Shinking picture files with Paint

[jim gilmore]

Sometimes I remember things that I have forgotten and here is one of them. My favorite graphics program is gimp but I haven't been able to download it because I am basically on dial-up. Very slow connection speeds aren't good for downloading larg programs . So I needed to reduce the size of my pictures if I want to be able to post them. I have paint which almost every windoze system has. Fortunatly I remembered how to do it.
1. Just load the photo you want to change into paint.
2. Select image>stretch/skew
3. in the area for stretch put in the percent you wish to reduce it by for both horizontal and vertical
So if the file is 120k and you need it to be under 50k try 40 in both spots and then hit ok.
4. Last save it and add something to the name to indicate the new size. I usually just add a letter "a"

[Robert McHam]

Jim that is great to know, but til now I did not know how to use that feature. Here is what I use: Image resizer which is a part of Microsoft Power Toys for XP Since it is from Microsoft, it is free and has no adware, malware or nasty stuff you don't want.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Just choose an image file and right click on it and a little drop down menu appears and you click on the size you want and just that fast you have that same image in a smaller file size suitable for uploading in an instant without having to open another program.
Since the Power Toys is a small program, much smaller than gimp for example.

Robert

[John Harold]

Here's a link to Photofiltre, a free downloadable program for compressing image files. It works well, reduces the pixels/inch to whatever value you need, not always necessary to shrink the image size dimensions to post a picture here. 90 pixels/inch and 6"x4" size is usually O.K. for Forum postings. Contact me if you have any problems getting started with it...........John
http://photofiltre.en.softonic.com/

[john e. holliday]

Hey Jim, that is what we used to have until the wife decided the program needed an update.  New hard drive and all that I knew is out in cyber space some where.  Still trying to learn the new system.  I think she took lessons from good ole Ma Bell,  about the time we learned what we were doing, they would bring in a whole new program.  Have fun,  DOC Holliday