Can anyone please advise (or, as always point me in the right direction !) how to "miniaturise" a picture ?

I have a relative who would like to do this if possible, it is for fairly predictable reasons, i.e. (his) SWMBO's special birthday, gold locket etc. etc.

I believe he wants to use on old pic of her departed parents or a new pic of the grandkids (not sure here).

He has done a bit of leg work himself around local photo shops with no luck sadly.

Any help appreciated.

If it's already in an electronic form then just look for image/resize in the editing program or if it's in a paper form then it will need scanning before manipulating.

There will be further options regarding the final size which you can pick in pixels or print size together with keeping the same aspect ratio.

If he is looking at printing the image himself, he does not need to change the photo, just the print size, look at the printer properties when going to print and select the size you want. It will usually insist on printing it in the centre of whatever size paper you are using, so if it is photo paper, use a small sheet, rather than an A4 one.

Some specific information.

If you don't have software already download Irfanview. It's a free program and every photographer should have it.

Open the picture in Irfanview

Select Image

Select Resize/resample

Set the new size in one of the various options that are there. you can either use a percentage of the original size or a pre configured size or a custom size in pixels, cm or inches.

Make sure the dpi is something like 72

Select okay and the resized image will be on screen.

Save it with a different file name (so that you do not overwrite the original) and you are done.

Now you can print the file (which you can do within Irfanview if you want) or put it on a memory stick or email it somewhere else.

Edited 5 October, 201015 yr by K1W1

@K1W1

72dpi is the default screen rez; for a decent photo of any size you need a higher rez.

And as I said, you dont need to change the photo size to print a different size.

If he is looking to have the photos scanned from a paper copy, then 300dpi is the minimum to allow you to process the photo and remove artefacts.

@K1W1

72dpi is the default screen rez; for a decent photo of any size you need a higher rez.

And as I said, you dont need to change the photo size to print a different size.

If he is looking to have the photos scanned from a paper copy, then 300dpi is the minimum to allow you to process the photo and remove artefacts.

The photos are being made tiny to go in a locket. I'm assuming that they are only going to be and inch square or smaller. At that size the DPI won't really make any difference.

The photos are being made tiny to go in a locket. I'm assuming that they are only going to be and inch square or smaller. At that size the DPI won't really make any difference.

Regardless of the print size 300dpi will have 4x more detail than 72dpi. So i'd say it'd make a difference. More so in smaller prints in fact.

Regardless of the print size 300dpi will have 4x more detail than 72dpi. So i'd say it'd make a difference. More so in smaller prints in fact.

Actually it will have about 17x more detail!

Ah yes. It's squared...

My point still stands. Albeit with more backup

Many Thanks to you all for taking the time to respond, much appreciated.

I will now attempt to see what I can do to help them out.

Thanks Again.