Reducing picture file size in kb

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Copernicus
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Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 4:38 pm

Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by Copernicus »

Help! - I am trying to reduce file size of a few pictures from large kilobytes size to less than 12 kb. I tried the solutions suggested by goggled answers, but they just reduce the dimensions of the picture, not the kb. Current file formats are jpeg, tiff, etc.
sscritic
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by sscritic »

It depends on the tools available. I have iPhoto. I just took a picture that was 2.9 MB and mailed it to myself. I chose small as the picture size for the email. I just got the email and saved the picture to my desktop. It is now 37k, down from 2.9 MB. I always have trouble with what a MB is, but if it is 1000 kb, then the reduction was a 99% reduction in size.

37/2900 = .013; 2863/2900 = .987
jebmke
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by jebmke »

I use a program called IRFANVIEW.

http://www.irfanview.com/
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epitomist
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by epitomist »

You can use Paint.net (www.getpaint.net). It is a free Photoshop-lite application.

After you open the file, save it in JPG format and reduce the quality as much as you need to get the right size.
sscritic
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by sscritic »

sscritic wrote:It depends on the tools available. I have iPhoto. I just took a picture that was 2.9 MB and mailed it to myself. I chose small as the picture size for the email. I just got the email and saved the picture to my desktop. It is now 37k, down from 2.9 MB. I always have trouble with what a MB is, but if it is 1000 kb, then the reduction was a 99% reduction in size.

37/2900 = .013; 2863/2900 = .987
Hmm, doesn't work on small files. A 63 kb picture was reduced to 34kb. jpegs are compressed. If it is already compressed a lot, compressing it more won't do that much.
wilked
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by wilked »

MS Paint does it easily. Open the photo, resize, save
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Aptenodytes
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by Aptenodytes »

sscritic wrote:
sscritic wrote:It depends on the tools available. I have iPhoto. I just took a picture that was 2.9 MB and mailed it to myself. I chose small as the picture size for the email. I just got the email and saved the picture to my desktop. It is now 37k, down from 2.9 MB. I always have trouble with what a MB is, but if it is 1000 kb, then the reduction was a 99% reduction in size.

37/2900 = .013; 2863/2900 = .987
Hmm, doesn't work on small files. A 63 kb picture was reduced to 34kb. jpegs are compressed. If it is already compressed a lot, compressing it more won't do that much.
IrfanView (named for the author; not an acronym) will reduce the file size just about as much as you want. To get it extremely small, as you wish, you must use the "Save for Web" tool, not the normal "Save as." "Save as" lets you go down to about 35 Kb; "Save for Web" lets you go down to about 6 Kb, though in practice such highly reduced files may end up as irrecognizable splotches.

IrfanView is one of the first shareware utilites I put on a new computer. Microsoft should have paid a licensing fee to the author and embedded it in the OS, but they didn't. I throw up a little whenever I see people struggle with the built in image utilities in Windows.
pshonore
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by pshonore »

Just tried it with MS Office Picture Mgr. Reduced a 34.7 Kb jpeg to 5.7 Kb (picked email)
Cash
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by Cash »

pshonore wrote:Just tried it with MS Office Picture Mgr. Reduced a 34.7 Kb jpeg to 5.7 Kb (picked email)
This is what I typically use as well. Much easier than Paint. I usually access it by right clicking on the photo, going to "Open With", and then clicking on "Microsoft Office Picture Manager". From within the program, I click on "Edit Picture" and then "Resize". However, I think the program comes with Office and is not standard with Windows.
dolphinsaremammals
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by dolphinsaremammals »

I use a free program HP Photosmart Premier which has several resizing options including "email size" as well as the ability to also reduce size by cropping. Downloads from the HP site.
battlese
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by battlese »

I like FastStone Photo Resizer. Free for personal use.http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm
YttriumNitrate
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by YttriumNitrate »

There's a bit of a learning curve, but one of the best free image editing software packages is Gimp.
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Ged
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by Ged »

If you have to do this with a large number of photos I've found Image Magick to be very useful for it's batch capabilities.
Leeraar
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by Leeraar »

The best solution for this is "Advanced JPEG Compressor".

Truly incredible.

L.
You can get what you want, or you can just get old. (Billy Joel, "Vienna")
Scal
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Re: Reducing picture file size in kb

Post by Scal »

Another vote for Irfanfiew. You can get quite fast at operations like this in Irfanview by memorizing the keyboard shortcuts. In addition, they have a 'batch' option that enables you to process large batches of images at once (saving in a new directory or overwriting the existing).

Tools like Gimp and Paint.NET are very useful, but far too slow for a simple operation like this. Gimp can easily take 20-30 seconds to open, even on a beefy machine. By contrast, Irfanview opens practically instantaneously.
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