Picture problems

[Craveman]

I've been struggling to try and upload avatars because the file size is too large. What I've had to do previously was to crop the picture to a smaller size and then save as a JPEG file to make it small enough to upload.

Most cameras these days have millions of pixels and create large files. Is there a way that you can make the file smaller without having to reduce the size of the actual picture?

[Autumnlicious]

Short answer: No.
Longer answer: Yes, but only if you reduce the colors in an image, convert it to grayscale, save it in a lower quality.

Quick Pro-tip: Use PNG.

[theVOID]

I've been struggling to try and upload avatars because the file size is too large. What I've had to do previously was to crop the picture to a smaller size and then save as a JPEG file to make it small enough to upload.

Most cameras these days have millions of pixels and create large files. Is there a way that you can make the file smaller without having to reduce the size of the actual picture?

If the error is about size in terms of Kbs then the easiest way would be to open the file in Photoshop or TheGimp and then 'SAVE AS' a .Jpeg with higher compression. You should see a slider that will allow you to pick a quality rating from 1-12, chose 6-8.

If the error is about size in terms of pixels using Photoshop or The Gimp again you can quite easily change the size of the entire image, Most avatars need to be 120x120 - 80x80 but i can't remember exactly what the specs are here.

[Tiberius]

JPEG has a quality level as well. You can usually save photos at 90% quality and they still look good.

[Craveman]

If the error is about size in terms of Kbs then the easiest way would be to open the file in Photoshop or TheGimp and then 'SAVE AS' a .Jpeg with higher compression. You should see a slider that will allow you to pick a quality rating from 1-12, chose 6-8.

So any problems with photo's, "just BRING OUT THE GIMP"? (Pulp Fiction)

Thanks for the replies! I'll give them a go...

[Eilonnwy]

When I'm at work, where photoshop/gimp is not available, paint works fine. You can resize/skew an image by using percentages and if you're trying to make a really big picture into a small avatar for a forum, then it's fine. The image quality doesn't matter as much when you're going from really big to really tiny.

[leo-rcc]

IRfanview, ctrl-R, select size, save. You can even do batch conversions and resizing and renaming.