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Shrinking a digital photo involves reducing its dimensions and/or resolution. This can be accomplished quite easily by using IrfanView, the leading freeware image editor.
On Unix/Linux platforms, use the free software image manipulation utilities from ImageMagick.
Steps
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Download and install IrfanView.
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Run IrfanView. Click File > Open.
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Browse to the photo you wish to shrink.
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Left-click the name of the photo to select it.
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Click the Open button. The photo will appear in the IrfanView window.
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To reduce the dimensions of the photo, click Image > Resize/Resample.
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Select the options you prefer and click OK.
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To reduce the quality of a .JPG image without changing its dimensions, click File > Save As and select JPG - JPEG Files from the drop-down list. Click the Options button and use the slide bar to select a lower image quality. This will reduce the disk space used by the photo.
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After altering the image, click File > Save As and select a new file name. Click the Save button to create the new image.Advertisement
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Tips
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Images over 500 pixels wide will be truncated in wikiHow, thumbs next to text should be 250 pixels wideThanks
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If you reduce the quality of an image too drastically, simply re-open the original image and try again. This time, save it at a higher quality. You may have to experiment a bit to find an acceptable compromise.Thanks
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If you use a type of digital camera that uses a proprietary picture format, such as RAW or NEF, you will need the add-ins file for IrfanView.Thanks
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Warnings
- IrfanView is free for "non-commercial use only."Thanks
- IrfanView is not available for Macs.Thanks
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