Image manipulation

[Richard]

Can anyone suggest a graphics program with the best formats for a small image size and any tips or tricks?
many thanks,
Richard

p.s. I often use 'IrfanView'

[Derek Jempson]

I've used IrfanView for many years for such tasks as image size reduction. It can do a lot more besides, and it's free!

[Richard]

I've used IrfanView for many years for such tasks as image size reduction. It can do a lot more besides, and it's free!

Derek,
I don't know how to make sure my uploaded image will be under the stipulated 256 KB.
Or the best format (BMP, JPG, PNG etcetera)
Currently the web page displays a smaller image which can be clicked on to make it bigger.

[Derek Jempson]

As a rule of thumb with IrfanView what I do is reduce the pixel size by 50% then save it with a new file name so that it doesn't overwrite the original file. I then look at the image size of the saved file (in the status bar at the bottom). If it's still too big, then I repeat the procedure with a greater percentage reduction. Unfortunately, IrfanView doesn't support image reduction by file size, which would be easier. You can however make an educated guess as to the percentage pixel size reduction needed by looking at the file size first, i.e., if the original size is 10MB you would need a 75% reduction to get a 250KB file size (I hope that's right - I'm useless at maths).

[Richard]

Another interesting image editor I am looking at is called 'Fast Stone Image Viewer'.