Making images smaller

One of the many questions I was asked earlier was basically how to make an image smaller. In this context, this question was related to making the image smaller, ie in making say a width of 500 px become say a width of 100 px.

A complex way needed to be made simple

I had in mind a complex way of doing this that was going to be a long technical guide.

Before commencing, I decided to do some additional work to see if there is a smarter more effective way of doing it. And I am thrilled and delighted to say that there is.

Using Jaaxy Lite to do keyword research

I decided to do some keyword research using Jaaxy Lite within my Wealthy Affiliate account. I used "make images smaller" as my keyword to search. I saw "online image resizer" in the list that it created.

Using my favourite search engine, Google, I looked up "online image resizer" and saw a few options.

Using Site Content to obtain an image

Next, I required an image to work with. I decided to obtain an image using the over 1,000,000 images available within Site Content within my Wealthy Affiliate account. I selected Site Rubix, Site Content, Selected Create New, Selected Start a Blank Document, then underneath Title goes here, there are a few icons. I selected the Image icon, and then entered my search item in the search images bar, and selected a suitable image.

Using Offline tool called PIXresizer to resize that image

Please go down a few sections to see some results with this tool.

Using outside tool to resize that image

Using imageresize.org (Disclaimer: I have no association with this organization), one of the top entries from my earlier Google research. I uploaded my suitable image to it.

They have a number of options, so I decided to do two things. One, reduce the width and height size of the image by 25%. And two, to change the image type from png to jpeg.

Using functionally within that website, I ignored their online ads.

Resizing image results

I was able to achieve both of these goals as explained below:

The "original" file type was image/png, its file size was 237 KB and its dimensions was 751 x 431.

The "resized" file type was image/jpeg, its file size was 19 KB and its dimensions was 563 x 323 (25% smaller).

A great unexpected bonus

An unexpected bonus and a great performance consideration, is that the file size decreased from 237 KB to 19 KB. The new size is just over 8% of the file size of the original file. So loading this image is going to be faster, way faster.

I am thrilled that I was asked the question about how to make an image smaller.

An alternative is to use an offline tool. This is discussed next.

I discussed an offline tool to revise that image next, in case you prefer to use that, rather than using the above online tool. It is always good to have options. :)

Using Offline tool called PIXresizer to resize that image

Using PIXresizer (Disclaimer: I have no association with the organization that develop this), another WA member @TeamIceCream mentioned that they have been using this for many years as it can convert image files to other image type and resize images. So I decided to give it a go.

I did the same things with it, as I done with the online option. They have a number of options, so I decided to do two things. One, reduce the width and height size of the image by 25%. And two, to change the image type from png to jpeg.

Resizing image results

Using functionally within that tool, I was able to achieve both of these goals as explained below:

The "original" file type was image/png, its file size was 300 KB and its dimensions was 751 x 431.

One option with this tool is that the quality of the image can be changed within the tool, the higher this is, the bigger in KB the file is. I selected values 20, 50, 60,75 and 90. The default value using the tool is 90. With the image I was using, the quality value of 20 and the quality value of 50, in my opinion left something to be desired.

Using the original image file of PNG in each case, I selected the quality value of 20.

Using 563 x 323 (75% of the original file size in width and height), the image file size was 7 KB. The quality in my opinion left something to be desired.

Using 751 x 431 (100% of the original file size in width and height), the image file size was 12 KB. The quality in my opinion left something to be desired.

Using the original image file of PNG in each case, I selected the quality value of 50.

Using 563 x 323 (75% of the original file size in width and height), the image file size was 12 KB. The quality in my opinion left something to be desired.

Using 751 x 431 (100% of the original file size in width and height), the image file size was 20 KB. The quality in my opinion left something to be desired.

Using the original image file of PNG in each case, I selected the quality value of 60.

Using 563 x 323 (75% of the original file size in width and height), the image file size was 14 KB.

Using 751 x 431 (100% of the original file size in width and height), the image file size was 22 KB.

Using the original image file of PNG in each case, I selected the quality value of 75.

Using 563 x 323 (75% of the original file size in width and height), the image file size was 17 KB.

Using 751 x 431 (100% of the original file size in width and height), the image file size was 28 KB.

Using the original image file of PNG in each case, I selected the quality value of 90.

Using 563 x 323 (75% of the original file size in width and height), the image file size was 28 KB.

Using 751 x 431 (100% of the original file size in width and height), the image file size was 47 KB.

For the future, I will be using this tool to resize images and change the file type to JPEG when appropriate because the file size is so much less. I will probably use a quality value of 75%, assuming that similar results to the above would be achieved for other images.

Know that some images when compressed do not get smaller

When compressing and re-sizing images, make sure that you record the file size of the image before and afterwards. Sometimes when I resize a small png image to a small jpg image, the small jpg image's file size is larger than the small png image's file size. So nothing is gained by using the jpg file.

Happy Days. :)

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