How to Reduce the File Size of Web Clip Art

Knowing how to reduce the file size of clip art image files is extremely important if you plan to use them on your website. Image files that are too large can cause your website to load slowly and may discourage visitors from viewing it. Using Microsoft Word or any photo-editing program, you can easily reduce file size without losing the quality of your image.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Clip art
• Microsoft Word

Reduce File Size of Clip Art for Webpages

1. Reduce the resolution of all clip art files you plan to use for the Web to 72 dots per inch. The resolution of an image significantly impacts the size of the file. Use Photoshop or any other image-editing software to lower the resolution of your clip art.

2. Insert your clip art file into Microsoft Word if you are preparing a webpage, as you can compress the size of your file directly within the document you are creating.

3. Click on the web image, and then right-click and select "Format Picture" from the menu that appears. From the "Picture" tab, which usually opens automatically, click on the "Compress" button.

4. Choose "Web/Screen" from the list of options that appear on the "Compress Pictures" menu. Select the options "Delete cropped areas of pictures" and "Compress pictures" by checking the boxes. Any parts of the clip art you have cropped using Word will automatically be deleted, helping to reduce the file size.

5. Be sure to resize pictures for width and length, using a photo-editing program rather than Word. Using the arrow tools in Word, the clip art is only reduced in size related to its appearance in the document, but the file does not change in terms of disk space.

Tips & Warnings

• When reducing the resolution of an image file for the Web, be sure to make a copy of the file before doing so. It is possible that you might want to reuse a clip art image later in a print publication, at which point you would need the original file's higher resolution. Keep a backup of all your image files.
• Never sacrifice the quality of your image to reduce file size. There is a limit to how much can be done to lower the size of a clip art graphic, and it's better to have a large file than one that is poor because of distortion.