Queen Margaret University - Staff and tutor guide for handling image files

Introduction to images

People use images in different ways; however, files which make use of images can become very large and may take up a large amount of file space. It is possible to reduce the size of these files, making them easier to share. This guide sets out the ways that images can be edited to minimise file sizes making use of Paint .

Paint was selected for this documentation as it is widely available being part of all Microsoft Windows operating systems. Furthermore, it is a basic image editor that is very easy to use for simple image manipulation such as that described in this document. Versions of Paint may look slightly different depending on which version of Windows you are using. The documentation is based on the version of Paint available on campus at QMU and should be directly translated for use in Windows XP and Vista platforms. For users with Windows 7, the appearance will be slightly different; however, the techniques are still valid. Apple Mac users may want to use Paintbrush which is a very simple Mac based image editor.