How do resize the category images in Magento ?

This topic explains about getting category images in the frontend ( category list page ) and resize the image to the given size.

• Call the below function from your template
  
  <img src="<?php echo Mage::getModel('catalog/category')->getCategoryImage($_category,300,300); ?>" alt="category_name">
• Override category model(category.php) in the below directory
• app/code/local/Mage/Catalog/Model/
• Add the below function in category.php