Having large files can be annoying. They take up valuable storage space, are harder to email and share online, and can slow down your computer. Luckily, there are many ways to reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality. Here are some tips on how to make a file size smaller.
Why File Size Matters
File size matters for several reasons:
- Storage space – Large files take up more of your computer’s storage. This can slow down your system and prevent you from saving other files.
- Sharing and emailing – There are often limits on how large of files you can attach to emails or upload to websites. Large files may get rejected.
- Download times – The bigger the file, the longer it takes to download or open on your computer or other devices.
- Backups – Backing up large files takes more time and uses more backup storage space.
The optimal file size depends on your specific needs. But in general, smaller is better for quick transfers and convenience. Next we’ll look at common techniques to reduce file sizes.
Image Files
Photos and image files tend to be some of the largest files on computers. Here are some ways to shrink image sizes:
Resize Images
Only resize images as small as you need them to be. For example:
- If the image will be used on a website, resize it to be the same width as the column it sits in.
- If emailing a photo, resize it to be no wider than 600 pixels.
Almost any image editing program lets you resize images. Online converters like I Love IMG make it easy to resize batches of images at once.
Crop Unneeded Parts
Cropping removes outer edges from a photo. If you don’t need the entire photo, cut out unneeded parts. This reduces the file dimensions and size.
Optimize the Format
Convert images to the most efficient format for their use case:
- JPEG is good for photos and complex images. The compression level can be increased for smaller sizes.
- PNG is better for simple images like logos and icons. They support transparency.
- GIFs are good for animations.
- TIFFs are lossless and good for high quality printing.
Avoid overly large formats like BMP that are not compressed.
Online converters can optimize batches of images to ideal formats.
Reduce Color Depth
The more colors in an image, the larger the file size. You can reduce colors in a few ways:
- Grayscale – Converts photos to shades of gray. Works best for black text and documents.
- Indexed color – Reduces the color palette to 256 or fewer colors. Photographs may look bad but simpler images are OK.
This technique works best for logos, illustrations, and other images without many colors.
Use Vector Images When Possible
Vector graphic files like SVG store images as mathematical formulas rather than pixels. This makes them scale infinitely without losing quality. And vector images tend to be much smaller than raster images like JPGs or PNGs.
Vector formats are ideal for simple logos, icons, diagrams, and line art.
Video Files
Like photos, video files can eat up gigabytes quickly. Here are ways to shrink videos:
Lower the Resolution
Higher resolution video looks better but results in larger files. For web or mobile use, 720p or 1080p is more than enough. Avoid large 4K or 8K unless truly necessary.
Reduce the Frame Rate
The frame rate is how many images are shown per second in a video. Rates of 24, 30 or 60 fps are common. If you can get by with 30 rather than 60fps, file sizes can be nearly halved.
Shorten the Length
For presentations, social media, etc you may only need a short clip. Cut videos down to just the essential parts needed.
Compress the Video
There are a few ways to compress video:
- MPEG – An early digital video format that compresses well.
- H.264 – Also known as MPEG-4 Part 10. Offers great compression while keeping good quality.
- VP9 – Open source video codec created by Google. Comparable compression and quality to H.264.
Video editing programs allow exporting to these compressed formats. Online converters can also compress videos.
Reduce Audio Quality
Better audio quality means bigger files. You can shink audio tracks while still retaining good quality. Try settings like:
- 96 kbps audio bitrate
- 48000 Hz audio sample rate
- Stereo audio channels instead of surround sound
Documents
Text documents tend to be smaller. But there are still optimizations you can make:
Use Plain Text When Possible
Plain text files like TXT have no formatting so are quite small. If you don’t need formatting, use plain text.
Optimize Office Documents
Modern Office formats like DOCX are already compressed. But you can save a bit more space by removing unnecessary formatting.
In Word, select the entire document and choose Clear Formatting. This removes unused styles. Then compress images as discussed earlier.
Convert to PDF
PDF files are much smaller than Office documents. Yet they retain formatting. If your document will only be read rather than edited, PDF is a good choice.
To convert to PDF use options like Print to PDF in Word or online converters.
Zip and Compress Files
If you need to archive a group of files, compress them into a Zip archive. This combines multiple files into one compact file.
You can compress a folder in Windows by right-clicking, selecting Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder.
On Mac, right-click a folder and select Compress.
Popular compression tools like 7-Zip allow creating compressed archives from files and folders.
Comparison of File Sizes
To demonstrate how compression techniques can reduce file sizes, here is a comparison table:
| File Type | Original Size | Compressed Size | Reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPEG image | 2.1 MB | 200 KB | 90% smaller |
| PNG image | 900 KB | 150 KB | 83% smaller |
| Word document | 1.2 MB | 630 KB | 48% smaller |
| MP4 video | 118 MB | 29 MB | 75% smaller |
As you can see, optimizing files can lead to dramatically smaller sizes.
Online Compression and Conversion Tools
There are many websites that provide batch compression and conversion of images, PDFs, and other file types. Some popular options:
- CompressJPEG – Resize and compress JPEG images
- PDFCompressor – Compress PDF files
- Zamzar – Convert between file types and compress
- Squoosh – Image compression from Google
These tools are easy to use. Just upload your files and download the compressed versions.
Compress Media for Email and the Web
Many online services place limits on file sizes you can upload or attach. Here are tips for compressing media for different contexts:
Email Attachments
- Resize photos to maximum width of 600 pixels
- Use JPEG quality of 60-75% for best compression
- Videos should be no more than 50 MB
- Consider uploading large files to a cloud drive and sharing the link instead of attaching
Facebook and Instagram
- Resize photos to 720 pixels on the longest side
- Use JPEG quality of 60% or medium setting in photo editing apps
- Maximum video resolution is 1280 x 720 pixels
- Short videos under 1 minute will have smaller file sizes
YouTube
- Upload HD 720p videos instead of 1080p or 4K when possible
- Use H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec
- Target video bitrate of 5,000 to 10,000 kbps
- Don’t use higher FPS or audio rates than needed
Compress Files on your Phone
Mobile apps can compress images and videos on your smartphone or tablet. Here are some top options:
Media Compression Apps
- Compress Video – Compress videos while maintaining quality. Support various resolutions and aspect ratios.
- Video Compress – Quickly compress videos by cutting length, lowering resolution, etc. Preserve original if desired.
- Photo & Video Compressor – All-in-one toolkit to resize, change format, and compress images and videos.
Photo Editing Apps
Most photo editor apps include compression and resizing options:
- Snapseed – Save photos as 60-90% JPG quality.
- Adobe Photoshop Express – Has options to resize photos before exporting.
- Apple Photos – iOS app that can resize photos on export.
Compress Files in Google Drive
Google Drive includes built-in tools to compress images:
- Upload the images to Drive.
- Right click each image and select Compress image.
- Choose medium or high compression levels.
The compressed images are saved over the originals. This provides an easy way to compress batches of image files.
Compress Files Using Automator (Mac)
On Mac, Automator is a hidden gem for file compression. It allows creating workflows to process batches of files.
To use:
- Open Automator and select New Document > Service.
- Add compression actions like Scale Images and Convert File Format.
- Save and give the workflow a name like “Compress Images.”
- Right click image files in Finder and select your workflow to run it.
This allows compressing many images with just a couple clicks.
Conclusion
With the file compression techniques covered in this guide, you should be able to significantly reduce file sizes for images, video, PDFs, and other media.
The basic strategies include:
- Resize and crop images to smallest usable dimensions
- Choose optimal formats like JPEG for photos and PNG for logos
- Lower video resolution, frame rate and bitrate
- Use compression tools and file converters
- Zip/compress groups of files into archives
Optimizing your files will save storage space, make transferring and sharing faster and easier, reduce upload times, and help your computer run efficiently.