[TUT] Quick & Dirty Method To Reduce An Images' FILE SIZE By 93.5%

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britcpa

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If you dont have specialist image editing software like photoshop (or the knowledge to use it if you only downloaded a copy last week), here's an effective and VERY SIMPLE method that will quickly turn giant files into mini files.

mini image files load faster on your website and help to bring more google love to you in the serps as well as keeping visitors who might have been tempted to hit the BACK button when they got bored waiting for the page to load.

so lets get started - ive got a 1.37mb image that i'd like to post to my website but by following this method first, im able to reduce the image file size to 90kb.


[a] SOFTWARE REQUIRED:

- OutLook Express / Windows Mail / or Similar


STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS:


1. open the email client from [a]

2. i go to the folder containing my image and create a new folder called 'website images'

3. go back to my target image and right click on it

4. from the drop down menu, move my cursor over 'SEND TO' which produces a drop down menu

5. on that drop down menu, i click on 'MAIL RECIPIENT'

6. in the newly opened dialogue box (called ATTACH FILES), im presented with 5 options:

- smaller size: 90.0kb
- small size: 140kb
- medium size: 230kb
- large size: 384kb
- original size: 1.37mb

7. i click on SMALLER SIZE, then click the 'ATTACH' button on the same dialogue box

8. a new message opens up in your email client (see [a] ) with your image saved as an attachment

9. click once on the attachment in the email, drag and drop it into the new folder you created (website images)

10. BINGO! ive just created a 90kb version of my 1.3mb image - file size reduced by 93.5%

Im not a mac user, so i dont know if this method works the same way on there (but why not try it out for yourself?). as for the rest of us mere mortal WINDOWS users & especially for the newbs on bhw, this is a simple solution to what is frequently a tricky and frustrating problem.
 
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Not bad:)
You can also download gimp (free)
Open image in there, click save as, then you're presented with quality slider - set it to 75-85% and you'll end up with a nice image size.

If you want to go one step further look at converting to gif and a limited colour palette.

One step further look at sprites:)
 
Nice workaround, I'll have to try it sometime. Another trick is to simply use Paint for resizing.
 
On mac, you can do this easily with Automator:

1. Open Automator
2. Choose New Workflow
3. Your workflow should include:
- Copy Finder Items (you set the location the new file goes to)
- Scale Images (Set the percentage you want to scale the image)

Then you just put that workflow anywhere you want, and drop the images you want to scale on top of it when you want to resize them. I have mine drop everything onto my desktop.

*Note - This also changes the actual size of the image, and you can set a specific pixel size if you prefer that over percentage change.
 
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You can use Microsoft office picture manager to reduce the size of your pictures, but that means you'll reduce your picture's resolution and its level of quality :o .. just to make it a small picture (good for emails/small pics for webpages)
 
all good ideas, but... ahem..... mine doesnt need any kind of image editing software whatsoever. '- )

put it this way, if you have to load a large image to your site but youre the sort of person who doesnt want to learn new skills (because youre already bloomin' well bogged down trying to manage your time between AMR & TBS, assorted facebook apps & fanpage templates, camtasia, scrapebox, SEOlinkrobot / SEnuke, wikipage creators, youtube uploaders, etc etc etc) you wont improve on this solution. factamundo...
 
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britcpa said:
all good ideas, but... ahem..... mine doesnt need any kind of image editing software whatsoever. put it this way, if youre the sort of person who doesnt want to learn new skills, this is the perfect solution......

'- )
Click to expand...

True :)
 
LOLWTFOMGBBQ? Could you do this any more difficult? And how on earth you managed to get over one meg image in the first place? Must be something like 1920x1080 pixels RAW directly from your camera.

And are you seriously saying that 10-step guide that needs you to run email software and play around with attaching files is easier than having image editing software (or just the basic image viewer that comes with every Windows) and opening the image and selecting "save" -- is easier?
 
Or you could use one of about a zillion free image optimizing websites in one step.
 
just use irfanview with incredible options and plugins. all free..
 
edgematch said:
just use irfanview with incredible options and plugins. all free..
Click to expand...

i use irfanview myself for viewing photos but i never use it to save images for sites because the JPG compression is very very bad. I prefer to use Photoshop when I want both small size and good quality. There are even ways in Photoshop to do advanced optimization on save that are not obvious - you have to read tutorials on how to do it and it doesnt work for all images.
 
madoctopus said:
i use irfanview myself for viewing photos but i never use it to save images for sites because the JPG compression is very very bad. I prefer to use Photoshop when I want both small size and good quality.
Click to expand...

Sure, but you don't really go and compare $0 and $699 products like that :rolleyes:
 
haha, feels like im dodging bullets over here now that ive logged back in - loook, all im saying is that if you aint got software whether its irfan or photoshop THIS is a cracking little solution.

the '10 steps' take seconds to accomplish and as for whoever it was that was surprised at the image size to begin with, are you saying that youve never had something that large sent to you - on disk for instance? ive had plenty.

anyway, back to the heated debate :p
 
britcpa said:
haha, feels like im dodging bullets over here now that ive logged back in - loook, all im saying is that if you aint got software whether its irfan or photoshop THIS is a cracking little solution.
Click to expand...

But unless you run like Windows 98, you'd need to install Outlook/whatever email software, which kinda kills the whole idea, doesn't it? Why not install actual image editing software?

This whole guide is like saying that if you want to convert .mpg file to .avi, run the video in a player and record your screen with screengrabber and save as .avi. Sure it works, but seriously?

the '10 steps' take seconds to accomplish and as for whoever it was that was surprised at the image size to begin with, are you saying that youve never had something that large sent to you - on disk for instance? ive had plenty.
Click to expand...

Of course I have seen massive filesizes, I've been working with RAW photos and uncompressed video - they're nothing out of ordinary really.
The point I was trying to make, was that picture of that size is big resolution-wise, and in a website you don't benefit for the big resolution in the first place, so instead of just compressing it, one should scale it down and then compress - you'd sale even more in that.
 
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