# Anyway to reduce the size of a Jpeg photo ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2008, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371 "2008-03-31T12:26:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/1 "2008-03-31T12:26:39Z")
From 3 MB to 100 Kb or so without losing the quality of the picture ?? I do not have any advanced software in my laptop for this … thanx in advance for the help… ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/2 "2008-03-31T12:57:43Z")
You don’t need advanced software. [Picasa](http://picasa.google.com/) is free. ---
**Author:** ![flex727](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@flex727](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flex727)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/3 "2008-03-31T12:58:35Z")
“JPEG” is already reduced as much as can be done with minimal compromise of quality. The file size change you are desiring will dramatically and inevitably reduce the quality. However, you can make intelligent choices as to what to compromise - what is the current resolution and why do you want to reduce the file size? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/4 "2008-03-31T13:05:34Z")
[QUOTE=flex727] “JPEG” is already reduced as much as can be done with minimal compromise of quality. [/QUOTE] Not necessarily - the compression quality is adjustable - it may be that the image in question is large because it is minimally compressed at the moment - there is, as you say, always a compromise, but for many images, lower compression quality settings could be used without making it horrible. The problem is that taking a compressed image, _then recompressing it_ compounds any loss of quality that might already be present. ---
**Author:** ![LionelHutz405](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lionelhutz405/32/536_2.png) [@LionelHutz405](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LionelHutz405)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/5 "2008-03-31T13:07:41Z")
[Jpegsize](http://www.sharewareplaza.com/JpegSize-download_39504.html) works well. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/6 "2008-03-31T13:10:06Z")
Most photo hosting sites (e.g. photobucket) give you the ability to re-size photos you’ve uploaded, so you don’t need any particular software on your machine. But you need to understand the relationship between photo size, quality and file size. The bigger the photo size, and the higher its quality, the bigger the file size. So to reduce the file size, you have to reduce the photo size and/or reduce the quality. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/7 "2008-03-31T13:40:55Z")
[QUOTE=indian] From 3 MB to 100 Kb or so without losing the quality of the picture ?? [/QUOTE] The short answer is “no”. If you’re dealing with jpegs, you’re already dealing with a [lossy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossy_compression) compressed file. (I started to say that jpegs **by definition** were lossy, but apparently that’s [not technically the case](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG).) There may be some obscure lossless compression tools for jpegs but they won’t get you anywhere near the 30:1 ratio you’re hoping for. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/8 "2008-03-31T13:52:52Z")
Do you have Microsoft Office on your computer? Microsoft Office Professional 2003 includes a program called Microsoft Office Picture Manager that can do this. (Edited to add that of course you’ll lose something in the process.) ---
**Author:** ![Mikemike2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikemike2/32/305_2.png) [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/9 "2008-03-31T14:01:41Z")
One other way to reduce the size of the picture (in terms of memory) is to rescale it to a smaller size. If it is 3 mb it is probably a 7 megapixal picture or bigger. If you scale it down to screen size, and reduce the compression level to 6 or so, you should still have a clear picture in about the memory size you are looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/10 "2008-03-31T19:25:57Z")
For the record, not all apps are created equal. Choosing to save Image A at quality level 40 in, for example, GIMP, results in a much larger file than selecting quality level 40 in Microsoft Picture Manager. I don’t know if that means GIMP is poorly written, or their scale is simply wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/11 "2008-03-31T19:33:26Z")
Ultimately we need to know the target purpose of your picture. Are you looking to print it? If so decreasing the size or DPI will not be a good idea, and you won’t get anywhere near that type of compression with .jpg. If, on the other hand it’s meant to be viewed in a monitor a say 800x600 then you can do that and set the DPI to 75 (or is 74?) and see at what level of compression the results become unacceptable to you. The software to do this has been mentione already by others. ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/12 "2008-03-31T21:39:50Z")
Yeah, if you want to just reduce the size to view on screen, you can cut way WAY down on the megs using one of the aforementioned methods and it will be barely reduced in quality on screen. You probably would never notice the difference, but I don’t think you’d get anything recognizable if printing it. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/13 "2008-03-31T23:15:24Z")
I don’t know why this works, but it does: If you take an image you’ve made in the sort of paint program you need to buy (I use paint shop pro XI, for example) and open it in MS paint, then save it with a different file name, it gets **much** smaller. The two images look virtually identical too, which is why I’m confused as to what’s happening. Here, I uploaded [two versions of a picture](http://www.geocities.com/mulderscreek/photos/mspaint.html) I was manipulating. The second photo looks the same to me except for the bottom right corner being _slightly_ less bright a blue. I’ve used this to shrink photos from 1mb to 250kb this way too. I think it’s worth experimenting with, though you’re using larger photos to start with. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/14 "2008-04-01T00:59:31Z")
[QUOTE=missbunny] Yeah, if you want to just reduce the size to view on screen, you can cut way WAY down on the megs using one of the aforementioned methods and it will be barely reduced in quality on screen. You probably would never notice the difference, but I don’t think you’d get anything recognizable if printing it. [/QUOTE] This is the point. What do you want to do with the pics? If it’s just displaying them on screen, the quality can go down tremendously without too much notice, but if you want to print them, espeically in larger sizes, then you can’t do what you want to. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/15 "2008-04-01T01:18:23Z")
Sometimes you can get a remarkable space savings, with little quality loss, by reducing the bit depth of the original image. Going from 32 to 8 bits will get you a factor of 4 right off the bat. Plus you’ll likely get higher compression out of your jpeg from the simpler starting image. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/16 "2008-04-01T01:51:32Z")
If you’re using Windows XP, Microsoft released a little applicaton that builds right into the OS. It’s among the [XP Powertoys](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx) and all of about 500kb. Right click on a jpg file icon and select ‘resize…’ from the dropdown. I use it all the time and couldn’t be easier. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/17 "2008-04-01T01:51:33Z")
If you just want to reduce the KB size, (for web use or email) and aren’t interested in printing them (has anyone mentioned this yet? 😉 ), then you might want to check out [PowerToys](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx). Scroll down to ‘Image Resizer’. It’ll put the ability to resize jpegs to any of four different sizes with a right-click. (I notice you’re in India. According to the site linked above, “PowerToys only work with U.S. English regional settings.” ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/18 "2008-04-01T01:58:37Z")
But I strongly recommend shooting in full resolution mode because if you do get that one in a million shot, you may want to print it out. It’s easy to reduce the size of the image, but impossible to add information later. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/19 "2008-04-01T02:49:03Z")
I’m not sure what you want to do with the file, but if you just want to store it or transfer it, then you can use [stuffit](http://my.smithmicro.com/win/stuffit.html). Stuffit is a compression program (like WinZip) that can compress JPEGs an additional 20-30% without any loss. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371/20 "2008-04-01T06:28:27Z")
Thanks for all the responses … This picture was downloaded from my sony digital camera … I have to send it by e-mail. hence the size reduction… It shows a machine part which needs trouble shooting, and hence picture quality is important… I will have to adjust the settings of the camera now… and locate the camera help guide first… :smack: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyway-to-reduce-the-size-of-a-jpeg-photo/443371.md?page=2)