MSPaint and image size

[Wannabe_a_techie]

Using the default image-editing software in WinXP, MS Paint, I had downloaded some big images and wished to resize them to my desktop height/width.

Having done that I noticed that the file size of the image had reduced from 600 Kb to only 55 Kb.

So the next big image I reduced the proportions by only 90% but again the total file size was reduced drastically to 52 Kb (from 589 Kb)....why does the size change by that much? And does it only happen in MS Paint?

note: posting it in Q&A since it isn't really a problem for me.

[Vishal Gupta]

First check whether the file format has been changed? I think the original file must be BMP and the saved file must be JPG or GIF.

[QwertyManiac]

Its some bad quality compression at play I guess. The photos I transfer from my 1.3 MP Mobile Camera are both JPG and have a size of 400-600 at times. And after opening and saving without any changes in MS Paint, the file size becomes 50-70 KB. And the image becomes more grainy than before. This doesn't happen when I do it with Photoshop CS2.

[enticer86]

Vishal sir the person is sayin the truth.. this is what i do when i hav to upload images at orkut...

heres a step by step procedure- u may call it a tut as well:


1. open an image fr editing
2. go to file>save as
3. save it with the current file... ie replace it with the current version
4. It will ask if u wanna replace the existing file with the current one- yes
5. now exit MS Paint and c the difference in file size.

NB- The difference in size exists even when u replace it with the same format, lik JPEG TO JPEG Conversion wud also result in a lot of size reduction.But convert to JPEG only fr size reduction.

[ravi_9793]

One reason I can see behind this is:
your original image may be of high-bit-per-pixel ..and Ms paint works in low-bit-per-pixel .When you save the image (any file format)...its bit-per-pixel ..is changed.And so the size of image also chages.

But I dont think you may get much reduction in Vista Ms paint..because it is upgraded.

[enticer86]

well fr orkut MS PAINT WIN XP is the best

[Wannabe_a_techie]

Originally Posted by enticer86

Vishal sir the person is sayin the truth.. this is what i do when i hav to upload images at orkut...

heres a step by step procedure- u may call it a tut as well:


1. open an image fr editing
2. go to file>save as
3. save it with the current file... ie replace it with the current version
4. It will ask if u wanna replace the existing file with the current one- yes
5. now exit MS Paint and c the difference in file size.

NB- The difference in size exists even when u replace it with the same format, lik JPEG TO JPEG Conversion wud also result in a lot of size reduction.But convert to JPEG only fr size reduction.

Merely opening it and saving the image also reduces the size? Okay I'll try this...