How To Reduce File Size For Image Uploading

[BobbiSueEllen]

On PC, Microsoft Paint will resize images rapidly; on phone, I go to either my Gallery edit tool or to this site to edit, then download. I try to keep my width between 450 and 550 pixels, depending on height aspect ratio. Seems to work well.

 

[Woncrinklz]

We have received a number of questions and complaints regarding members not being able to upload images due to the file size being too large. This simple guide will show you how to easily reduce the file size.

The only tool you will need is image editing software. The instructions I will be giving are for a popular free program called GIMP [ LINK ] . Other image editing applications may be a bit different.

1: Open the image you wish to reduce the file size of in GIMP. ( File > Open )
2: Reduce the image dimensions. About 800 * 600 or 600 * 800 works well in these forums. ( Image > Scale Image > [Scale] )
3: Export the image as a .jpg. You will need to provide a file name followed by extension. Example: ImageName.jpg . Setting the quality to 85% is the best compromise between file size and image quality. ( File > Export As > 'ImageName.jpg' > [Export] > Quality 85% > [Export]

Your image's file size has been greatly reduced and is ready for uploading.


Note: it is a good idea to take pictures with your camera using the largest possible resolution. It makes it a lot easier to do image edits & corrections later.

Thank you.

 

[LittleBabyJake]

A quick and dirty way to reduce filesize greatly is to use this service called tinypng.com. I woudn't compress personal photo's with this though but anything else would be fine. It is an amazing tool that is my go-to to quickly compress images.

Anything else I use GIMP for Excellent guide.

 

[Woncrinklz]

I might be wrong, but there's 2 ways I can think of doing this. 1: If you have an Apple device (and maybe other brands, idk) you can download an app called iMovie and make "screen videos". You just make a screen video of what video you want (you have to be on the app to know what I'm talking about), upload it to your photos, and it should be there. And 2: If you have a YouTube account, just upload your video to there. (Although, I created a YouTube account just for uploading videos). After that, just copy and paste the link here.

It's exactly what I ended up doing! Lol.

 

[skunk053]

I like to open the image in Bitmap Imaging, or MS Paint. I can then save as a different extension, such as .GIF or .JPEG, this works for me if I have a huge .PNG or some other format. But by far .GIF will make the image size smaller, but may ruin the image color and quality.

 

[BobbiSueEllen]

My Samsung S10 now has the ability to reduce images in 20-percent increments...and it'll let you Save as Copy, too. There are also free online image-reducing sites which will let you reduce per-degree and into any extension you choose. They're pretty good.

I only work with PNG format as it's less prone to distort in color or other quality when it comes to editing, resizing or saving. JPG distorts with every successive save/edit and GIF keeps doing weird things in terms of color/tone when I try to edit them.

 

[FrenchFriedOnion]

A quick and dirty way to reduce filesize greatly is to use this service called tinypng.com. I woudn't compress personal photo's with this though but anything else would be fine. It is an amazing tool that is my go-to to quickly compress images.

Anything else I use GIMP for Excellent guide.

Sorry to Necro, but I should mention from a security standpoint. Uploading your file to be resized remotely is basically the same as putting that photo on Facebook or IG. Always edit on device when possible. Snapseed and Polish photo editor are good android choices. For windows users paint or gimp. Top of the program, edit, resize, save file as jpg to reduce file size further!

 

[winterheart01]

Sorry to Necro, but I should mention from a security standpoint. Uploading your file to be resized remotely is basically the same as putting that photo on Facebook or IG. Always edit on device when possible. Snapseed and Polish photo editor are good android choices. For windows users paint or gimp. Top of the program, edit, resize, save file as jpg to reduce file size further!

Avoid Paint at all costs, that really destroys the image quality; it's been notoriously known for that.
A free alternative is Paint.net , it's like a Gimp trimmed down but far better quality than MS Paint.
MS Paint saves your files in a very low rendered quality and does a worse job than any other tool, even irfanview is a good alternative, and fast too.

 

[BobbiSueEllen]

I exclusively use MS Paint now for my image-reducing, works fine. Most original JPG images end up distorted when reduced so I usually download images in PNG format and no matter what image format I start with, I always save as PNG. PNG is a far more stable image format.

BTW, if you download JPG images, you can usually save them as PNG instead: when you right-click the image, click "Save Image as..." and when the box pops up, select where to save to, then go to the bottom of the box where the image name is and add .png to the end of the name (or if already listed as .jpg or .bmp, erase the three letters and put in png)...then below that in the Format box, drop it down, click "All Files" then click "Save". Voilà!

 

[winterheart01]

I exclusively use MS Paint now for my image-reducing, works fine. Most original JPG images end up distorted when reduced so I usually download images in PNG format and no matter what image format I start with, I always save as PNG. PNG is a far more stable image format.

BTW, if you download JPG images, you can usually save them as PNG instead: when you right-click the image, click "Save Image as..." and when the box pops up, select where to save to, then go to the bottom of the box where the image name is and add .png to the end of the name (or if already listed as .jpg or .bmp, erase the three letters and put in png)...then below that in the Format box, drop it down, click "All Files" then click "Save". Voilà!

Even then, trust me, I'm an experienced qualified IT professional and digital artist
Ms Paint really saves files in lower quality than other tools, jpeg gets distortion, PNG gets low bitrate.
Paint.net and other tools offer options to change these settings.
Including rendering bicubic, bilinear etc which heavily changes Quality.

I'm really trying to give helpful info:3
Please take it to heart,^^

 

[BobbiSueEllen]

I don't have Paint.Net, PhotoShop Pro or any other graphic editor, my PC has basic software. MS Paint is all I have...and it works well enough for me here. All the pics I put up here prove it's good enough, especially when they end up around 450x450 pixel average resolution to save bandwidth here (this is a 384x384 PNG).

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[winterheart01]

I don't have Paint.Net, PhotoShop Pro or any other graphic editor, my PC has basic software. MS Paint is all I have...and it works well enough for me here. All the pics I put up here prove it's good enough, especially when they end up around 450x450 pixel average resolution to save bandwidth here (this is a 384x384 PNG).

View attachment 92347​

Why does everyone think alternatives are complex or expensive?
Paint.net is just a basic free alternative to Photoshop with limited functions but better image manipulation and very easy to use.
Irfanview is just a beefed up photo viewer with resizing and exporting function, nothing fancy but also free.
I'm not here to tell people to use complicated software, just regular simple stuff.
They're both basic programs with low PC spec requirements, irfanview even van still run on old pentium pc's
Nothing wrong with some good advice, right?

 

[OmiOMy]

A couple app options, Android specific because I don't know the first thing about iPhone's ecosystem:

Snapseed
Adobe Photoshop
Cymera

 

[ade]

A couple app options, Android specific because I don't know the first thing about iPhone's ecosystem:

Snapseed
Adobe Photoshop
Cymera

Gonna have a play with Snapspeed (Litphoto is getting bogged down by reading all my photos before I can open one for resizing).
Do you know of any 'fun' filter apps which don't require you uploading to their servers?

 

[BobbiSueEllen]

Gonna have a play with Snapspeed (Litphoto is getting bogged down by reading all my photos before I can open one for resizing).
Do you know of any 'fun' filter apps which don't require you uploading to their servers?

Have you considered downloading & toying with IrfanView?

 

[ade]

Have you considered downloading & toying with IrfanView?

It's for my Android phone
I've used irfanview on my old PC, many years ago, but most of these PC picture/photo editing softwares are just variations on 20thC software (free with the purchase of a PC, wayback when; along with a printer, a scanner, a desk, business software, web publishing software and much more) which I already have (it's what I do all my pics on ).

That Snapspeed is not bad for quick edits and compressing ('do not resize' compresses by about two-thirds; the smallest resize, about 800 width or height, makes for a bit of a smudged image, but it'd have it's uses for quick examples). I need to play more with it cos there's some nifty tweaks with it.
I think I'll uninstall Litphoto

 

[OmiOMy]

Gonna have a play with Snapspeed (Litphoto is getting bogged down by reading all my photos before I can open one for resizing).
Do you know of any 'fun' filter apps which don't require you uploading to their servers?

https://media.tenor.com/Yt6YWEPgVkcAAAAM/you-rang.gif

Fun camera and filter apps? Boy do I! Strap in, I'm about to Infodump. Smartphone photography is actually one of my Special Interests.™ Here's everything I work with that doesn't require uploads:

• Snapseed, previously mentioned, has loads of premade sets, with the bonus of being completely free. Its only real con is there's a bit of a learning curve because it's deceptively high level kit.
• Meitu has a truly wild assortment of items, along with selfie beautifying options. VIP optional.
• Camera360 is a classic for this. Its features are just different enough from Meitu that I keep both on my phone's. VIP optional, and unlike Meitu, you can buy individual filter packages here if you're not feeling going VIP for just one filter set you want.
• A surprising contender is LINE Camera. It's zippy and has loads of sticker options. It also consistently has sharp, crisp front camera performance—seriously, it's nuts. A surprising plus to this app is how easy it makes making attractive memes—who needs Meme generator dot whatever it is?
• PS Camera (Photoshop Camera) (STAY WITH ME Y'ALL) has a ludicrously extensive selection of filters. IIRC, using Adobe Cloud is optional, but you do get I think 2 gigs of free space. Might be more, haven't checked. And it's free—a shock for an Adobe product, I know.
• Likewise, Photoshop Express (again, STAY WITH ME HERE) has a ton of editing features as well as filters, overlays, etc. that you can use.
• Now, if you wanna go completely HAM, there's this app from the Camera360 people called Mix. With Mix, you can download free filters by their devs as well as other users, buy the newest filters cheap…or you can MAKE YOUR OWN from scratch. You can save the ones you really love and use them later with a single tap. This is one I seriously adore.
• EPIK is an editor that has a lot of cooler, trendy sorts of options. I'm newer to this one, but I've been enjoying what I can do so far.
• Pixlr, by Autodesk, is full of filters, overlays, stickers, frames, you name it. The fact that you apply each option separately, one at a time, allows for quite a bit of creativity—but when I say "one at a time" I am being totally deadass with you. I mean the following in the best way possible with this app—the Undo button is your friend in this app. Its only real weakness is the text insert—somehow on the eve of 2023, their text feature doesn't have an outline option.

*stops to breathe*

A'ight, y'all, if I need to make an actual thread about some of these, let me know and once I have a bit of caffeine and a snack I'll start my outline on my laptop—cuz this formatting business is a nightmare on mobile!

 

[Sheogorat]

For compressing images you can use caesium.app or it standalone version (in standalone you can do a lot at once)

BTW caesium is FOSS

 

[lulu22]

Can anyone tell me how to reduce the file size in snapseed please?

 

[PaddedRita]

Thank you so much for that information KitsuneFox