Graphics forum: Looking for an Image Resizing Program that uses inches

IrfanView can do that, but you really ought to think about what it is you really want to do.

To resize an image to inches really depends upon a DPI (dots Per Inch) setting within the picture data. The DPI setting can be adjusted within a file and NOT change the actual pixel count at all. The end result MAY be a different printout of the same image, even though no pixel data has changed - at all!

For example, if you have an image that is 600 pixels wide and 300 pixels tall can you tell me what size the hardcopy will be?
NO you can't, because that pixel data alone is not enough to absolutely say what the hardcopy will be.

Taking those pixel dimensions (600 x 300) and at
200 DPI, the hardcopy would be 3" x 1.5", and at
150 DPI, the hardcopy would be 4" x 2", and at
100 DPI, the hardcopy would be 6" x 3",
and that is only when the horizontal and vertical DPI are identical (usually they are) but they can be different.
If I set the DPI to 150 horizontal and 100 vertical, then those setting could make the hardcopy to be 4" x 3" (the size you mentioned).

Notice I said could make. The reason is that the printing program could possibly ignore the DPI setting entirely. For example, if I put that exact same image into a Word document, and I set the frame, that the picture resides in, to print at 2 inches wide and 5 inches tall, I could. The DPI setting and the number of pixels would be ignored.

You never mentioned if the resulting inches, that you want are for the printout or for the screen display.
If you are talking about the size on the screen (not the hardcopy) then usually most display tools will display 1 picture pixel per 1 screen pixel. Also the number of pixels per inch on a screen is usually MUCH lower than what a printer prints at.
Many screens are approximately 72 pixels per inch - BUT you can not count on that. I have three LCD screens here (LCD becoming the most popular - but not the only kind) that have 85, and 91, and 146 PPI (Pixels Per Inch). So my display of that same image would change size depending upon what display I was using.

Hardcopy can avoid that variance with that setting of the DPI (data inside the file) IF the printer program follows the DPI setting. And even that can be ignored. I can use a picture printing program to print an image to result in any particular size - regardless of the number of pixels, or the DPI setting.

So ... what to do ...?
In a singe word... IrfanView can do any of it. There are many other image viewing/editing/printing programs around, as well. Some are more or less capable, but none are cheaper, since IrfanView is FREE.

I started off with not knowing what you wanted to do, and now it is up to you to decide what it is you want to do. You can either tell us more details and have someone here give you some more guidance, or you can just investigate and play with some of the tools, like IrfanView, that are around.

My key point here, though, is: do not think there is one answer to an ambiguous question like asking for a program to resize images to inches.

LOTS! Google: free graphics editors

Re: "You may have to manually crop the image if you insist on it being exactly 3 x 4"

Not really, all you need to do is unselect "Preserve aspect ratio"
(Note: this may noticeably distort the resulting resize.)

Without unselecting "Preserve aspect ratio" as soon as you enter either the Width or the Height, the other (Height or Width) will automatically changed for you. But the image does not distort.

And, shanna78, using this method will simply resize the overall image to whatever DPI is already in the image data, times the inches you have entered.
(That is, if you enter in "N" inches and the DPI is "D", the end result will be NxD.)

Doomrayz, It costs a heck of a lot more commercially. Student versions are cheap!
You can size in inches or pixels easily.

At work I always adjust the image first for the print job.
And at what resolution? Double the resolution for the printing screen used.
If printing for a school newspaper than the resolution should be at about 220 for a 110 line screen.
A slick commercial job would be at 300 res. for a 150 line screen.

If the image block is a 4"x5", than the Photoshop image should be cropped and sized at 100% and 4x5. You could go to 115% also. Makes for a better relationship between your commercial printer and the rips that process your image.
Will speed up your printing time and possibly lower your cost if you know how to generate the files for a commercial printer. Talk to your commercial printer first and ask what size files they want.

If you have multiple uses for that image always do a save-as from the original image always.

-Kevin

and shanna78 was asking for a FREE program.