Resize/crop/pad a picture to a fixed size

Question

I need to resize a picture to a fixed size. But it has to keep the factors between the width and height.

Say I want to resize a picture from 238 (w) X 182 (

Answer 1

I'd much rather resize so that the image is contained within your limit and then fill out the blank parts. So in the above example you would resize so that the height is OK, then fill up (7 pixels on each end I think) to the left and right with a background color.