Resize Images
Change the dimensions of one photo or thirty, keep their formats, and never upload a file.
Resize Images Online
Resizing is the most effective way to make an image lighter and the only way to meet a pixel requirement. This page opens the Image Converter with Same as input and Fit within already selected, so each file keeps its format while every image in the batch is scaled by the same rule.
Which resize rule to pick
| Rule | What it does | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Fit within | Scales each image to fit inside a width and height box, keeping its proportions | Mixed portrait and landscape photos for a web page or an email |
| Max width | Caps the width and scales the height to match | Blog and CMS images with a fixed column width |
| Max height | Caps the height and scales the width to match | Thumbnails in a row of equal height |
| Percentage | Scales every image by the same factor | Halving a whole folder of phone photos |
| Exact size, cropped | Covers an exact width and height and trims the overflow around the centre | Profile pictures, product grids and social media formats |
Exact size without stretching
Most places that demand exact dimensions, such as a 1080×1080 post or a 400×400 avatar, would rather lose a strip at the edges than show a squashed face. Exact size, cropped does exactly that: it scales the image until it covers the whole box, then trims what sticks out, equally on both sides. A 4000×3000 photo becomes a 1080×1080 square taken from its middle, and a portrait photo loses its top and bottom instead of its sides. It is the one rule that enlarges without asking, because an exact size is the point.
Why small images are left alone
The other rules never enlarge an image unless you tick Allow enlarging. Scaling a 600-pixel photo up to 1600 adds bytes, not detail, and the result looks soft. If a form insists on a minimum size, enlarging is the only way to meet it, but start from the largest original you have.
Resizing and file size
The size of a file follows its number of pixels. Halving the width and the height leaves a quarter of the pixels, so the file usually shrinks far more than the dimensions suggest. For a hard limit in KB, also switch Compression to To a target size; the compress page explains how that search works.
Details worth knowing
- Photos are turned upright according to their EXIF orientation before they are resized, so a phone picture does not end up on its side.
- Every image in a batch gets the same rule; to treat some photos differently, convert them in a separate batch.
- Metadata such as the camera model and the GPS position is not copied into the resized file.
- ICO output ignores the resize rule, because an icon is a set of fixed square frames; use the favicon generator for that job.
Related pages
To hit a file size rather than a pixel size, use Compress an image or Compress an image to 100 KB. The comparison of WebP, PNG and JPG helps you choose the format to save in.