How do I Optimize Images?

This afternoon's email read (and I quote) Garret - How the Hell do I fix this stupid pic? I can't make it smaller...gggrrrrrrr.....

I HATE question's like that. I really do. Why you ask. Because I am not good at photoshop. I have no patience for it. I prefer to set up my posts, layout and tweak my other 7 blogs. But hey...Duty Calls. A friend in need as they say.

Here is what you do.

Go to photoshop and find the image you would like to edit and use the HELP feature...

Okay seriously don't panic you have other options.


If you do not have an image fixer upper there are several on the internet, a great free program which is called Irfanview. It can be downloaded at no cost. My favorite price :) Click here to download Irfanview

I recommend it because:
- Only one EXE-File, no DLLs, no Shareware messages like "I Agree" or "Evaluation expired"!
- No registry changes without user action/permission!
- It can read any file extension you throw at it. Yay!

Alright the image in this case is too small. Not a problem.

Go ahead and click the first button on the left (The one that looks like an open folder).

Browse to the file that you want to edit and open it.

Now that you have the file open, click on (Image - located on the top menu bar) then scroll down to (Resize/Re-sample.) and click once. "My Mother Clicked Once Johnny....Once" Wasn't Johnny Dangerously the greatest movie ever?...where was I? Photo found here

Oh right, image sizing.....;)

From here, you can re size the image using the set new size box. Here you will see that the image's dimensions are determined by two variables, height and width. This can be displayed in either pixels, centimeters or inches. Pixels, is the default selection and is fine for what we want to do.

Now, this is really up to you but I would recommend staying somewhere between 400 and 600 pixels for either the height or the width. Try typing a new value into the (Width) field. Notice that the (Height) field changes as well. This is because it is fixed proportionately to the width.

In simple speak that translates to: if your image has a width of 50 pixels and a height of 25 pixels, and you raise the width to 100 pixels, the height will automatically compensate by changing itself to 50 pixels. You still following me.....good.

Now even though Mark asked about making the image smaller we will cover both, smaller and larger.

Select the next box down. Make sure to set new size as percentage of original.

For example, you can set 200% in both fields and your image would be twice as big.

Or you could set it to 50% in both fields and it would be twice as small. Ya Folla Lonergan? (Great Movie "The Sting") Photo found here.

Finally, there's the DPI field, in the third box down. What the Hell is DPI.....not that it matters but DPI stands for (Dots per inch)

The standard dpi for a web image is 72 DPI. The standard for print is 128 DPI.

If your image is larger than this, don't worry. Keep in mind though, DPI of 300 is about as high as you are going to want to go. Anything larger than this is unnecessary.

Now that you have your fields set, click ok.

Your image will now be displayed with the new settings. If it doesn't look the way you wanted, don't worry. Hold down the [Control] key and hit the [Z] key on your keyboard. This will undo the changes.

Or you can select (edit / undo) from the menu at the top of the program.

Save your file and go upload it to your ad!

Congrat's YOU DID IT!!!!!

You little Internet Scientist you:)

Thanks to backpage.com for the advice