How To Compress Images in Microsoft Office

Written By: ESP Projects
Published On:

When you put a logo in an email you only need it to be a few centimetres high. Similarly, when you visit a website, you want images to appear quickly and not have to wait for them to download. You need smaller images both ‘on the page’ and in terms of ‘file size’. This is where image compression comes in.

What is image compression?

When printers and graphic designers create an image for you, it is very high resolution and huge in size (usually >2Mb), so that they can print in top quality and use the same image in any medium, from a letterhead to a 50-foot high projection.When these files get sent through the web, whether in an email or on a website, they need to be made smaller i.e. compressed.
Image compression makes the image size on the page and the depth and clarity of colour smaller, with no visible loss of quality.

If you are working in Office 2003 you can use a useful little utility called Microsoft Office Picture Manager. This tool allows you to compress JPEG format images in both ‘size on the page’ and ‘file size’. If you are using Microsoft Office 2013 or later, here are instructions on how to compress an image.

How to compress images in Microsoft Office:

1) Open the image in Microsoft Word

2) Double click on the picture you want to compress

3) Under Picture Tools, on the Format tab, under Adjust, click Compress Pictures icon.

(If you can’t see this option, make sure your window is full screen)

4) Select Apply only to this picture.

5) Under target output, select the desired resolution. Suggested sizes are given for print, screen and email.

If you cannot open a particular image file, ask the person who supplied you with that file for a JPEG version.

Images sent in emails should never exceed 500kb and most (especially logos) can easily be reduced to under 20kb. Any images stored on websites that are larger than 40kb will visibly slow down your website.

Another good thing to note is that any images stored on websites that are larger than 40kb will visibly slow down your website.

If you need any further assistance with image compression, ESP Projects would be happy to help, contact our friendly team, alternatively, take a look at our IT Support packages.