How to Reduce Photo Size

Reduced Picture

Reducing pictures for emails, to upload to a server or just to save printer paper are all good reasons to reduce a picture's size. There are several third party applications you can download to make this an easy project. However, there is no need to download anything. Reducing a picture's size is a simple task once you have the required knowledge to do it.

Things You'll Need

• Computer with Paint software

Instructions

1. Open the Microsoft Paint program. Click the "Start" button, "All Programs," "Accessories" and then "Paint."

2. Click "File" on the task bar, then "Open," and select the picture you want to shrink.

3. Click "Image" on the task bar, and then "Resize/Skew..." The "Resize and Skew" window opens.

4. Select the new values you want in the "Horizontal" and "Vertical" fields, located in the "Resize" section of the window. Reducing the size to 50 percent reduces the size of the picture by 50 percent, for example.

5. Click the "OK" button.

6. Click "File" on the task bar, then "Save As...," and save the file. Never save the file over the original. Always have a backup file. You have successfully reduced the size of your photo.

Tips & Warnings

• This article applies to the Paint application, because all computers have this installed with their Windows operating system, and some Macs have it installed. Accomplish photo resizing with other applications as well, but Microsoft Paint works fine if you just want to reduce the size of a picture.

• Increasing the size will cause pixilation and will degrade the quality of the photo.

Resources

• Free Image Optimizer
• Batchphoto Photo Editor