Built-in viewer and simple editor
The image viewer that comes with your system can often crop, rotate and shrink a picture. For an email or a document that's usually enough, and there's nothing to install.
Tools
Tools
You don't have to master a professional graphics suite to get a picture to the right size. For most tasks, what's already built into your operating system is enough, and the rest comes down to a few features found in almost any editor. We describe them by what they do rather than by name, so the advice doesn't go stale with every update.
The right tool for a picture is the one where you know where the resize button is, not the one with the most buttons.
How this section works: we don't name programs or publish rankings. Each item is a type of tool or a feature worth looking for in what you already use. The program's help or a menu search will usually point you to it.
What comes in handy
A basic kit that's enough to prepare a picture for screens, documents and print.
Raster editor
A program for working with pixels: photos, screenshots, drawings. It lets you change size and resolution, crop, adjust brightness, remove backgrounds and save the result in the right format at the compression level you choose.
Vector editor
A program for working with curves and fills: logos, icons, diagrams. The result scales without loss, and for screen or print you can separately export it as a raster image at the size you need.
Vector graphics (in Russian)
Compression tool
A feature or a separate utility that reduces file size. It's most useful when you can compare the original and the result side by side and spot for yourself the point where the savings are still invisible.
Eyedropper and palette
The eyedropper picks up the color from any point in a picture, and the palette stores the colors you've chosen. Together they help keep icons, captions and backgrounds in one shade rather than a scatter of almost-matching ones.
Rulers and guides
Rulers show dimensions in pixels or print units, and guides help you line elements up. Without them, icons on a slide usually sit slightly out of line, and people notice even if they can't say what's wrong.
Icons & characters (in Russian)
Read next
- Guides
Step-by-step guides: crop, shrink and compress a picture and get it ready for an email, a slide or print. The article catalog lives here too.
- Comparisons
Raster vs vector, JPEG, PNG, SVG and PDF, screen vs print: tables that help you pick the right format and size for the job.
- If it looks off
What to do when a picture turns blurry or jagged, gets too heavy, loses its transparent background or looks dull on paper.
- Glossary
Key terms: pixel, resolution, dots per inch, raster, vector, Bézier curve, compression, transparency and alt text.
- Questions
Answers about this reference, about picture sizes and formats, about printing and about using images found online.
Sources
- Documentation for graphics formats and editors (general principles)
- Clipday editorial materials
This advice is written in general terms as of the date it was prepared. Menu items, save dialogs and export settings are named differently from one editor to the next and change with updates, so check the help for the program you actually use rather than matching our wording exactly.