reduce size of Word doc with graphics

[jjatcal]

Hello,

I have jpgs and gifs in a Word document that is now 5MB. How can I reduct the size of the graphics so that the Word doc is smaller?

Thanks!!

 

[Eggles]

What is the resolution of the graphics files? Other than dimensions (height x width), one of the biggest contributors to a graphic's file size is resolution.

The resolution you choose for the graphics however is dependent on what you are going to do with the file. If it to be printed in reasonable quality (i.e. not visibly pixelated) on a desktop printer (inkjet or laser) then 150-200 dpi is probably fine. Hoever, if you are using GIFs and JPGs then resolution is not nearly as significant. Unless the Word doc is for display on the web. Then 72 dpi is all the resolution you need.

To reduce the size of a JPG file, open it in Photoshop, and use a lower quality factor when saving i.e. more compression. For a GIF, you can reduce the number of colours to reduce file size.

But if you have a lot of graphics in a Word file, then there is no way of avoiding a large file size. Graphics require a lot of bytes to describe their content.

 

[mscallisto]

Eggles is correct and I'll add more by saying you can also reduce colors and crop to save some more space.

Even with all the above you will find that as soon as you give the graphic to MS Word the size problem continues. MS Word does not handle graphics well.