reduce file size for screenshots.

robert_coady wrote:

How do I reduce the file size?

macOS screen shots default to the PNG format. You can change that to JPG which will result in a much smaller file size by running this command in the Terminal…

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg;killall SystemUIServer

to revert to PNG…

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type png;killall SystemUIServer

You can follow the advice by dialabrain and change the screenshot formato jpg, which typically produces smaller files.

One other thing: in retina displays, the screenshot has a very high resolution.

What I usually do is the following:

I set the screenshots to open directly in Preview (Command-Shift-5 and click on Options, Save To, Preview

This lets me easily annotate the image, and also scale it down: Tools->Adjust Size, and type 50 for 50%.

I have set a keyboard shortcut so it is instantaneous to get to the Adjust Size window.

When your email contains an image, you get an additional option on the right-hand end of the message header which lets you adjust the size of attached images.

Full-screen screenshots from large monitors can be large, but Mail.app can automatically scale them down for sending. Just pick your preferred size.

If ( has yet to be established at this time ) the is a Recording

Perhaps you need to Compress the file

Compress and uncompress file archives in Terminal on Mac

robert_coady wrote:

I often take screenshots, particiularly of error messages that I attach to emails. Recently the file size is such that the mail app says that the attachment is too largwe to send or to save as a Draft,

How do I reduce the file size?

Screen Shot creating Single Image ?

Screen Shot creating a Recording ?

The problematic email

Is there a single Screen Shot being sent with another file attachment ?

Are there multi Single Screen Shots being sent with another file attachment ?

Is a Single Screen Shot being sent with Multi other file attachments ?

I have a JPG screenshot of a 32-in LG 4K display that is 1.3 MB. What size screen are you taking Screenshots that result in a single image larger than this? It is hard to imagine any single screenshot image size that as a single attachment would result in a Mail ISP rejecting it for being too large.

FWIW, I'm seeing a discrepancy in the file size reported in the Finder and Preview. Never noticed it before. The Finder is reporting one particular .jpg as 1.1 MB whereas Preview reports it as 550KB in "Adjust Size…". Show Inspector in Preview reports it as 1.1MB as well.

Did you know that some Screenshots place a NARROW NON-BREAK SPACE (\u202F) after the time and before the AM/PM text, while other Screenshots may use a space instead? Ran into this while testing a regular expression in Ruby yesterday. Not something anyone would notice otherwise though.

VikingOSX wrote:

Did you know that some Screenshots place a NARROW NON-BREAK SPACE (\u202F) after the time and before the AM/PM text, while other Screenshots may use a space instead?

No…but if you hum a few bars. :P J/K. I didn't know.

FWIW, the file size limit for most emails providers is 5MB. There is no way a 43KB file shouldn't send because of size.