diff --git a/diffusers_trainer.py b/diffusers_trainer.py
index b51c317..e317705 100644
--- a/diffusers_trainer.py
+++ b/diffusers_trainer.py
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ from diffusers.pipelines.stable_diffusion import StableDiffusionSafetyChecker
 from diffusers.optimization import get_scheduler
 from transformers import CLIPFeatureExtractor, CLIPTextModel, CLIPTokenizer
 from PIL import Image
+from PIL import ImageOps
 
 from typing import Dict, List, Generator, Tuple
 from scipy.interpolate import interp1d
@@ -81,6 +82,7 @@ parser.add_argument('--image_log_inference_steps', type=int, default=50, help='N
 parser.add_argument('--image_log_scheduler', type=str, default="PNDMScheduler", help='Number of inference steps to use to log images.')
 parser.add_argument('--clip_penultimate', type=bool, default=False, help='Use penultimate CLIP layer for text embedding')
 parser.add_argument('--output_bucket_info', type=bool, default=False, help='Outputs bucket information and exits')
+parser.add_argument('--resize', type=bool, default=False, help="Resizes dataset's images to the appropriate bucket dimensions.")
 args = parser.parse_args()
 
 def setup():
@@ -162,16 +164,16 @@ class ImageStore:
     # iterator returns images as PIL images and their index in the store
     def entries_iterator(self) -> Generator[Tuple[Image.Image, int], None, None]:
         for f in range(len(self)):
-            yield Image.open(self.image_files[f]), f
+            yield Image.open(self.image_files[f]).convert(mode='RGB'), f
 
     # get image by index
-    def get_image(self, index: int) -> Image.Image:
-        return Image.open(self.image_files[index])
+    def get_image(self, ref: Tuple[int, int, int]) -> Image.Image:
+        return Image.open(self.image_files[ref[0]]).convert(mode='RGB')
 
     # gets caption by removing the extension from the filename and replacing it with .txt
-    def get_caption(self, index: int) -> str:
-        filename = re.sub('\.[^/.]+$', '', self.image_files[index]) + '.txt'
-        with open(filename, 'r') as f:
+    def get_caption(self, ref: Tuple[int, int, int]) -> str:
+        filename = re.sub('\.[^/.]+$', '', self.image_files[ref[0]]) + '.txt'
+        with open(filename, 'r', encoding='UTF-8') as f:
             return f.read()
 
 
@@ -269,12 +271,12 @@ class AspectBucket:
     def get_bucket_info(self):
         return json.dumps({ "buckets": self.buckets, "bucket_ratios": self._bucket_ratios })
 
-    def get_batch_iterator(self) -> Generator[Tuple[Tuple[int, int], List[int]], None, None]:
+    def get_batch_iterator(self) -> Generator[Tuple[Tuple[int, int, int]], None, None]:
         """
         Generator that provides batches where the images in a batch fall on the same bucket
 
         Each element generated will be:
-            ((w, h), [image1, image2, ..., image{batch_size}])
+            (index, w, h)
 
         where each image is an index into the dataset
         :return:
@@ -318,7 +320,7 @@ class AspectBucket:
 
             total_generated_by_bucket[b] += self.batch_size
             bucket_pos[b] = i
-            yield [idx for idx in batch]
+            yield [(idx, *b) for idx in batch]
 
     def fill_buckets(self):
         entries = self.store.entries_iterator()
@@ -383,16 +385,26 @@ class AspectDataset(torch.utils.data.Dataset):
         self.transforms = torchvision.transforms.Compose([
             torchvision.transforms.RandomHorizontalFlip(p=0.5),
             torchvision.transforms.ToTensor(),
-            torchvision.transforms.Normalize([0.5], [0.5]),
+            torchvision.transforms.Normalize([0.5], [0.5])
         ])
 
     def __len__(self):
         return len(self.store)
 
-    def __getitem__(self, item: int):
+    def __getitem__(self, item: Tuple[int, int, int]):
         return_dict = {'pixel_values': None, 'input_ids': None}
 
         image_file = self.store.get_image(item)
+
+        if args.resize:
+            image_file = ImageOps.fit(
+                image_file,
+                (item[1], item[2]),
+                bleed=0.0,
+                centering=(0.5, 0.5),
+                method=Image.Resampling.LANCZOS
+            )
+
         return_dict['pixel_values'] = self.transforms(image_file)
         if random.random() > self.ucg:
             caption_file = self.store.get_caption(item)
@@ -576,7 +588,6 @@ def main():
     )
 
     # load dataset
-
     store = ImageStore(args.dataset)
     dataset = AspectDataset(store, tokenizer)
     bucket = AspectBucket(store, args.num_buckets, args.batch_size, args.bucket_side_min, args.bucket_side_max, 64, args.resolution * args.resolution, 2.0)