How to Optimize Image File Sizes
You can find images, graphics and photos of all kinds in many places. Whether it's the photos you take on vacation, a graphic you make for a portfolio or images you see on a website, you interact with different types of images almost every day. For the average computer user, the specifics of the files themselves won't matter. However, if you're interested in creating a website, emailing photos or simply trying to conserve space, optimizing your images to decrease their file size is a useful method.
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Instructions
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Open your images in a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. If you don't have one of these, you can download a free graphics application such as GIMP or Pixia, or use an online image editor like Pixlr or Splashup.
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Select your first image, and then click "File" and then "Save As." If you have the option, click "Save For Web." Selecting one of these lets you choose to save the file as a different file type and choose its compression options.
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Choose a name for your file, and then select the .jpg file extension type. The .jpg file type will let you decrease the file size by reducing the image's quality, but the visible effects are rarely noticeable unless you choose the very lowest settings. Your graphics program will typically ask you to choose the quality settings before the save process is complete, so experiment with your image. Many programs will offer you a preview as you select each different quality setting and tell you the file size.
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Save your image after you have selected the quality settings you desire. Repeat this process for every image you wish to resize. The difference in the file size will make it much easier to upload and download the pictures.
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