Resampling using MS Paint

Make a copy of your original high resolution image file.  Let's work with the copy to avoid the possibility of destroying your original.

Write down the pixel dimensions of your image.  (You can find this in the image properties.)  A typical 7 megapixel photo is 3072 x 2304 pixels and about 2500 KB - obviously unsuitable for the web.

Let's say we want to resample 3072 x 2304 down to half screen width or about 500 pixels wide.

500/3072=.1627 or about 16%

Open your photo (the copy) in MS Paint.

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Click on Image| Stretch/Skew.

Change the STRETCH horizontal and vertical from 100 to 16.  Click OK.  Now your photo has been resampled. 


File| Save As... and choose JPG.  MS Paint (v5.1 comes with Win XP) automatically applies a fixed compression that generates a medium quality JPG which will reduce file size further.  In this example, the new file size is less than 40 KB.  Hopefully, the result will be satisfactory for you, quality-wise.  If not, you will need to use a different program that allows you to choose the amount of compression applied.