That’s why we’re covering four ways to get this job done: two that explain the simplest ways to resize an image in the all-powerful Photoshop, and two others that use a free, easily accessed online tool to help you complete the same task even from a Chromebook. Review: Apple M2 Mac Mini: Faster, cheaper, better
How to resize your images in Photoshop
Materials needed: A PC or Mac capable of running Photoshop and a copy of Adobe Photoshop
Estimated time: 2 to 5 minutes
Adobe Photoshop has been considered the gold standard for image editing and manipulation software for decades. While you might think it’s overkill for something as simple as resizing an image, using it for this process is simple. If you find yourself needing to resize images consistently, and want to get a little more creative with your photo editing and manipulation, Adobe offers Photoshop via a $9.99 per month plan that also includes access to Lightroom. Lightroom is an incredibly useful tool for everyone from creative professionals to amateur digital photographers trying to get the best results from their cameras. If you only occasionally work with digital editing, I wouldn’t recommend this subscription, but it’s definitely worth considering if you’re taking up photography as a hobby, or if you regularly enjoy tinkering with images. Also: How to transfer photos from your Android phone to Windows computer
Method 1: Using the image resizing menu
This method is arguably the easiest as you can quickly customize your dimensions before saving them directly as a JPG or PNG directly to your machine.
Method 2: Using the Crop Tool
While this method is a little more tedious than the first Photoshop method, it still gets the job done and works well for resizing images for a web design.
Pixels are best for photos destined for the web and social media.Inches are usually best for pics that will be printed.
When you’ve chosen, click the drop-down boxes to the right of the width and height fields and select your measurement of choice. When you change either width or height, the other will change automatically to maintain the current aspect ratio. Once you’re happy with the altered size, click OK. Note: If you want to individually change the Width and Height, you can click the small chain link icon to the left of those two fields. This will allow you to alter each individually. However, be aware this will distort your image, and usually isn’t advisable for most pics. The two most common file types are JPG and PNG. If you think you might want to go back into your image and edit it again later, I’d also recommend saving a separate PSD (Photoshop file) version, as well.
How to resize your images for free on the web
Materials needed: A PC, Mac, or Chromebook
Estimated time: 2-5 minutes
This free website, BeFunky.com, is accessible from any desktop browser on Windows, MacOS, and ChromeOS. It offers free and easy resizing of common file types, with the option to save your final product as a JPG, PNG, or PDF. Locate the W x H x Resolution menu at the top of the screen. Then, click on the left drop-down and click W x H x Resolution. This mode is best if you want to target a specific pixel or print size. Insert the width you’d like, in pixels or inches, into the left field. You can type “px” or “in” after the number to be sure your metric is set to pixels or inches, respectively. Do the same for the height in the second field. Finally, the third field is used to input a resolution. It’s usually best to leave this blank for basic image resizing jobs. Using Ratios If you select Ratio, you can then fill in the two fields to the right of the drop-down with the ratio numbers of your choice, 4 x 3 or 16 x 9, for example. Put the width of the aspect ratio in the left field, and its height in the right. Ratio should be used if you want your image to fit a specific aspect ratio for things like wallpapers or web design. Anything outside of the grid will be cropped away, while anything inside of it will be resized. Set the grid to the size and position you want. Note that the shape of the grid will stay consistent with either the aspect ratio you chose, or with the W x H x Resolution settings you typed in. Photoshop will cut away anything not within the selection, and will resize what is inside of it to your chosen parameters. While it’s not nearly as versatile and full of features as Photoshop, it’s more than capable of handling the vast majority of simple image resizing tasks, for free, and without installing any software. This is especially great for Chromebook users with limited options for locally installed software of any kind.
Method 1: Using the image resizing interface
If you don’t need to change the width and height of your photo interdependently, this may be the better free-method option for you.
Method 2: Using BeFunky’s Crop tool
This method closely mirrors cropping with Photoshop’s tool. By default, the resizing process is locked to the image’s original aspect ratio, meaning changing one field will also change the other to maintain that aspect ratio. Alternately, you can resize your image by selecting an X-Scale or Y-Scale setting as a percentage of its original size. Like the pixel settings above, this preserves the original aspect ratio. Note: If you’d like to change the size of the width or height independently, deselect the “Lock Aspect Ratio” box. Be aware, this will distort your image, and may not be suitable for most jobs.
Do I really need Photoshop to resize images?
Absolutely not. We’ve shown you here how the same process can easily be accomplished using a free online tool. Whichever drop-down option you choose, you’ll be presented with a Portrait/Landscape toggle that will flip the numbers in the Width and Height fields, and a “Lock Aspect Ratio” check box that determines whether the width and height can be set independently. Set the target width and height of the final image you’re trying to produce. Anything within it will be retained and resized to the parameters you chose, anything outside will be discarded. If you chose “Lock Aspect Ratio” the box will automatically preserve the aspect ratio you chose in the top drop-down. Once you’re happy with your selection, click Apply. You can also set the quality of your final pic to limit its file size. We recommend leaving this at 100. Once you’ve got all of your settings chosen, click save. Photoshop is an incredibly powerful application for anyone from complete amateurs to professionals. While it can make just about anything you’d like a visual reality, it does have a steep learning curve. That said, if you enjoy photo retouching and manipulation, don’t be intimidated. There are plenty of great, free resources across the web to help you learn your way around Photoshop.
What’s the best aspect ratio for my image?
This depends entirely on what use you intend to put the image to. If it’s going to be a wallpaper, you’ll want to use the aspect ratio of the display it will live on. For example, most smartphones use a 9:16 aspect ration (900 x 1,600 or 1,800 x 3,200, for example). Meanwhile, most desktops and laptops also use 16:9, but some “ultrawide” monitors stretch out that width to 21:9. If you’re sharing the image via social media, the best aspect ratio can vary by site. Instagram’s classic square photos use a 1:1 ratio, but it, and other sites, also support ratios likes 4:5 for portraits, 2:1 for landscapes, and so on. Check the support page of the social network you want to share the image on for more info. Lastly, if you’re planning to print your photo, you’ll want to use the aspect ratio of your framing size. This means that for an 8 x 10 frame, you’d want an aspect ratio of 8:10; likewise 16 x 9 would be 16:9, and so on.
Can I make my image look better by enlarging it?
Unfortunately, the answer to this question is usually no. There are only a certain number of pixels in a given image. For example, a 1,600 x 900 image has 1.44 million pixels in it. if you enlarge that image to 3,200 x 1,800, you’re creating a new image with 5.76 million pixels. That means the software has to create 4.32 million new pixels to fill out the new image. Those pixels are generated by turning each one of the original image’s individual pixels into multiple pixels. This is why enlarged images often look “pixelated,” because each of the individual pixels in our above example is now about four times as large. Without getting too deep into the technical details of ppi (pixels per inch) resolution, suffice it to say that most images will look significantly worse once their size has been doubled, and will probably be downright unusable if you go past that. There are some exceptions with ultra-high-resolution pics with ppi counts above 300, but those are far less common than your average 72-ppi images featured on most websites. This is an area where AI is being employed. Some image editing software, Photoshop included, has begun using AI-based image enlargement technologies to help keep images sharp, even when they’re being made much larger than their original size. While the results of this are mixed so far, AI is advancing at such a rapid pace, it may not be long before even low-quality images can be blown up to massive resolutions.
