# help... making images smaller for WR use



## fenixpollo

I want to do 2 things:
1) Take large image and use it as an avatar;
2) post my photograph in the "faces behind the nicks" thread in the Culture Forum.
My problem:
I can only find big avatars and my photo is apparently enormous by WR standards.  

A nice young man here in the forum tried to explain this to me, but I seem to have fallen into the generation gap.  I still don't know how to shrink/edit these images using only the tools that come with MS Windows and these decrepit fingers.  Can anyone help?


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## GenJen54

I think you have to find an outside "source" in order to compress the files.  I have tried multiple times to do this in MS Paint, as well as Publisher.  It just doesn't work. 

I posted my photo in the "faces" thread on an outside website, as had been suggested by others, although it may disappear one day.


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## cuchuflete

Hola Pollo,

I have no professional grade foto manager, but I'll be glade to put yours in the hot water wash and try to shrink it for you if you wish.  Look for a PM. 

Cuchu


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## Rayines

Hallo: I do this work with the Foto Editor (I don't know if it is a special program or it was already in my PC); it has a resource for shortening the images or reducing the Kb. But it's also true that if they are very -how to say- "heavy" (?) photos, they are spoiled. Lately I've found some smaller pictures. Well, hope some of this helps (sorry my English).


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## fenixpollo

Rayines said:
			
		

> Hallo: I do this work with the Foto Editor (I don't know if it is a special program or it was already in my PC); it has a resource for shortening the images or reducing the Kb. But it's also true that if they are very -how to say- "heavy" (?) photos, they are spoiled. Lately I've found some smaller pictures. Well, hope some of this helps (sorry my English).


Yes, Inés, you did help me because you gave me ideas to try.  Sadly, none worked.  I don't have Photo Editor, though I have MS Picture Viewer and MS Paint.  Both of them have commands that say "crop" or "compress", but they don't seem to actually reduce the file size, or they don't reduce it enough to fit in the vB software.

And don't apologize for your English -- you "speak" very well and understandably.


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## Aupick

I've just taken a 150kb jpeg (1024x768) and shrunk it using MS Paint to 1.89kb (72x54), which would work for an avatar. Not bad quality, either. I went to the 'Image' menu, clicked on 'Stretch/skew...' and entered 7% as both the horiztonal and vertical stretch values, then saved it again as a jpeg. (The file size under 'Attributes' isn't updated until you save it again.)

Would this work? (Apologies if you've already tried. Maybe your picture is a lot more interesting than mine...)


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## garryknight

It's been 6 or 7 years since I used Windows but I'm sure I remember that Paint Shop Pro can do the job - there used to be a free version back then, and there still might be.

Not-too technical explanation follows, but you can safely skip it: When you save a picture in JPEG format (or any other compressed format), there's a difference between the size of a picture in pixels and its size in bytes. When a picture is saved without compression, the size in bytes of the resulting file can be calculated by the depth in lines times the height in pixels times the number of bytes used to represent each pixel. So a, for example, a picture that is 72 pixels wide by 54 deep that uses 4 bytes per pixel (i.e. 32-bit colour - 4 bytes times 8 bits per byte) will be 72X54X4 = 15,552 bytes in size. Now, if you save it using compression then the size of the file will be smaller. What happens is that the software looks for runs of the same byte (or same patterns of byte) and saves them as the byte (or pattern) followed by a count of the times it appears. This strips out redundant information, resulting in a smaller file; the size depends on the level of compression used, and with JPEG format compression is measured from 0% to 100% where 100% means no compression (not as paradoxical as it appears), and the lower the compression figure the higher the compression and the smaller the resulting file. Confused? Why not??!! 

If you didn't follow, or read, the above explanation, no problem. Just be aware that you usually set the compression level of JPEG picture files *when you save the picture*. The File Save dialog usually has something like a slider where you set the level or a button you press that takes you to a place where you set the level. Try a level of 40%, which gives good compression and small file sizes, while preserving quality. You can set the compression level, save the file, check the file size and if it's still too big, try smaller compression numbers (35%, 30%, and so on).

One excellent program (I use the Linux version myself, and it's available for Windows) that allows you to set the compression level when you save the file is the GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program). It does almost everything Photoshop can do and a few things it can't, and the price is exactly right: it's free.


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## GenJen54

Merci, Aupick!  Thank you, Garry!  I got it (finally).


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## cuchuflete

GIMP is also available for Mac users with OS X, but the install is not for the feint-hearted.  I suggest ToyViewer, which is small, cheap (free!!!) and easy to use, though limited in function.   It will crop and compress.  I have a few other freeware Mac utilities for image management.  If you want details, PM me or ask here.


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