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This article was co-authored by Boris Polissky and by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA. Boris Polissky is a Professional Photographer and the Owner of SF City Hall Photo and Boris Polissky Photography based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Boris specializes in wedding, portrait, and family photography focused on bringing out real emotion and connection in his photos. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science from San Jose State University. Boris is known for capturing moments that bring out the uniqueness in all his clients.
This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources.
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When you send a message that exceeds the message size limit for either your or the recipient's mail server, the message will be returned to you and not delivered. This is often called a "bounced" message. Optimizing the size of pictures and attachments for email helps to avoid exceeding the maximum message size limits associated with most e-mail accounts. This wikiHow article teaches you how to compress images and include them as an attachment to an e-mail message
Things You Should Know
- Lots of online websites offer to resize your pictures, but you can also use built-in tools like Preview and Paint on your Windows or Mac computers.[1]
- Resize a picture in Outlook by changing the values in "Crop" or dragging and dropping the handles on the picture.
- Alternatively, Outlook will automatically resize your image if you attach it as a file instead of inserting a picture and select "Resize large images when I send this message" in "File."
Steps
In Outlook
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Create a new e-mail message in Outlook. Click the envelope with the plus sign next to "New Email."- Use this method if you have Outlook on your phone or on your computer, and you'll be able to resize the image before sending it.
- If you instead click Attach File and select your picture, you can set Outlook to automatically resize the picture. To do this after you attach a file, go to File and select Resize large images when I send this message.
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Click the Insert tab. You'll see this tab in the menu that's above your new email space with File and Help.[2]Advertisement -
Click Pictures. You can then choose if the picture is on your local machine (also called "Pictures" again) or if you want to search online.- Click This Device or Pictures to select an image from your local storage.
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Select the pictures you want to use. When you select the previous option, your file manager will open so you can navigate to your pictures. Once you have a photo selected, click Insert.- Select multiple pictures by holding Shift while you click.
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Click the Up and Down arrows next to "Crop". You'll see your picture get smaller and larger as you click the arrows.- By default, the original aspect ratio will remain, so when you make the picture small, it will not be distorted.
- If you want to set the height and width sizes yourself and change the aspect ratio, click the small arrow pointing away from "Crop" to open a pop-up window with layout settings.
- If you don't have the Outlook window enlarged to fit your screen, you won't see the Up and Down arrows next to "Crop" so you can change the image size. Instead, click the small arrow next to "Crop" and change the height and width there.
- You can also use the points on the image to drag and drop and make it smaller.
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Use the Compress Pictures option to reduce image resolution. The Compress Pictures tool will let you reduce the file size of your images without actually changing their dimensions. To compress images in Outlook:[3]- Insert the picture into your email, then click on it to select it.
- Navigate to Picture Tools in the Format tab, then click Compress Pictures.[4]
- Choose your desired compression and resolution settings, then click OK to confirm.
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Click send when you are finished composing your e-mail message. Make sure you have the "To" field filled out so the email has a destination.[5]
Expert Q&A
Video
Tips
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If you have lots of large files, videos, or pictures, use Dropbox, or Google Drive.Thanks
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You can also send larger pictures with Mail on an iPhone or iPad.Thanks
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Not many other email clients offer to resize images for you and you'll want to use an online tool to make your big images smaller.Thanks
Warnings
- Your original picture will not be modified. Only the copy of the picture being sent will be reduced in size.Thanks
Expert Interview
Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about resizing images, check out our in-depth interview with Boris Polissky.
References
- ↑ Boris Polissky. Professional Photographer. Expert Interview
- ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-pictures-or-attach-files-to-emails-in-outlook-bdfafef5-792a-42b1-9a7b-84512d7de7fc
- ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/reduce-attachment-size-to-send-large-files-with-outlook-8c698842-b462-4a4c-8d53-5c5dd04f77ef
- ↑ https://answers.wheaton.edu/posts/4861220-compressing-images-using-outlook
- ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/reduce-attachment-size-to-send-large-files-with-outlook-8c698842-b462-4a4c-8d53-5c5dd04f77ef
- ↑ https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/add-attachments-to-emails-mlhlp1050/mac
- ↑ Boris Polissky. Professional Photographer. Expert Interview
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