A measured example
| Recipe | 50% of its own size, Light (88) |
|---|---|
| Before | 1.73 MB · 4032 × 3024 · JPEG |
| After | 371.3 KB · 2016 × 1512 · JPEG q88 |
| Change | −79% |
What this does
Reduce image resolution for a whole set at once: the desk starts at 50% of each photo’s own size with a light quality of 88, so the saving comes from fewer pixels rather than a stronger compression. The honest limit: fewer pixels is not reversible on the copy; your originals are never changed.
When to use this, and when not
- Use it when photos are bigger in pixels than anywhere they will be shown or printed.
- If the goal is a size in KB rather than pixels, reduce photo size in KB finds the pixels for you.
- For web pages, compress images for website pairs a long edge with WebP.
Honest limits
- Resampling uses your browser's high-quality smoothing; very large reductions can look a little softer than a dedicated Lanczos resize.
- Fill crops from the centre only; a face near the edge of the frame may be cut. Crop first if it matters.
Privacy on this page
Capture information is kept here. For how pixels, KB and DPI relate on forms, read KB and pixels.
Questions
Is resolution the same as file size?
No, but they move together. Resolution is how many pixels the picture has; file size is how many bytes it takes to store them. Halving the width and the height leaves a quarter of the pixels, and the file usually ends up a quarter to a third of the size at the same quality.
Percent or pixels?
Percent (50% to start) treats every photo in a set the same way relative to its own size. An exact width × height is for one destination size: Fit keeps the shape inside the box, Fill crops the centre to fill it, Pad fills the rest with a colour. A megapixel cap limits big photos and leaves small ones alone.
Does changing the DPI reduce the resolution?
No. DPI is a number stored in the file that says how large to print it; it does not change a single pixel or the file size. The DPI control in the Recipe panel writes that number for forms that ask for one, and says so.
Will a small photo be enlarged?
Not by percent, long edge, Fit or the megapixel cap: those only ever make a photo smaller. Fill and Pad write the exact box you typed, and a photo smaller than the box is enlarged to fill it; its row says enlarged.
More on this site: all tools.
Other jobs
More ways to shrink a photo
- Compress photosOne photo or a whole folder, one recipe, a skyline of sizes with a line you drag, and a receipt for every file.
- Compress JPEGOne quality number for every JPEG, printed on every row; capture information kept or removed.
- Compress PNGA 256 or 128-colour palette against a lossless pass, the smaller kept, transparency intact.
- Compress WebPLossy WebP at a quality you choose, or lossless with every pixel compared.
- Compress iPhone photosHEIC to small JPEG where your browser can open HEIC, with every format change stated on its row.
- Compress image without losing qualityNo re-encode: JPEG Huffman tables rebuilt, PNG recompressed, pixels compared before a row says identical.
- Reduce photo size in KBType a KB target or a range. Quality first, then fewer pixels, checked against the exact bytes written.
- Compress photo to 20 KBSignature-sized limits: the pixels come down as well as the quality, with a legibility floor.
- Compress photo to 50 KBThe 20–50 KB range bank and PAN-style forms ask for, with both ends checked.
- Compress photo to 100 KBQuality first, pixels kept where they can be: the common portal upload limit.
- Compress photo to 200 KBSharp enough to print, under 200 KB: usually quality alone gets there.
- Compress photo to 1 MBMB-scale limits for listings and portals: quality first from 88, pixels only if they must.
- Increase photo size in KBReach a form's minimum honestly: a higher quality, then more pixels up to a limit. Never padding.
- Compress photo for exam formSourced, dated presets for bank, PAN, NEET, SSC and US visa uploads, with a PASS or FAIL line per file.
- Compress signature to 20 KBPaper whitened, ink darkened, cropped to the ink, sized to 140 × 60 and checked.
- Compress photos for emailA per-file ceiling and a measured total for the set, to check against the attachment limit.
- Compress a photo libraryStorage framing: folder structure preserved, originals untouched, gigabytes counted.
- Compress images for websiteWebP at quality 80, long edge 1920, capture information removed, folders kept.