MacMost Now 694: Compressing Images With iPhoto and Preview

Learn how to compress an image to create a small file for uploading to a web site or sending via email. You can use iPhoto's export function for this. If the image is not in your iPhoto library, then you can also use Preview to create a compressed version without buying any new software.

Comments: 12 Responses to “MacMost Now 694: Compressing Images With iPhoto and Preview”

    jf
    12 years ago

    Good tips.

    Re doing it in Preview, I always prefer to do a "save as" before changing any aspect of any file, that way I never risk losing the original.

      barry pless
      12 years ago

      Except you can't save as with Lion Preview! You need to export... Correct me if I am wrong.

    Gordon
    12 years ago

    Thanks for all your great videos Gary. On one you mentioned compressing a slideshow made in iPhoto in order to send it by email. I thought the details might be in this video on compressing photos but it was not. Could you tell me what video I should watch to find out how to compress a slideshow made in iPhoto, thank you!

      12 years ago

      You can compress any video using some tools:
      http://macmost.com/compressing-video-with-mpeg-streamclip.html
      http://macmost.com/converting-video-with-miro.html
      (In Mountain Lion you can Control+click a video and then compress)
      You can also just make a compressed version by choosing tighter compression while exporting out of iPhoto.
      Experiment to trade off between quality and file size.
      Though any way you do it, I still don't recommend sending video via email. Even if you have the bandwidth, and your email provider doesn't limit email size, the people you are sending to may have those problems. Better to upload to a service (YouTube, etc) and just send a link.

    Mashikoboy
    11 years ago

    Mail sent to my iPad sometimes come with large, heavy photo attachments. I would like to keep many of them if I can find a way to compress them, at least. Can iPhoto for iPad accomplish this, and are there alternatives?

    Also, how can I delete photo attachments from mails that I receive, if I wish to?

      11 years ago

      Hard to do on your iPad. Your only real option is to save them to your camera roll and then organize them into albums from the Photos app. But there is no easy way to shrink them on the iPad while doing that. As for removing the images from the emails, the answer to that really depends on what kind of email system you are using (iCloud, Gmail, Exchange, etc). In most cases today email is stored on the server and you are just viewing them on your iPad. So removing the attachments isn't really necessary.

    richard
    11 years ago

    hi Gary, how small a custom size would you suggest to compress my (logo/initials) photo so i could use for email signature, letter head etc.. which can i use ( iPhoto/preview) and could you give me steps to take.

      11 years ago

      For an email? I wouldn't include a logo or any graphic at all. Those sorts of thing annoy many email recipients (including me). Just send plain simple email.
      But if you have to, then it is up to you -- a trade-off of quality vs. size. Experiment and try different settings.

    richard
    11 years ago

    Gary, confuse why it would be annoying. all i want is to use my custom design initial (RP) (image of it is in iPhoto) to be small enough to sign off emails instead of my signature or my full name.
    i've always send plain simple emails font size 18
    could i have this monogram in similar size?

      11 years ago

      It can be annoying in many ways. It can slow down receiving email if there is an attachment -- especially on mobile devices. You might be making some people wait longer to get their email, and the graphic doesn't give them anything of value since a simple text signature tells them who the email is from.
      Plus, the display of graphics (and fonts) in email is dependent on the client software. So you may be sending from Mac Mail, but other receive using Outlook and other clients -- or web-based email like Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail. And the display of your message will vary depending on what they have. So you can't assume your 18-point font and your attached image will look the same to them as it does to you.

    richard
    11 years ago

    tks for info Gary . i've given up on my attempt and staying simple.

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