Resizing Photos Using Windows XP

These instructions will show you how to use Windows XP to resize photos. You will need to have the Windows XP PowerToy "Image Resizer" to resize the images. (You can click here to download the tool ImageResizer.exe ). These instructions also assume that you have the pictures on your hard drive, somewhere in your My Documents / My Pictures folders.

Determine if you need to resize an image. Before e-mailing a photo or uploading an image to a website you should make sure it's not to big for others to download. The two squares below will show you how large a picture actually is. Many digital cameras have several size and quality settings that will allow you to take different size photos. There is two sizes to every digital picture: 1- dimension, 2- file size.

 

Normal 800 X 600 Screen Resolution Yellow area represents a picture Sample of a picture that has a dimension of 640 X 480 File size can vary from 35 Kbs. to 225 Kbs. Download Times if the file size 85 Kbs. for each picture 28.8 slow connection speed= 45 sec. 56.6 normal connection speed= 21 sec. DSL connection speed= 5 sec. Cable connection speed= 1 sec. This photo should be resized for internet use.

Normal 800 X 600 Screen Resolution Yellow area represents a picture Sample of a picture that has a dimension of 400 X 302 File size can vary from 25 Kbs. to 50 Kbs. Download Times if the file size 45 Kbs. for each picture 28.8 slow connection speed= 24 sec. 56.6 normal connection speed= 9 sec. DSL connection speed= 1 sec. Cable connection speed= 0.5 sec. This photo is still a good size but downloads a lot faster.

Some digital cameras, when set on their normal setting will create pictures that are 1280 X 960 with a file size that's 425 Kbs.. That file would take the average computer user almost 2 minutes per picture. If someone is planning to print the pictures for some special use, that's fine, but if you just want to show someone a snapshot of a house or something that's way to big. Resize the picture and give someone a break.

Checking The Picture Size

1. Open your My Documents or your My Pictures folder (go Start, My Documents/Pictures)

2. Using the menu at the top of the page, go View then Thumbnails
   

3. Once you're in the thumbnail view, you can mouse over a picture thumbnail to see it's size. The example below shows a picture that is 640 x 480 and 177 Kbs. That picture will take 1-1/2 minute to download.
   

4. If you want to resize this picture click on it once, it will get a blue ring around it. (If you want to resize more than one picture, hold down your Ctrl key and click on each picture you want to resize).

5. When you have all the pictures that you want to resize selected, right click on one of the selected (blue) files.

6. A pop-up menu will appear. Find and select the Resize Pictures option.
   

7. When the Resize Pictures box pops up click the button.

8. Choose the size option that you want or click the Custom button and enter the picture width you'd like your picture to have. (I think 400 is a good width for e-mailing pictures). You do not have to enter the second dimension option the computer will figure it out for you.
   

9. Click the button and your photos will be resized in the same folder you have them in. You can usually find them at the bottom of the folder. The new picture is below and downloads in 11 seconds instead of 96 seconds.
   
   

10. Please leave a tip, see the bottom of this page.

End of instructions.