How do I reduce the filesize of my image?

Most cameras and scanners come with software that allows you to reduce the image dimensions and/or file size. How you do this will depend on the program you have. Look for a way to do one or more of the following:

• Reduce the image resolution. Change the dpi to 72.
• Reduce the pixel dimensions. You could bring it all the way down to 80 pixels on the smallest side, the right size for your ticker and super fast to upload. Even 450 by 600 pixels (the standard size for online photo albums) would make your image about 100KB so it will be about 10x faster than the unoptimised image.
• Reduce the image quality. Jpegs can be saved at different compression rates, often you can save the image at a lower quality and it will still look the same but the file size is much, much smaller. The quality may be expressed as a word (choose medium), a percentage (40-60 is good) or on a sliding scale (somewhere about the middle). It's often worth experimenting with different image qualities.

Alternatively, there are a number of free photo resizing programs and online services. You could try searching Google for the phrase resize image or reduce file size to see some of the services available.

Another alternative if you are using Windows XP is to use the built in option to reduce file size, used when you email files. Here is how you can use it to resize files for upload.

1. In Explorer right click on the file you want to use.
2. Select Send to then Mail recipient from the context menu.
3. Ensure Make all my pictures smaller is selected and then click on OK.
4. This will open a new email with the file as an attachment. Right click on the name of the file and choose Open.
5. Click on Save to Disc, then click on OK.
6. Navigate to where you would like to save your file, and then click on Save. NB If you want to save it in the same place as the original, it is a good idea to change the name so that it doesn't overwrite your original photo . Eg. If your original is called sam.jpg I would rename it to something like sam_sm.jpg