You don’t need a lot of dos and dads to start or run a successful blog, but as you go along, you stumble onto applications that make things easier. The b5media Tech Channel got together and posted on their favorite blog-friendly apps this week. Check them out!

My favorite? Well, it might sound strange, but one of the things I use most is a free web app called ResizR. A lot of times, the only thing I need to do is make something smaller, and that’s exactly ResizR’s job. It’s extremely fast, doesn’t clog my computer down with any additional software, it’s free, and once uploaded, you can download your photo again OR access it through the web.

Using the available Firefox plug-in, shrinking photos (for now, jpegs) is even easier. You click on your photo, select Resizr from your File menu and Firefox opens another window to the ResizR site.

You can also go straight to the website and resize a jpg on your computer. Change the number in the sizing box to the number of pixels you want for the width of your photo, and click ResizR. A few seconds later, you’ll have a good quality resized jpg that you can download to your computer, or that you can link to with the provided url.

Cost: Free

ResizR: http://resizr.lord-lance.com/default.asp

Firefox Plug-In: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3470

For a general graphics program – also free – I use less frequently, check out Seashore for the Mac.

Post from: EveryJoe

(Free) Blog-friendly apps you can’t live without