It’s best to resize your image to the size you want it to appear on your site e.g. if you need <img width="100" height="100" src="myimage.jpg" alt="My Image" /> then your image (myimage.jpg) should be 100x100px rather than a scaled down 500x500px image.
Size in px and kB
Compressing your image (and that’s all you are doing) means you are reducing the dimensions (in px) but the size (in kB) remains the same. So in effect you are using up more space (and bandwidth) than you actually need to.
Resizing
There are a number of facilities which allow you to resize images. Below are a few examples:
Online
- Scale Your Image: http://scaleyourimage.com/. Simple to use. Browse to find your image, set the size of your image then resize.
- Pic Resize: http://www.picresize.com/. Resize single or multiple images, special effects and quick resize mode.
- Resizr: http://www.resizr.com/. Resize, crop, rotate, or edit your image.
Downloadable Software
- IrfanView: http://www.irfanview.com/. Graphic viewer for Windows which allows you to resize, crop, edit and apply effects to your images.
- PIXresizer: http://bluefive.pair.com/pixresizer.htm. Create web and e-mail friendly versions of your images with reduced file size
- FastStone Image Viewer: http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm. Image browser, converter and editor.
We have not trialed the online or downloadable software with the exception of IrfanView so cannot make any recommendations as to which is the best.
