You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Cannot resize Photos Using Preview.

I go to Preview after clicking on a photo on my hard drive. I use "Tools" to "adjust size" and choose a smaller pixel count, because I usually need to make images smaller for web use. This used to work perfectly on my old Mac. Now I am using Monterey 12.3.1 with a new Macbook Air M and I can "resize" them and save the new dimensions, but the file size goes up, or doubles or just shows the wrong size altogether. What is going on? Thanks.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.3

Posted on May 6, 2022 3:12 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 8, 2022 3:54 PM

Thanks Eric. That was helpful but it doesn't solve the problem. You can see from this screenshot of a vertical coaster (on left), I changed the resolution down from 200 to 100 and then to 72 and it kept on getting smaller. But every time I "saved" it (see folder image on right), it never got below 3.5Mb. Our website only accepts images with less than 3Mb in size, so when my CMS rejects the image, I know the folder on the right (3.5) is telling the truth and the Preview feature (on left) is not. It is very inconsistent too, Is there any way to repair this? It is very frustrating and terrible time consuming. Many thanks for your help.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 8, 2022 3:54 PM in response to Eric_G1

Thanks Eric. That was helpful but it doesn't solve the problem. You can see from this screenshot of a vertical coaster (on left), I changed the resolution down from 200 to 100 and then to 72 and it kept on getting smaller. But every time I "saved" it (see folder image on right), it never got below 3.5Mb. Our website only accepts images with less than 3Mb in size, so when my CMS rejects the image, I know the folder on the right (3.5) is telling the truth and the Preview feature (on left) is not. It is very inconsistent too, Is there any way to repair this? It is very frustrating and terrible time consuming. Many thanks for your help.

May 7, 2022 12:06 PM in response to familytravel4um

Hello familytravel4um,



You may find some helpful details on that in the "Reduce an image’s file size" section here: Resize, rotate, or flip an image in Preview on Mac - Apple Support


We've also listed the page's steps here:


1. In the Preview app on your Mac, open the file you want to change.
2. Choose Tools > Adjust Size, then select “Resample image.”
3. Enter a smaller value in the Resolution field.
4. The new size is shown at the bottom.
Tip: To reduce the file size of multiple images at the same time, display the images in the same window, select them in that window’s sidebar, then choose Tools > Adjust Size.


The format the image is saved in (File > Save As) will also have an effect on the size of the file, you can try going through the formats there, and it'll help to note what the resulting file size will be for each.



Cheers.

Cannot resize Photos Using Preview.

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.