The Paint program, included in any package of Windows OS, is very convenient to use when you need to reduce the size of a photo. And how to do this depends on how exactly you need to process the image: change the viewing scale, crop or reduce the occupied space.
Instructions
Step 1
Open the file in Paint. To do this, launch the application itself. In the window that appears, press the upper left button in the form of a white rectangle on a blue background. In the drop-down menu, select the "Open" command and find the desired image. Alternatively, find the file through the explorer, select it by clicking on the right mouse button and select the "Open with" item and the Paint sub-item in the drop-down menu.
Step 2
If you need to zoom out in order to fit a large photo in the window, use the slider in the lower right corner. By default, it is at 100%, moving it to the left or clicking on the "-" icon, you will reduce the size of the photo when viewed in half of each previous scale.
Step 3
If you need to crop a picture, i.e. trim off excess parts, first use the "Select" command on the "Home" tab. Please note that you can choose the shape of the selection. To do this, open the submenu of the "Select" command and activate one of the options in it: "Rectangular Region" or "Freehand Region".
Step 4
Then, while holding down the left mouse button, select the part of the image you want to keep. After that, click on the "Crop" command (next to "Select"). As a result, only the area that was inside the selection will remain on the screen. This operation not only removes unnecessary parts of the image, but also reduces the "weight" of the file.
Step 5
In order to reduce the volume occupied by the photo, without removing any of its parts, use the command "Resize" (also located next to "Select"). After activating the command, you will see a window for setting change parameters.
Step 6
Make sure there is a check mark in the Constrain aspect ratio box. Select the main calculation parameter: percent or pixels. Enter the desired value in the "Horizontal" field, the "Vertical" field will be filled in automatically. Click OK to apply the new settings.
Step 7
If you need to reduce the file size to a certain "weight", for example, for placement on a website, you can check the resulting value without leaving Paint. To do this, click the "Save" button and look at the bottom information panel of the program. It indicates the current size of the picture in pixels and in kilobytes (megabytes). If the resulting size is still large, repeat steps 5-6 again.
