Have you ever scanned an image, or downloaded an image from a digital camera, only to find out the size was way too large?

It's Really Very Simple... Once You Get the Hang of It
One of the most common questions I've heard over the years is how to make photos smaller after they've been scanned or taken from a digital camera. Oftentimes, images must be a specific size for online use in web pages and classified ads, or to send as an email attachment.

The solution is having the right editing program and learning how to use it.

There are a multitude of graphic editing programs available you can use to crop, resize, edit, and save images from a scanner or digital camera. Some are very simple to use, and others, such as Adobe's feature-rich Photoshop, are rather expensive and have a steeper learning curve. Generally, any of the new scanners or digital cameras come with some kind of program to edit and manipulate images, though it may require you dedicate some quality time to understand how the features work.

Because the majority of users with image editing questions, or at least the ones I hear from, are using the Windows operating system, the focus of this article will be for the Windows user.

Without knowing what software you may currently have available, or assuming you don't have the right software, for this exercise we're going to go through the steps to crop and resize an image using a favorite and inexpensive standby: Paint Shop Pro from JASC Software (approx. $99 USD). If you don't already own the product, a free trial download is available HERE. You will need to have Paint Shop Pro 8 installed to follow this tutorial.

NOTE: As with any software, install at your own risk. We do not offer technical support for software installation issues. Refer to the manufacturer with any questions.

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