Wednesday 25 May 2011

How to Downsize Photos

How big should my images or electronic submissions be?
To attach images to your PowerPoint, documents, emails or files etc., or onto the discussion boards for sharing and when you submitting for an assessment, it is important to ensure that the file sizes are not excessively large. If the file size is too large, it may restrict others from opening the image as it is too large to download and they will miss out on what you are trying to show them. The best guideline to follow is to try and keep your individual images below a 100kb file size, reduce them as you save them, and for a group of photos to show in a PowerPoint, or a document on the Discussion Boards, etc. keep it to below 3mb in total. (Submissions = 10MB maximum)

The most common cause of excessively large files is from image resolution being too high for web viewing. Reducing the resolution quality or compressing the image or images within the PowerPoint/document will greatly reduce the size of your file. Doing this correctly will not affect the image quality as viewed on a computer monitor because a computer screen cannot display the same resolution quality as that of a photo. For information on compressing your images for submission, please see "How do I compress my images for submission?”

How do I compress my images for submission?
When using PowerPoint there is an option located within the Picture toolbar that allows you to Compress All Images. This option is handy for easy compression of all images once located in your presentation; however the compression usually does not compress images enough to meet the file size criteria.
Usually your best option is to individually compress your images before inserting them into your PowerPoint/document. This way you are ensuring that the total file size of your completed project will be suitable. Utilising your image editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or Microsoft Office Picture Pro, you will usually have the option to either compress or resize your picture, or 'exporting' it which also allows you to alter the properties of the image.
Using Paint Shop Pro:
Reducing the Image Quality
Open your image in Paint Shop Pro.
Go to the File menu in the tool bar in the top left corner of your screen.
Select the Export function from the menu. This will open a new drop down menu which allows you to select a file type to use. We recommend using the JPEG Optimizer. This will open a new window called JPEG Optimizer.
In the new menu in the Quality tab, you have the option to select the value percentage of how much you wish to compress your current image. The higher the percentage you set, the smaller the file size, but also the lower the quality of the image. You can preview what your image will look like before confirming.
Once you are happy with the compression size and image quality select OK from the bottom of the window to save your image. Here we recommend saving your image as a new name, rather than overwriting the original image, for example, if the original image was labelled picture.jpg, then name your new version picturea.jpg or something to that effect. It's usually best to keep a hold of your original image because you just never know if you might need it again.
Reducing the Image Size Dimensions
Open your image in Paint Shop Pro.
Go to the Image menu in the tool bar at the top of your screen.
Select Resize from the Image menu. Doing this will open a new window.
The Resize function will allow you to alter the scale and/or the dimensions of your image. It often occurs that the file size is too large because the actual image size is excessively large. The average university computer will run at 1280H x 1024W, so very rarely would you need to make any images this large, let alone any larger. Most images saved within the Shared Art Files Image Database have a pixel height of 330px with the width scaled to stay in proportion to the original image.
Once you have selected your image dimensions/scale select OK. To finalise the file compression you need to save your altered image. In the File menu in the tool bar at the top of your screen select the Save As function. Here we recommend saving your

image as a new name, rather than overwriting the original image, for example, if the original image was labelled picture.jpg, then name your new version picturea.jpg or something to that effect. It's usually best to keep a hold of your original image because you just never know if you might need it again.
Using Microsoft Office Picture Pro:
Open your image in Microsoft Office Picture Pro.
Go to the Picture menu in the toolbar at the top of your screen.
Select the Compress Pictures function which will open a new menu of the right hand side of your window.
Here you are provided with a number of options. As your electronic submissions are viewed and assessed using a computer, we recommend using the 'Compress for Web Pages' option. There is no need to have higher quality resolution because a computer monitor will not be able show the extra detail, and setting the compression any lower may result in poor image quality.
Select OK from the menu on the right hand side.
You now need to save your altered image, so in the File menu in the toolbar at the top of your screen select the Save As function. Here we recommend saving your image as a new name, rather than overwriting the original image, for example, if the original image was labelled picture.jpg, then name your new version picturea.jpg or something to that effect. It's usually best to keep a hold of your original image because you just never know if you might need it again.
Please Note
that using the 'Compress Pictures' function to reduce your file size will also automatically convert your image size dimensions. If you wish to use different image dimensions, after compressing your image, in the Picture menu select the Resize function. Here you may alter your image dimensions. This can also be done without compressing your image. Don't forget to save your image afterwards under a new name.






References:
For Curtin Students:
Shared ARt Files - http://lms.curtin.edu.au

http://learningcentre.curtin.edu.au/online/ = Good stuff!!!

http://elearn.curtin.edu.au/blackboard/downloads.cfm = How to work the Discussion Boards

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