How to Resize an Image Without Losing Quality

Resizing sounds simple until a picture comes out blurry or stretched. The good news is that a few simple rules let you resize photos cleanly every time, whether you are preparing them for a website, a form or social media.

Make it smaller, not bigger

When you make an image smaller, the software throws pixels away and the result stays sharp. When you make it larger, new pixels have to be invented, which makes the picture look soft. So always start from the largest original you have, and avoid enlarging beyond its original size.

Keep the aspect ratio

The aspect ratio is the relationship between width and height. If you change only one of them without keeping the ratio, the picture looks stretched or squashed. In the Image Resizer, leave "Keep aspect ratio" switched on: type a width and the height follows automatically. If you need a different shape, crop first with the Crop tool and then resize.

How to resize an image

1. Open the Image Resizer and upload your image.
2. Enter the width or height you need, or pick a preset.
3. Click Apply and check the preview.
4. Download the resized image.

Resize once, from the original

Resizing and saving the same file again and again compounds small losses. Keep your original untouched and export each size you need from it.

Common sizes built into the tool

• Instagram Post: 1080 × 1080
• Instagram Story: 1080 × 1920
• Facebook Post: 1200 × 630
• Facebook Cover: 820 × 312
• YouTube Thumbnail: 1280 × 720

Smaller dimensions also mean smaller files. To go further, follow up with the Image Compressor, as described in How to Compress an Image to 100 KB.

Frequently asked questions