How to reduce a photo

In order to smoothly place images on the site, you should try to make them easier for better loading. When you are sending several heavy, high-quality photos or more than 30 smaller pieces of images, you also need to reduce the weight to quickly send to the addressee in one message. The number of megabytes of a photo often depends on its size. Let’s figure out how to reduce the weight of images without losing quality.

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A bit of theory: what is the weight and resolution of a photo

Don’t be afraid to compress photos for sending or posting on websites. The quality will not degrade and the photo will not be damaged.

Resolution is the number of pixels per unit area. The more of them, the heavier the weight of the image. One pixel takes about three bytes. You can calculate the weight yourself by multiplying the resolution values.

Expansion is the maximum option for making the picture closer without losing quality. Weight is the number of megabytes that the image takes up.

Without opening a photo, you can learn a lot about its quality. If it is known that the size of the picture corresponds to A4, and the weight of the photo is more than two megabytes, the image will be in good or high quality. If you open such photos on a smartphone , remember how long it takes to load and scale images with excellent clarity – it depends on the power of the phone.

There are two options for solving the problem.

1. Compression will help to reduce the weight of the photo
   But the quality of the photo will be lost. Not in the color scheme, but in the rendering of small details of the image. Thus, the expansion and clarity of the photo is blurred.
2. Decreasing the number of pixels makes the picture blurry.
   When cropping, several small squares are combined into one large one. This threatens the complete loss of small details in the background.

On the other hand, both methods will improve image loading, make content browsing more enjoyable, and save time for sender and recipient of information. The best sweet spot is to combine both methods.

How to reduce the size of a photo in a graphics editor

Let’s start with theory. In graphic editors, the function of reducing images is called interpolation. In turn, it has several modes:

• point,
• bilinear,

Bilinear and Bicubic are the basic scaling systems. And the point algorithm works with a picture according to its color scheme. Let’s make a comparative table. Note that the processing time is a conditional indicator, since it depends on the power of the computer and the image expansion. The better the performance of the laptop , the faster it processes pictures.

The bicubic compression algorithm is considered the best for a reason. The image after such manipulation is of the highest quality and does not differ much from the source.

A practical guide is below in the text.

Adobe photoshop

Adobe is a photoshop that is full of functionality and possibilities for changing pictures. The speed of the program of work depends on the video card of the computer.

Photoshop has the advantage of saving the image without losing image quality. That is, it preserves but does not distort. To do this, press:

2. Save for the web.
3. Select JPG format.
4. Specify the desired size, choosing quality from “highest” to “best”.
5. If desired, specify the number of pixels and the type of interpolation at the bottom of the window.
6. Click “Save …”.

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Paint

The standard Windows application is Paint. It does not have as wide functionality as Adobe Photoshop. But the big advantage of Paint is its ergonomics. The program weighs little and practically does not use the computer’s RAM. Compressing photos is possible only by reducing the aspect ratio. How to achieve the result:

• Open a photo in Paint.
• Click on the “File” tab.
• Find the item “Resize” and click.
• Specify the height and width of the snapshot.
• Check the “Maintain aspect ratio” checkbox.
• Save as a regular JPEG picture by choosing a size.

Thus, the file will be reduced by only 8-10%.

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Reducing the size of images in online services

If you are too lazy to install programs, in this case there are online services to reduce the size of images. They are simple in functionality: they compress through point compression or change the proportions of the photo.

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Optimizilla

It is an effective online service for reducing the weight of a photo. You need to open and follow the native directions. Convenient because it is understandable. When you load the site, you already know where to click next, because everything is written. You can upload up to 20 images and use the slider to adjust the quality, and with it the weight of each image. Thanks to compression, you can reduce the weight of a photo to 50% of its original size without noticeable loss of quality. How to use the program:

1. Go to the official website of the Optimizilla program.
2. Find the “Upload” button, click on it and select a picture.
3. Wait until the program zooms out the photo.
4. The source file will be on the left, and on the right, ready for your work or shipment;
5. Select the quality and click “Download All”.

In this program, files up to 1 MB are reduced quickly. For larger images, you can monitor the percentage of interpolation on the image icon. If you click “Download All”, the archive of the processed photos will be downloaded.

Image Optimizer

The site is native, which means: when you go to the site, everything is already written where to click and what to do next. Supports compression of four formats: JPG, GIF, PNG and TIFF. This is one of the first programs to reduce images. You can make your photo 30% lighter without losing quality. The official version is paid. An unregistered user will be able to use it only for the first 30 days. Then you will have to pay from $ 7 per month.

The program has a plugin that runs on WordPress. If the site is on this platform, the tool is perfect for optimizing image and page loading.

It is easy to work with the program, in three steps.

1. Download the Image Optimazer plugin from the official site.
2. If this program offers to register, you need to register.
3. Choose a compression level: normal, aggressive or ultra;

If you want to use it for free, you will have to save on photo processing. After all, only 25 MB is available per month.

Compressor.io

This online service squeezes out the maximum so that the picture is light in weight and loads quickly. The site is ready to do everything for you, you just have to upload a picture by clicking on the appropriate button. Everything is simple and straightforward. There have been cases when, when the weight of the image was reduced by 82%, its quality did not change. There is also a function to upload the finished photo to a computer or cloud drives.

There are disadvantages: files are uploaded one at a time, their maximum weight should not exceed 10 MB. Photo quality improves after weight reduction work. They become similar to the frames already processed with the effects of chiaroscuro in professional Photoshop. In the near future, the creator of the Compressor.io program is preparing to release an offline version with improvements. Step by step how to work with this program:

1. Go to the official Compressor.io website.
2. At the top right, above the photo upload window, select the type of compression.
3. Upload a picture. The site can process a photo up to 10 MB for free;
4. At the bottom right there is a Download All button. Click on it. The picture will be on your computer and ready for further use.

TinyPNG

This site is based on selective reduction of colors. Only works with two formats: PNG and JPEG. The system is fully automatic, you cannot control the reduction process on the site. But the creator promises that it will gently compress photos by 85% or more. It works on the principle of “go in and understand what to press.” How to use Tiny PNG:

• Open the official website of Tiny PNG.
• Upload your picture to a special window.
• Wait while the program processes the photo.
• Click on the “Download All” button.

IMGonline

Free site with compression and adjustment functions. The reduction of the picture to the desired result is adjusted manually. You just need to write the size of the pixels. The image compression percentage on this site can vary from 1% to 100%. Although the online service gives a recommendation: the best photo reduction will be at the level of 75-95%. The site itself will show you where to download and what to click. To do this, you should:

• go to the official website of the IMGonline program;
• select “Compress” in the menu bar by clicking on the subtitle;
• upload the image for the first item;
• in the second paragraph, select the compression parameters;
• click “Okay”;
• download the image.

Ready! The picture will be compressed according to your parameters.

How to reduce the weight of a photo in WinRAR

This program does not compress images for viewing on the site. It reduces them to be sent to the archive. Installation on a computer is free. Supports compression for folders in formats: ZIP, RAR and RAR4. Knows how to make easier not only photos, but also documents, videos, music. For viewing or listening, the content is unzipped into a new folder.

After reducing the size of all documents, you can set a password for the archive. This is convenient as it protects you and the recipient from fraud. And yes, WinRAR is installed even on the weakest Windows 2003 computers. RAM of any size allows you to archive files from WinRAR, compressing information to the optimal weight for sending or publishing. How to compress files using this program?

1. Select one or several files by holding down Ctrl.
2. Call the menu with the right mouse button and click “Add to archive”, click “Archive”.
3. Wait while WinRAR compresses the files.
4. Check the finished folder with your images.

Another plus of this program is that even without an Internet connection, you can compress files.

For each case, you need to choose a program individually. To give accurate advice, you need to know how powerful your gadget is. If online services for reducing photos are “heavy” for your computer and it takes a long time to download them, consider buying a new device.

You can upgrade your device by cleaning the trash, cache, or deleting files from your desktop. It is also important to remember that if you want to change the internals of your computer, you need to do it with specialists. But the sites are loaded by everyone and always, even if it takes a little longer waiting time for the download from the computer.