A photo can speak a thousand words. However, what if your photos have a huge file size that takes up too much memory on your phone or laptop? You want to cherish those pictures, but your device disagrees. What an inconvenience!
That’s why learning how to make an image smaller without losing its quality is essential. This guide will show you five powerful and straightforward methods for resizing or compressing images while maintaining their crystal-clear quality.
Before we discuss the tutorial on how to resize an image, you’ll need to understand the reason behind this process. There are three significant reasons why having a smaller image is essential. Here are the explanations.
Firstly, a higher resolution image is not acceptable on websites. The back-end is not strong enough to support high-resolution images, resulting in a longer loading time. As a result, the back-end of a website will not be responsive.
Therefore, before inserting an image on a website, you must resize it to a smaller resolution. Not only will you reduce the capacity, but you can also achieve a better result on the front end. Hence, you can save more time by producing a great article with a significant picture.
The second reason to make an image smaller is to keep your website visitors on your website longer and display clear images with a small resolution size, without risking them exiting the website before the images are fully loaded.
In addition, due to the uneven distribution of the internet worldwide, there are still parts of the globe where internet speeds are too low and cannot load large amounts of data, such as images. It will be followed by another problem, which increases the chance that articles will not be read at all, as they often include images. Therefore, it is highly recommended (and even compulsory) to upload small-resolution photos to the website to ensure a satisfactory experience for website visitors.
The last important thing is that a small-sized image is easy to zoom in on and zoom out of. You must feel annoyed when a website loads an article with several photos, and the images are getting bigger. The reason is that the owner does not adjust the image properly.
Additionally, uploaded images have different resolutions; therefore, other sizes will be displayed on the website. Learning how to make an image smaller is essential because creating a responsive image on a part of the website becomes unavoidable. Please make sure you use the exact resolution to produce a similar picture. Once they have the same measurement, the result will follow.
After understanding the reasons why a smaller image is vital, you will want to learn how to make an image smaller. Generally, there are many methods, but we will only discuss two in this article. Let’s keep reading!
The first method occurs when compression breaks down the image into a smaller size. This process retrieves a reassembled picture from a server and displays it in the browser. Typically, you can perform the method in two distinct parts. Here they are.
This part will help you reduce the image size without compromising quality, allowing it to retain its original appearance, but with a slight difference in size. Lossless compression results in two file formats: GIF and PNG.
Everyone loves the GIF format because it produces better results, and sometimes the image comes with moving animations. However, please consider making the PNG image a backup if the GIF is extensive. As a result, you can have both of the forms without losing any image quality.
On the other hand, lossy compression will reduce both the image quality and the image itself. This compression method causes the image to become blurry. Even worse, the image has been pixelated to the point where its quality is significantly compromised. Although it is effective to reduce the size, it is disadvantageous because the image changes too much.
If you prefer to decrease the image size using a default application of your computer, assuming your computer uses the Microsoft operating system, then this second method is the answer. How to make an image smaller, you will begin by opening Microsoft Paint. After that, follow the instructions below.
After opening the application, you can click File on the left side. Then, select Open and choose the image you want to resize. Therefore, ensure you have chosen the suitable document. Wait until the application finishes loading the image.
Second step, search for the Resize menu on the bar. You can click it right away until the next instruction appears.
A pop-up dialog box will show with menus to fill in. Please ensure you have agreed on the Maintain aspect ratio so that the image does not change entirely.
In this section, you can see two different options. The percentage will allow you to choose a number between 0 and 100. The real image will be 100. Furthermore, you can select the suitable percentage you want to resize.
On the other hand, the pixels will allow you to give a number based on the pixelated pictures. You can choose between 0 and 8000. Therefore, choose an appropriate number until it produces the desired image.
The last step is to ensure that the process is successful. You can see it in a decreased image on your screen. Therefore, if it happens, your trial will be completed. After that, save the small-resolution image.
Open the File and click the Save As menu. Choose the image format.
A small-resolution image does not mean it loses quality. It simply means that you can maintain its quality by applying a suitable method, such as compression and a resize menu in Microsoft Paint. Are you ready to try reducing the size of an image using these two methods? Good luck!
Don’t forget to check out our blogs for many more valuable and up-to-date photography tips. You will love them all!
Image Source:
Editorial photography is more than just taking pretty pictures; it’s about telling a story. If…
Graphic design trends 2026 are constantly evolving. If you want to stay relevant in today's…
If you've ever taken a photo and thought, "I wish there were more space around…
Sports photography is one of the most exciting photography styles. It’s fast, unpredictable, and incredibly…
Content aware fill in Photoshop is one of those features that feels almost unfair the…
Fashion photographer is one of the most exciting creative careers right now, especially if you're…