Making a picture smaller can mean a number of things. You can crop or resize the image, or reduce the amount of space it takes up on your hard drive (file size). The following sections contain steps, or links to steps, that show users how to perform all of these actions.

Reducing the file size of an image

Many programs are capable of resizing an image, from photo editors to Microsoft Paint. The following instructions are meant as basic guidelines on how to make your image file smaller to send through e-mail or clear up space on your computer’s storage drive.

  • If you need to crop the image at all, we’d suggest doing that first as it reduces the file’s size.
  • Open the picture in the image editing program of your choice, and then look for something like Resize, Image Size, or Resample, usually contained in the menu bar under Edit.
  • Select the number of pixels you like for the reduced dimensions and save the image with a new file name using the Save As function.

Resizing an image

To change the size of your picture, click the link below.

Add-ons like TinyPNG can also be used to help reduce the file size of an image.

  • How to resize an image.

Cropping an image

If you only need a portion of a picture or image, click the following link for cropping instructions.

  • How to crop an image or picture.
  • See our crop and resize definitions for further information about these terms and related links.
  • Image help and support.