Image Resizing by Slicing

Question

I while ago I read an excellent treatise on resizing images without visible aspect distortion, using an intelligent slicing algorithm. I even found a Gimp plugin to do this, but I have completely forgotten what the tech or the plugin is called.

I now use Paint.NET for editing, not Gimp, but will reinstall Gimp if I really have to. I would prefer a small stand-alone util to help with this. Can anyone suggest something?

IN CLOSING: Thanks to krhainos's answer, I found Liquid Resize Retarget for Windows, which is perfect for what I wanted.

This tech is called seam carving.

Answer 1

Retaining aspect ratio isn't difficult to do -- in Windows, you can install XnView and the shell extension for quick context menu options. However, you mentioned intelligent slicing algorithm -- which sounds like Liquid Resize, Liquid Rescale, Retargetting, or Content-Aware Scaling depending on who you ask. There's a plugin for GIMP, and Photoshop have this built in, and plugin maker onOne has purchased the original Liquid Resize.

I'm not aware of any standalone apps that do just this although I'm sure it exists. Now that you know what to look for, hopefully this gets you closer.

EDIT : webapp rsizr seems to do it too http://rsizr.com/