How to Create Uniform Thumbnails in Photoshop
It is easy to create thumbnails by simply resizing your image to a smaller size. However, this method results in inconsistent sizes based on the orientation and dimensions of the original image. Make your thumbnail presentations more professional by creating consistently sized and oriented thumbnails.
Duplicate your image
- Choose a name for your thumbnail.
- Select Image->Duplicate, specifying the name for the thumbnail
- Continue working with the duplicated image to create the thumbnail.
Set the thumbnail size
- Determine the size for your thumbnails (for example 50 by 50 pixels or 50 by 100 pixels.
- Calcuate the aspect ratio of your thumbnail. A square thumbnail will always be 1:1. A rectangular 50 by 100 thumbnail would be 1:2.
- Select the rectangular marquee from the tools palette and constrain the aspect ratio using the numbers you calculated.
Select a portion of the image for the thumbnail
- Make a selection of any size, so long as your selection has the same aspect ratio as your thumbnail size. Experiment with selecting small sections or as large a selection as is possible. Selecting a small, identifiable portion of the subject will yield a thumbnail with more resolution preserved. Create mystery by selecting an abstract section of the image or a section that fits a color or other design scheme.
- Use the move tool to adjust the position of the selection box.
Make the thumbnail
- Select Image->Crop to reduce the image to the portion you be used for the thumbnail.
- Select Image-Image Size to launch the resizing dialog box.
- Ensure that "Constrain Proportions" is selected.
- Change either the height or width to the pixel size you have selected for your thumbnail. If you used the proper aspect ratio for your selection, the other dimension should automatically change to the correct value.
- Click OK to resize.
- Select File->Save to update the duplicated file to the new thumbnail dimensions.
