Picture Resizing

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Using either IrfanView or Paint I have been trying to resize a picture and then inserting it into a Word doc. For example, if I resize the pic to 14.5cm on one side and 9.5cm on the other, save it and then insert into Word it ends up the width of my Word page (17cm) each time! I can of course size it on the Word doc by grabbing the pic corner but does anyone know why resizing in either IrfanView or Paint does not do the job?
Ron

I should have added that even if I do not ‘resize’ a pic it ends up the width of my paper … so it seems that resizing the way I have tried does not function for pics inserted into Word? I have checked the saved image from eg IrfanView and its size is 14.5×9.5cm as a picture.

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Using either IrfanView or Paint I have been trying to resize a picture and then inserting it into a Word doc. For example, if I resize the pic to 14.5cm on one side and 9.5cm on the other, save it and then insert into Word it ends up the width of my Word page (17cm) each time! I can of course size it on the Word doc by grabbing the pic corner but does anyone know why resizing in either IrfanView or Paint does not do the job?
Ron

Word seems to default to making a picture fit between the margins whatever size it starts out. I found some advice here that may help you.

Ian

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 … and I also found a suggestion to work round the problem by inserting pictures into a table cell, here.

Ian

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Does it make a difference if you set Word to insert pictures in line with the text?

(Select Tools | Options…, activate the Edit tab, select “In line with text” from the “Insert/paste pictures as” dropdown list, click OK)

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Does it make a difference if you set Word to insert pictures in line with the text?

(Select Tools | Options…, activate the Edit tab, select “In line with text” from the “Insert/paste pictures as” dropdown list, click OK)

No that doesn’t seem to affect it.

Ian

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Using either IrfanView or Paint I have been trying to resize a picture and then inserting it into a Word doc. For example, if I resize the pic to 14.5cm on one side and 9.5cm on the other, save it and then insert into Word it ends up the width of my Word page (17cm) each time! I can of course size it on the Word doc by grabbing the pic corner but does anyone know why resizing in either IrfanView or Paint does not do the job?

When you resize an image in a more sophisticated image editing program, you have choices. You can keep all of the pixels and change the pixels per inch to get the physical measurement you want, or you can “resample” the image — keep the pixels per inch the same, and discard/interpolate the pixels to fit the new dimensions, or you can truncate the image (sometimes called trimming the canvas) to make it fit the new dimensions. In less sophisticated programs like Paint, you have less control.

Word considers the pixels per inch when you insert an image, and thus its behavior may be based in part on how your image editor encodes that information in the file. In Photoshop Elements, for example, if you use the regular Save As, the pixels per inch match the Photoshop view, but if you use Save for Web, then pixels per inch in the saved image are set to 96, which is standard for web browsers. These two images will behave differently in Word. An example is attached.

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When you resize an image in a more sophisticated image editing program, you have choices. You can keep all of the pixels and change the pixels per inch to get the physical measurement you want, or you can “resample” the image — keep the pixels per inch the same, and discard/interpolate the pixels to fit the new dimensions, or you can truncate the image (sometimes called trimming the canvas) to make it fit the new dimensions. In less sophisticated programs like Paint, you have less control.

Word considers the pixels per inch when you insert an image, and thus its behavior may be based in part on how your image editor encodes that information in the file. In Photoshop Elements, for example, if you use the regular Save As, the pixels per inch match the Photoshop view, but if you use Save for Web, then pixels per inch in the saved image are set to 96, which is standard for web browsers. These two images will behave differently in Word. An example is attached.

Well, only up to a point. I have done a similar experiment with the results attached. If the picture is big enough to fill the margins of the page, Word seems to keep it within the margins, so my 36 dpi version in the attached file is not twice the width of the 72 dpi one, because Word has fitted it into the margins. So I take it that Ron’s pictures were always big enough to be resized by Word to the width of the margins. It would seem easier to do something like constrain the picture to fit within a table cell than to always have to save it with just the right dpi setting to come out the width you want in your document.

(I started with the 72 dpi picture and using Gimp I saved versions at 100 dpi and 36 dpi.)

Ian

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If the picture is big enough to fill the margins of the page, Word seems to keep it within the margins, so my 36 dpi version in the attached file is not twice the width of the 72 dpi one, because Word has fitted it into the margins.

That’s true, to undo the fitting-to-margins, you have to go into the picture properties after the fact and choose Reset. (e.g., click the photo to select it and use the Picture toolbar)

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Thanks for all your inputs about this. The easy way I have tried from the info you provided seems to be to set page margins to the height (or width) of the pic size you want and they all come out correct size no matter how big they are in the original pic files. I am laminating pics into a storybook for my grandson so this will make the whole process a whole lot quicker.

I also ‘bit the bullet’ and today purchased Photoshop Elements 8 so out with all the ‘old programmes’ and in with ‘the new’. But this means a whole new lot of learning to do but at least all the photo mags seem to concentrate on this software so that will help.
Ron

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I also ‘bit the bullet’ and today purchased Photoshop Elements 8 so out with all the ‘old programmes’ and in with ‘the new’. But this means a whole new lot of learning to do but at least all the photo mags seem to concentrate on this software so that will help.
Ron

You will also find a lot of help on the internet about Photoshop Elements. For instance YouTube has a lot of tutorials that users have provided. (Many of them will say they are about Photoshop rather than Photoshop Elements, but quite a lot will be applicable to both.)

Ian

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I use Image resizer from MS for XP machines and VSO for Vista and Windows 7 and they are both FREE.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx scroll don and is listed on right side of screen.
http://www.vso-software.fr/products/image_resizer/ Big Orange button middle of screen.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
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