Using Windows^® Paint to Edit Your Photographs

You can use Paint to resize pictures, crop (trim) them, and save them as JPEG (.jpeg or .jpg) files. To start Paint, click START, then ALL PROGRAMS. Select ACCESSORIES, then click on PAINT. Click FILE, then OPEN to open your picture.

How to crop a photograph

Cropping photos is useful for trimming unwanted material from one or more edges of the image. For example, you may have a picture of yourself posing with your ex-girlfriend, and you wish to remove her from the photograph. Or you may desire to trim some of the background to put more emphasis on you.

Put your cursor over one of the image resizing handles (highlighted by the white arrows) until it changes to a double-headed arrow. Now click and drag that handle to trim the unwanted border, then release it. If desired, repeat for the other border. "Click and drag" means this: Click the left mouse button and hold it down as you drag (move) the cursor, then release the left mouse button. Tip: If you hover your cursor over one of the image resizing handles and it does not change into a double-headed arrow, move your cursor beyond the right edge of your image, click the left button of your mouse, then move the cursor back over the image resizing handle.

The above procedure allows you to trim the bottom and right edges. If you wish to trim the top or left edges, you must first flip the image horizontally or vertically, crop it as before, then flip the image again to restore the original orientation. To flip the image, click  on IMAGE, then FLIP/ROTATE.

The image above shows what the picture looks like in the Paint window after cropping its edges. Note that the face is just as large as it was originally, but less of the picture's periphery is present. If this is the only editing you wish to do on this picture, click FILE, then SAVE AS. Choose a file name with lower-case letters (and numbers, if desired), but do not include any spaces or special characters. For the SAVE AS TYPE, select JPEG. If you wish to resize the image (see below), save it after that step.

How to resize and save a photograph

Click IMAGE, then ATTRIBUTES to check the width and height of your image in pixels. Let's say that your image is 2000 pixels wide, but you wish to reduce it to 400 pixels (a good size for displaying on your profile page). Click CANCEL to close the Attributes box. Now click IMAGE, then STRETCH/SKEW. Enter the same value in the % box for horizontal and vertical stretch. In this case, we will enter 20, because we want the final image to be 20% of the size of the original. If your image is small, do not stretch it beyond 100%. That will make the image larger but more grainy and less attractive.

Now save your image. Choose a file name with lower-case letters (and numbers, if desired), but do not include any spaces or special characters. For the SAVE AS TYPE, select JPEG.