What does picture file size mean?

A color is often represented by a mixture of the three fundamental colors red, green, and blue (commonly referred to as RGB). Images are made up of small dots known as pixels, and each pixel is given a color. 3 bytes, or 24 binary digits (ones and zeros), are typically needed to hold the color information for each pixel. These pixels might number in the millions for large or high-resolution images. As a result, millions of bytes of storage space would be required on a computer or other device to accommodate all the data required to display such an image.

How can I reduce my image's file size?

Another effective approach for managing image file sizes is by resizing the photo, which entails reducing the number of pixels required to represent the image. Unlike compression, resizing doesn't inherently compromise image quality, although it can lead to the loss of some fine details.

Modern smartphones and cameras often capture images with resolutions exceeding 6 million pixels. However, many common screens on devices like cellphones, tablets, laptops, and TVs typically have resolutions of around 1.5 million pixels. This means that when you view an image on these screens, you're essentially looking at a scaled-down version of the original image (the full image is utilized primarily when printing).

So, by resizing your image and decreasing its width and height to match or closely align with the screen resolutions of most viewing devices, you can maintain image quality without any significant loss of detail, even when displaying the image in full-screen mode.

As a practical recommendation, if you have a particularly large photo, resizing it to dimensions around 1900 by 1100 pixels, using the JPG format with a quality setting of 90%, can yield an image that strikes a balance between versatility and quality. This resized image will be suitable for sharing with others and won't occupy excessive storage space or take too long to transmit.