How to Minimize a Photo to 100 Pixels X 100 Pixels & No More Than 6 KB

By William Carne

A low-resolution, or
i Jupiterimages/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images

A "100 x 100" pixel image size is quite common for avatars, thumbnails and other small logos used in forums and image galleries on the Internet. It's also important to make these file sizes as small as possible so that website load times stay fast. Fortunately, there are many good compression methods that can be easily employed to make sure that your avatar or small photo doesn't have any extra bulk.

Open your image editor and load the file you want to compress. A "100 x 100" pixel size is quite small, so don't choose an image that's particularly detailed because the details won't translate well.

Open the "Image Size" panel in the "Image" menu. Set the resolution to 36 pixels/inch. Make sure the "constrain proportions" box is checked and make sure "pixels" is selected from the drop-down box next to width and height. Set whichever number is lower (width or height) to 100. The other number will decrease as well, but will still be higher than 100. Click "Ok."

Open the "Canvas Size" panel in the "Image" menu. Ensure "pixels" is selected from the drop-down menu next to width and height. You will see the same numbers that you did in the "Image Size" panel. Write 100 in the box that you did not alter in the previous step. This will crop the image so beware that you will lose a bit of the image from the sides, or from the top and bottom. Press "Ok."

Click on "File" and "Save As," and select "jpg" or "jpeg." Press "Ok." Another box will pop up asking about .jpg image quality. Set the slider to "1," its minimum value. Press "Ok."

Check the file size of the image. If it's more than 6 KB, than you will have to either lower the resolution even more, or minimize the color data. To minimize the color data, click on "Indexed Mode" from the "Image" menu. This will create a 256 color image. Return to "RGB Mode" from the "Image" menu and save the file. If your image is still more than 6 KB, select "Grayscale" from the "Image" menu and save.

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