First, It is important to understand some basic terminology when reducing image size. Two of the most common terms you are probably familiar with is:

• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) which is pronounced (jay-peg)
• GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) which is pronounced (giff with a hard g)

JPEG, in general, is better quality in color and clarity. You will see more photos in jpeg format. GIF formatting may be more common in images or pictures and not quite as crisp in clarity but still good formatting.

Keeping images and photos as small as possible is the goal when downloading to a website. The larger the file size the longer it takes to download. As a rule of thumb, reducing image size to less than 100 Kilobytes is ideal. To put this in perspective, 1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte = 1000 Megabytes equals 1 Gigabyte.

Now, a common mistake for most people is to think that clicking and dragging on an image once it is downloaded to the website will make it smaller. It is correct that the dimensions (height and width) change, however the most important thing you need to change is the file size itself.

How do you change the file size? First, you need to find out the size of your image or photo. You do this by right clicking on the image and click on properties. You will see the image size. Then, you will need to download an image resizing software called Irfanview. This is a free resizing software that is downloaded over a million times every single month. With Irfanview software, changing the dimensions does change the file size which is your ultimate goal.

Once the photo resizing software is downloaded, you will click on the "open" icon and navigate on your computer for the image or photo you would like to resize. Then click "image option". Working in pixels is a good start. An average width for dimension size would be 300 and an average height would be 225. Click the "preserve aspect ratio". This just means that if you change the height the width will change proportionally. The "dpi" (dots per inch) is not that relevant--it is more so for printing. Also make sure that resize/resample is checked.

To save the new image size, just click "File" and save as. It is important that the JPEG format is selected in the drop down box before you save. You can replace your new image size for the older image or just rename it. Make sure that "Show Options Dialog" is checked at the bottom. When this is checked another box will appear for you to adjust the quality. Keep the quality at 100%.

To check the new image size, right click on image, click on properties and see the new image size that should now be ready to download.