When I'm trying to translate the French sentence: *"Notre logiciel XYZ **permet de** redimensionner les images au format PNG et convertir le format"*, I often find:

1) "Our software XYZ **allows the user** to resize PNG images and ..."

Naturally, I would write:

2) "Our software XYZ **allows** to resize PNG images and ..."

Does 2) sound strange for a native English speaker?

**Which one is more idiomatic?**

Is it better to use *"to allow sb to do sthg"* vs. *"to allow to do sthg"*?

**Is there maybe another way to say it without involving "the user" (with another verb than "allow")?**