’t want to do that.

Additionally, there were no instructions with this app. Most of the features were self-explanatory, but one or two stumped me and I wanted to know more. In searching online for the answers to those particular features I came across a better solution.

App # 2: Crop Size:

Crop Size is a premium app that costs $2.99. They do not lure you in with a free, ad-infested version. The app is well worth the cost and more. Unfortunately, I found this after wasting spending $11.99 on Image Resize.

Crop Size is not only intuitive, but it has instructions. The one thing I cannot figure out, however, is how to close/remove a photo from the app once I’m done with it. Currently, I shut the app down when I finish editing the image and reopen it for the next one. Actually, I find that I have that same issue with a few other iOS apps. Coming from a Windows PC, I’m used to closing things out when I’m done.

With this app, I’m able to reduce images using percentages (yay). I could also manually insert pixel size or select from the most commonly used image resolutions. The metadata is easily available.

What I also liked is I could set the metadata to include the current changes. Crop Size doesn’t have some of the frillier options such as applying stickers, emoticons, or text, but that’s not what I purchased it for.

Tripping onto a Resolution to Another Problem

With all of the image resizing and metadata searching, I came across an inexpensive solution to another taxing problem I was having. Having many years of using Paint Shop Pro, when I faced an image editing problem, I sparked up the PC, used my old faithful program, and did what I needed to do. I just was not able to create the necessary graphics using the iPad.

In my recent internet trek, I came across a lovely image layering app called Photo Layers. With this $1.99 app, I’m able to create graphics that I previously could only create in Paint Shop Pro. This makes me very happy.

For example:

It took just a couple of minutes to take a bitmoji, layer it onto a plate of food and apply a drop shadow effect. No longer do I have to spark up the PC just to apply a bitmoji or create graphics. With it, I can also remove backgrounds and create transparent images. If you saw what I went through to create images before finding the Photo Layers app you’d understand why I’m so excited about it.

Bottom Line

For less than $20, I now have the image resizing apps necessary for me to do what I need to do on an iPad. I don't feel tethered to my PC anymore. I'll try going iPad only for the next couple of weeks to see how things work. I'm hopeful.

Last Modified: 3 September 2023