I understand that it can seem a lot of work to set up a semi automatic and especially a fully automatic system, but it makes sense when you have a high number of a task to do, a regular smaller number, you need consistency from a number of people all doing the same task.

The set up is of course only done once so over time it is less and less of an issue.

The setup of the page['s] I linked to can be automated as a batch, or if you just set up the Crop parameters and save them, (within the Irfanview app as a new standard Page size), you can simply manually load an image select the crop "Page Size" and crop one or a small number quickly. this will give you options of consistency over 10 or 10000 images.