78. Change Photo Resolution and Size BEFORE YOU BEGIN 74 Import Photos from a Digital Camera 75 Scan In Photos
SEE ALSO 77 Convert Between Image Formats 142 Make the Picture Web Friendly
Pictures of different resolution s and sizes are used for different purposes. For example, if you're going to have your digital pictures printed, you want them to be as high quality and in as high resolution as possible. But you don't use very high-resolution photos on the Web, because it will take too long to download. KEY TERM Resolution The quality of a picture, measured in pixels , which are small dots.
78. Change Photo Resolution and Size
The solution? You can easily resize images and change their resolution so that you can use any picture for the Web, and make sure that it's at the right size. | 1. | Download the Image Resizer
The best tool for resizing images is free and available from Microsoft. It's called the Image Resizer , and it's one of a suite of free utilities that Microsoft calls Microsoft Power Toys . To find it, go to www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp. Look in the list on the right side of the window for the Image Resizer utility. Click the ImageResizer.exe link to download the file, choose a folder location where you want to save it, and start the download.
| | 2. | Install the Image Resizer After you download it, look for the file named ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe in the folder where you saved it, and double-click it. This action launches an installation program. Click the Next button when the first screen appears and then follow the simple installation instructions. NOTE Even though the link on the website calls the file ImageResizer.exe , the actual filename is ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe . | | 3. | Open Windows Explorer
The Image Resizer isn't a program that runs by itself. Instead, it integrates directly into Windows Explorer's right-click context menu. Open Windows Explorer and locate the file you want to resize.
| | 4. | Right-Click the File You Want to Resize
Right-click the file you want to resize. Choose Resize Pictures from the context menu to run the Image Resizer. Note that you can select multiple pictures and resize them all in a single operation. To select multiple pictures, Ctrl+click each file until you've selected all that you want to resize, right-click any of the files to open the context menu, and choose Resize Pictures .
| | 5. | Choose Your Image Size The Resize Pictures dialog box appears, allowing you to change the picture size. You can choose any of the preset image sizes, or you can choose a custom size by selecting the Custom option and entering the size you want the image or images to be. After you make your selection, click OK . Keep in mind that if you resize a picture to make it larger than its original size, the quality of the resized picture will often not be very goodand might even be unusable. However, making a picture smaller will not adversely affect the picture quality. NOTE It's not a good idea to select the Resize the Original Pictures (Don't Create Copies) option. If you choose that option, your original picture will be deleted, and if you don't like the new size of the picture, there's nothing you can do about ityou're stuck with it. | | 6. | Use Your Pictures
The Image Resizer resizes the images and puts them in the same folder in which your original pictures are stored. The program labels the new pictures by appending their new size to the filename; for example, (small) . Keep in mind that the pictures won't look smaller in the thumbnail view in Windows Explorer, but the actual file is smaller. You can now use the resized image file in the same way you use any picture.
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