Reducing picture size

[Spectrum]

Could anyone tell me how I can reduce my picture size so that i can put images on the forum please?
I have phtooshop elements 7, but I can't find a way of doing it!!

[nightshade]

I have Elements 7 but always use IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide I find it quite straight forward; select your photo go to image and resize it to what ever
then save it in file with its new name

[stevecurtis]

if you use microsoft office picture manager,which i know comes with windows 7 it allows you to save for web in 2 sizes,also save for email in 2 sizes very easy,hope ive helped .

all the best steve

[Spectrum]

Thanks both, for your advice. I'll give it a go.

[eeyore]

in elements 7 its easy

first duplicate the image so that you dont resize your original

then with the duplicate open go to image/resize/image size and ensure the constrain proportions box is ticked then alter the width to 800 pix , and the ppi to 76

then resave the image with quality set to about 7 to ensure the file is small enough to use easily on the web.

if you are going to do a lot you can also set up a batch process - but its best to see the PS7 help on how to do that

[Za]

Fotosizer is another very good , easy to use and free program Fotosizer.com

[Kayleigh]

I use the Gimp its free to download and very easy to use.

[Spectrum]

Thanks! There may be pics appearing sometime soon..... (?)

[Geoff F]

How great a reduction do you have to make? (if great is the correct word here).

I use a different editing programme but the principle is the same.

If making a substantial downward resize set your image quality settings to give best quality. Type in your required image size and resolution. Select a suitable Jpeg compression setting. As Eeoyre said.

But a couple of things to watch. For best quality, never use any of the auto 'size for web' etc settings; doing it manually will take a bit longer but gives better quality. For best quality images (eg for my P base site) I use 100% (best quality) Jpeg setting. Or 90% for photos going to the WAB Gallery. I wouldn't recommend going below 70%.

I usually set the resolution to 96 ppi which is the average European monitor standard, although Americans prefer 72 ppi.

After a substantial resize your photo will benefit from a slight sharpen, preferably with Unsharp Mask; but don't overdo this.

One other point to watch is to check that your new sizes conform to the required minimum size in both directions. I normally use 800 pixels wide for P base but a 3 x 2 ratio image size for the WAB best quality Gallery will be rejected because your height is now too low. For this, I use a width of 1024 pixels (average screen size) which gives a suitable height. But this is just what I use and won't be correct for all circumstances.

Hope this makes sense. In reality it is a lot easier than it sounds.

[iainL]

For what it's worth my method is to use the crop tool in photoshop set to width:1280 px by height:1024 px (the size of the monitor I'm using) and drag over the area I want. This instantly gives me an image size of 1280x1024 no matter how large (or small) an area I select. I don't worry about ppi as it's meaningless if I'm only displaying on a screen.

Be careful you don't select an area smaller than 1280x1024 (or whatever size you've chosen to use) as this will look awful.

I then do a sharpen using the photoshop filter (Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen) and Save for Web... using JPEG High (60 - but this is a fairly obscure number which changes between software packages).

It's a quick method and I'm fairly happy with the results it produces.