Size down your photos
Most of us upload photos, either to attach in mails or to online image repositories such as Flickr or Google’s Picasa Web Albums.
However, most of us unknowingly (and unnecessarily) upload very large images, leading to long upload and download times, and avoidable wastage of space and bandwidth. Let’s see how we can remedy this…
We’ll use the freeware application Irfanview.
(1) Download and install IrfanView
(2) Open the image
(3) Resize to a smaller size (if required)
(4) Save as JPEG (80% quality)
As a demo, I’m using this photo. Try loading it, the file size is about 2.31 MB. And the image is too large to fit your screen. Now we remedy that:
(1) Download and install Irfanview
Go to this link and select a location to start downloading IrfanView. Run the downloaded file, setup steps are pretty intuitive.
(2) Open the image
No-brainer, just fire up IrfanView and load the image. Once the image is loaded, press I (for Information). This will bring up a, you guessed it, information screen for the image. For my demo image, this shows
3888 x 2592 Pixels (10.08 MPixels) (3:2)
in the Original size field.
(3) Resize to a smaller size (if required)
Optimum size for the web is 1024×768, so that’s what we’ll be resizing it to.
Go to Image->Resize/Resample in IrfanView (or press Ctrl+R). This is what you’ll see
Make sure the Preserve Aspect Ratio and Resample option with Lanczos filter (slowest) are chosen.
You’ll notice that when you input 1024 in the Width field, the Height field is set automatically. This is to maintain the aspect ratio (exact shape) of the image. If your image is vertical, set the Height to 768 and let the Width auto-adjust.
Press OK. Your image should resize to the specified values. For the demo image, these values are 1024×683.
(4) Save as JPEG (80% quality)
Go to File->Save As, and select JPG - JPEG Files. In the options dialog, (check Show options dialog), set the Save quality slider to 80. Give a file name and location and save. Done :o)
This is the processed demo image. Note the faster loading time - that’s because the file size is reduced to a measly 71 KB from the earlier 2.31 MB. That’s 33 times smaller! And no visible deterioration in quality, either.
There are many more options to play with - just browse around and put in a line in the comments if you have any tips or queries..
P.S. There is a Batch option in the File menu, which allows you to batch process several images at once, so you can process entire albums without much trouble.
