How to convert JPG files to a smaller size without losing quality? How to compress a photo or picture without losing quality in various ways
If you are faced with the task of how to reduce the size of a JPG file, then let's try to figure out this situation together. Very often, the image size needs to be reduced so that photographs or pictures do not take up much disk space. Many users often send a large number of photos by email, but as a rule, all mail servers have a limit on the amount of information in one letter.
Because of this, many people are unable to send images in an email, thereby falling into a stupor and not knowing how to get out of the situation. Also, if you upload image files to a cloud service or transfer them over the network, this will happen faster if the image has a small weight. Therefore, files must be reduced in size while trying not to spoil the image quality.
JPEG(pronounced "japeg", English: Joint Photographic Experts Group)– the most popular raster image format. Files that contain images have the JPG extension
If you pay attention, the names of many graphic images on your computer look like (“photo title”.jpg or “photo title”.jpeg). The .jpg extension is the most popular.
JPG files are perfectly compressed, both with and without loss of quality. Accordingly, it all depends on what the user wants to get as a final result. There are a huge number of programs and online services for compressing images. Therefore, let's look at how to reduce the size of a JPG file using different methods and programs. In order to determine the initial weight of the image, you need to right-click on it and select “Properties”.
How to reduce the size of an image using standard Windows tools?
If you do not have to resize an image often, then the standard Paint program is suitable for such purposes. Its functionality will be sufficient for our purposes. So Paint allows you to perform the following functions:
- Ability to add various text to the image;
- Filling individual elements;
- Ability to trim unnecessary fragments;
- Inserting another image and more.
If you edit an image and add new elements, its size will change.
In order to reduce the size of a jpg file using the Paint graphic editor, follow the instructions below.
Advice! If the image is very large, then you can set the size to 1024x768. Also choose the correct ratio of length and width, otherwise the image will not look entirely correct.
How to reduce JPG file size using Microsoft Office programs.
Since the MS Office software package is installed on most user computers. Then we will use this tool to edit the size of the JPG file.
Note! Your Microsoft Office package should include MS Picture Manager.
In order to figure out how to reduce the size of a JPG file using MS Picture Manager, do the following:
Advice! The more the image is compressed, the worse its quality will be. Therefore, choose the golden mean.
We reduce the size of a JPG file using online services.
If the methods described above do not suit you or you need to compress a very large number of images, then you can use online image compression services. One of these services is https://tinypng.com
With its help, you can reduce the image size to the maximum possible, while the program itself performs all the actions for you. You will only need to add the image to the online service. 
Note! After compression, you will be visually presented by how many percent the weight of the image has decreased after processing.
After adding a picture or photograph, the program will automatically analyze the file and, if possible, compress it. In this case, the image size, length and width, remains unchanged. The tinypng.com service works with different graphic image formats, so it is suitable for many users.
Another online service that allows you to change the size of an image file is irfanview.com. The service supports working with various image formats. Unlike tinypng.com, the user chooses the settings for the created image. 
You can set the image size manually or choose from the suggested options.
For better compression, the program has various filters. In the saving parameters, you can also set values that will reduce the size of the output file.
Reduce the image size using the Snagit editor.
Not long ago, I wrote an article, in this article I discussed the Snagit program, which can not only take screenshots of the screen, but also edit the resulting images. This program is perfect for our purposes, now I will show you and tell you how to reduce the size of a JPG file using the Snagit editor.
I suggest doing everything point by point.
Very often there is a need to reduce the size of a JPG file - photos, scanned documents, other images.
Why do you need to reduce file size?
This allows you to significantly save disk space when storing archives and speed up the process of transferring image files by email. Often it is necessary to bring a photograph to the minimum volume required by some programs, above which photographs and drawings are simply not accepted. The first way to reduce the memory footprint of an image is to convert it to JPG format, which itself is already a compressed image. But this is not enough. Let's figure out how to reduce the size of a JPG file.
Reducing File Size in Paint.NET
The Paint.NET software product (not to be confused with the standard Paint graphic editor of Windows operating systems) is freely distributed on the Internet. It “weighs” a hundred times less than the widely used Photoshop, downloads quickly and takes up almost no disk space. The presence of a clear interface in Russian, the ability to quickly change the size, format and resolution of graphic files gives it the right to take its rightful place among your constantly used tools.
How to reduce JPG file size using this program? It’s very simple - launch the program, drag the file you are editing onto its working field with the mouse. In the main menu of the application, select "Image" - "Resize". In the window that appears, adjust the resolution according to your preferences. Make sure that the “Maintain proportions” option is checked. Click "OK".
To change the format and quality level of the picture, select “File” - “Save As” in the main menu, set a new name, select and click “OK”. Please indicate the picture quality level. When the level changes in the range of 95 - 100%, the visual perception of the image remains almost unchanged. This can be seen in the preview window to the right of the menu, where the final file size is also displayed. After selecting the required image quality (and volume) value, click “Save”. Job is done.
How to reduce the size of a JPG file in Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop application of different versions allows you to reduce the size of images without losing their quality. This is especially important when saving photos for publication online. After loading the photo file into the program, make corrections to its color rendering, contrast and saturation, if you consider it necessary. Then proceed to resizing: select the menu item Image -> Image Size. The current image dimensions will appear in the window. To change them, enter new values in the Width and Height fields, you can only in one of them - the second value will change proportionally. Then select the "Save for Web" option from the File menu.
In this case, the application will independently optimize the photo for publication on the network, reducing its disk space at the dimensions you specify.
When saving a photo, select JPEG High. If you are satisfied with the resulting volume, save; if not, change the image quality settings with the slider at your discretion. After all the manipulations, save the photo under a different name - it is ready for publication.
Working with the PicPick editor
You can change or reduce the size of a JPG file with PicPick image capture. It is also freely available on the Internet. The capabilities of this application are wide. It allows you to capture the entire screen or part of it, add inscriptions and drawings to the image, combine different fragments of images, convert the image format and many other functions.
Resizing images is achieved as follows: upload a picture, for example, by selecting the Open menu item. In the Image menu, select Resize and in the drop-down menu, select Image Resize/Zoom. There are two options here: change the size by percentage (both larger and smaller) or change the number of pixels along the width or length of the image.
In the latter case, if the “Keep aspect ratio” item is checked, it is enough to change only one of the sizes, the other will change automatically. It is also possible to resize the image to one of the most common sizes by selecting the required one in the lower form window. Click OK. Save the result in the desired location, in the required format and under the name you need.
We hope that after reading this article, the question of how to reduce the size of a JPG file will forever be resolved and you will be confident that you will be able to perform this simple task with respect to your graphic files at any time.
The JPG digital image file format is one of the most common and widely used. Quite often, computer users are faced with the fact that the image they have does not meet certain criteria, in particular size, and there is a need to reduce it. Such problems can be encountered when uploading photos to pages on social networks, posting images in messages on forums, etc.
You can solve this problem using any suitable graphic editor. Let's look at the whole process in examples based on the simple program for working with Paint images built into operating systems of the Windows family, and also perform a similar operation in the powerful graphical bitmap image editor Adobe Photoshop.
What is the JPG file size and how to reduce it
Before proceeding with practical examples, it should be noted that the concept of image size can include two components:
- directly physical dimensions of the image such as height and width, which are measured in pixels, centimeters, inches;
- The size of a JPG file is also considered by some to be the amount of space it takes up on the storage medium on which it is located, which in turn is measured in bytes, kilobytes or megabytes.
How to Reduce JPG File Size in Paint
If you have never had to work with images before, then most likely the built-in Paint will be the only program available to you at the moment. It will also cope with the task of reducing file sizes, although not as delicately as specially designed graphic editors will do it. To use it to reduce the size of a JPG file, do the following: 
How to Reduce JPG File Size in Photoshop
Photoshop is a program that has significantly greater capabilities for reducing images and does this with better results than Paint. With its help, you can both reduce the image in height and width, and without changing the specified dimensions, reduce the file size on disk only at the expense of a slight deterioration in its quality. Let's look at the whole process step by step. 
Photoshop uses more advanced image compression algorithms in JPG format compared to Paint. This leads to noticeably less loss of image quality during compression and the fact that files processed in it take up less disk space.
There are times when you need to quickly reduce the amount of space on your computer's hard drive that JPG photos occupy. It is desirable that the procedure takes place without significant loss of image quality. There are several simple ways to make a photo “lose weight.”
Is it possible to reduce JPG size online
The weight of the image is taken to be its volume in megabytes, which sometimes needs to be made smaller. This procedure is extremely necessary for those who often work with photographs, because modern devices take pictures of considerable size. It will not be possible to store a significant number of “heavy” drawings - this requires an additional hard drive, and often the price of another information storage is high. However, special programs have already been created that reduce the volume of pictures. In addition, before installing them, you can try compressing photos online.
On the World Wide Web you can find many services with which you can figure out how to compress photos in JPG format to fewer megabytes. They all work on the same principle - the user uploads the required image to the site, presses just one button, and after a while the system asks to save the image with a reduced size to the computer. Internet services are completely free, so this method of compressing photos without losing quality is considered one of the best and fastest.
As a standard, such portals have many additional functions and capabilities - cropping the image, rotating it in the desired direction, mirroring it, or even adding beautiful frames/effects. The resources are freely available, so to find them, you just need to enter a query into any search engine, and in a second you will receive a whole list of photo compression sites.
How to compress a JPG file
It also happens that the speed of the Internet or the technical data of the computer/browser do not allow you to upload photos to the network. Then special services come to the rescue that can compress photos without losing quality. You can use third-party utilities or standard ones (Windows basic set). Therefore, before you reduce a JPG file, you need to understand on what principle these programs do their work.
How to compress a photo to the desired size in Paint
Paint is a standard Windows program for processing any images, so there is no need to install it. With its help, you can easily compress photos to the desired format. There is no need to download it; it is already present in the basic set of the operating system. The program is easy to use - just a few mouse clicks are enough for the picture to become the desired size. How to reduce JPG file size using Paint:
- Open the picture in Paint (right-click on the photo, “open with”, select Paint).
- On the top workbar, select the “resize” tool.
- Select the “horizontal” option and change the specified value downward.
- Enter a similar value in the “vertical” section.
- Click OK.
- Save the modified drawing.
How to reduce the weight of a JPG file in Photoshop
A very popular service that will help you figure out how to reduce the size of a JPG file without compromising quality is Photoshop. A graphic editor with a large set of functions can frighten inexperienced users with an abundance of incomprehensible buttons. However, if you know the sequence of actions, it will be easy to reduce the number of megabytes of photos. Before you can compress JPG using Photoshop, you need to install it. What to do after this:
- Open the picture in Photoshop (right click on the photo, “open with”, select Adobe Photoshop).
- Alternatively, the picture can be opened directly from the utility – “File” tab – “Open” item.
- In the top work area of the “Image” menu, then select “Image Size”.
- The window that opens will allow you to select all the necessary proportions of the photo (size of centimeters/pixels, width).
- At the bottom of the window, be sure to check the “Maintain proportions” checkbox (when you change the parameters, they will be edited evenly).
- In the "File" menu, select the "Save As" sub-item.
- Choose a JPEG format that will retain the original quality.
- After selecting the format, click on the “Save” button.
Other ways to compress JPG without losing quality
To process an image and reduce its weight, you can use third-party utilities, online web services - some of which are free, while others will have to be paid for. They provide different percentages of image compression, which is important - without affecting the quality. If you don’t know how to reduce the size of a JPG file, then in the table below you can find the necessary programs to help with this simple task:
| Utility/web service | Platform | Compression, percent |
PDF files with lots of graphic elements look nice, but sending them by email is a complete pain due to the large size of such documents. There is no need to wait long for the file to be attached to the letter, because you can reduce its size with virtually no loss of quality. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to do this - choose whichever you want.
It is worth noting, however, that half of the methods listed below are only possible using Acrobat DC from Adobe installed on your PC. This is a paid product, but the 30-day trial version is completely free. It is available on the official Adobe Systems website.
Using CutePDF or another PDF converter
You can reduce the size of a PDF file using one of the converters, for example, CutePDF. It allows you to convert files from any printable format to PDF, as well as change the document size, increasing or decreasing the quality of images and text. When you install this product, a virtual printer is created on the system, which, instead of printing documents, converts them to PDF format.
1. Download CutePDF from the official website (free) and install. Don’t forget to install the converter along with it, otherwise nothing will happen after clicking the “Print” button.
2. Open the file in a program that supports its format and has the ability to print documents. If it's a PDF file, you can open it in Adobe Reader; and if the file is in doc or docx format, Microsoft Word will do. Click on the “File” menu item and select “Print”.
3. When the printing settings window opens, select CutePDF Writer from the list of printers.
4. Click on the “Printer Properties” button, in the window that opens, click on the “Advanced” button and select the content display quality. To compress the file to the desired size, select a quality lower than the original quality.
5. Click the “Print” button and save the file to the desired location. Only PDF is available for saving, regardless of what format the document was originally in.
Using online tools
If you don’t want to download and install anything, then you can compress the PDF file online. Compressing and converting documents online is fast and convenient.
1. Find a suitable tool on the Internet, such as Smallpdf. Unlike other similar online tools, here the user is not limited in the size and number of documents he can upload.
2. After visiting the website, upload the required document. This can be done by clicking on the label and selecting the file using Explorer, or by dragging the file with the left mouse button and dropping it in the desired area. You can also add a document from Dropbox or Google Drive.
3. When the process is complete, click on the “You can save the file” button and select a location on your PC for it. To upload a compressed document to Google Drive or Dropbox, click the corresponding icon on the right side of the button.
In addition to Smallpdf, there are many other online compressors on the Internet: Compress PDF, Online2pdf, PDFzipper and others. Some allow you to upload files up to 50 MB in size, others - up to 100 MB, others have no restrictions at all, but they perform their work at approximately the same level.
In Adobe Acrobat
You can compress a PDF file in Adobe Acrobat DC, but not in the free Adobe Reader.
1. Having opened the document in Acrobat, click on the “File” menu item, then select “Save as another” and click on the line “Reduced PDF file”.
2. Click in the drop-down list on the version of the program with which your document should be compatible. By choosing the newest version, you can compress the file as much as possible, but there is a risk that it will become inaccessible in previous versions of Acrobat.
3. Click on the “Ok” button, wait for the compression process to complete and save the compressed document to the desired location.
Another PDF compression method in Adobe Acrobat DC
If you have Adobe Acrobat installed and need to compress a document located on your PC, it is much more advisable to use the previous method. The same method can be used when the desired file is uploaded, say, to Google Drive, and you need to download it, simultaneously reducing its size.
1. Log into Google Drive from your account, double-click the PDF file you want to compress, and click the printer icon to open the print screen.
2. In the window that opens, click on the drop-down list and select the Adobe PDF line.
3. By clicking on the “Properties” button, you will open another window where you need to select the “Paper and Print Quality” tab, and then click on the “Advanced” button at the bottom of the window.
4. In the drop-down list (see screenshot below), select the desired document quality, at the bottom of the window click on the “Ok” button, then in the next two windows also click on “Ok”.
5. Save the reduced file on your PC.
Using Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Word
The essence of this method of compressing PDF documents is that you first convert the file from one format to another, and then convert it back.
1. Open a PDF document using Adobe Acrobat, go to the "File" menu and select "Save As".
2. Click on the “Select another folder” button, then select the file type “Word Document (*.docx)” and save location. Click on "Save".
3. Having opened the document in Microsoft Word, click on the “File” item and select the “Save as Adobe PDF” sub-item.
Using PDF Optimizer
This method of reducing the size of PDF files also requires the use of software from Adobe Systems.
1. Open the document you want to reduce using Adobe Acrobat. Next, go to the “File” menu, click on the “Save as Other” line and select “Optimized PDF File” to launch the PDF document optimizer.
2. In the “PDF Optimization” window that opens, click on the “Estimate space usage” button to understand which elements take up how much space in the file (in bytes and percentage).
3. Having assessed what can be reduced and what does not make sense to compress, close the window by clicking on the “Ok” button and set the necessary compression parameters. To do this, in the left part of the window, left-click on one or another item, and in the right part, change the parameters.
4. You can delete images, change them from color to black and white, compress them, change resolution, change built-in fonts, etc. Having “played enough” with the parameters, click on the “Ok” button and save the optimized file to the desired directory.
A way to compress PDF files on Mac OS X
PDF documents created by the Mac OS X operating system are noticeably larger in size than files with the same content created using Adobe Acrobat. If you are a Mac OS X user and want to reduce the size of the PDF file you create, do the following:
- Open the TextEdit application, then click on “File” in the program menu, and then select “Print”.
- In the lower left corner of the window that opens, you will see a button called PDF. Click on it, and then on the line “Compress PDF” in the drop-down list. The result is a more compact PDF file.
Archiving a file
To ensure that the document takes up less space on your computer, you can archive it using one of the archivers, for example, 7Zip or WinRAR. Both programs are quite popular, but the first is distributed free of charge, and you will have to pay to use the second beyond the limited trial period.
To compress a document using the 7Zip archiver, right-click on the file, then with the left mouse button, first click on the 7Zip line, and then on the inscription “Add to “file_name”. Then the archive will be created automatically.
If you want to set certain parameters before archiving, select the “Add to archive” line. Then a window like the one in the screenshot below will open.
By using an archiver, you can significantly reduce the size of a document, as well as create an archive consisting of several files, compressed and combined with each other. This will make it much easier to store and transmit them via email. Just before sending an archived PDF file, make sure that the recipient also has an archiver installed, otherwise he will not be able to open the archive.
Note: Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader are not the same thing. Reader is free, but its feature set for editing PDF files is extremely limited, so you can only reduce the size of documents in Acrobat. However, Adobe Acrobat is a paid program. And if you don’t have it and don’t want to buy it, use other options for compressing PDF documents that are not associated with it.
