Resize an Image in Microsoft Paint

This article teaches you how to enlarge, shrink, or crop an image in Microsoft Paint. The first two maintain the native aspect ratio while the latter removes outer area from the image.

Steps

Enlarging or Shrinking an Image

  1. Locate the image you wish to resize and right-click it. Doing so will prompt a drop-down menu.
  2. Hover the mouse cursor over Open with. This option is toward the middle of the drop-down menu.
  3. Click Paint. It's beside a blue icon depicting a paint palette. Doing so will open your selected image in the Paint program.
  4. Click Resize. It's on the middle-right side of the "Image" section at the top of the Paint window.
  5. Make sure "Percentage" has a black dot next to it. If not, click the circle next to "Percentage" to ensure that your image's changes will be measured in percents.
    • Your image will start at 100 for both the vertical and horizontal values, so changing these to "75" will reduce your image to three quarters of its original size.
    • If you know the exact horizontal or vertical pixel count you want, it's okay to click the circle next to "Pixels" instead.
  6. Make sure "Maintain aspect ratio" is checked. If there is no checkmark in the box next to "Maintain aspect ratio", click the box--otherwise, any changes you make to one aspect of your image (e.g., vertical size) won't scale with the other aspects.
  7. Type in a new number next to "Horizontal" or "Vertical". As long as you're maintaining the aspect ratio, changing one value's number will change the other value as well.
    • Increasing these numbers will enlarge the photo, while lowering them will shrink the photo.
  8. Click OK. Doing so will apply your changes to the image.
  9. Hold down Ctrl and press S. This will save your changes to the image.

Cropping an Image

  1. Locate the image you wish to crop. Cropping an image can only result in a smaller section of the image, though the cropped section will retain its quality.
  2. Right-click the image. Doing this will prompt a drop-down menu.
  3. Hover the mouse cursor over Open with. This option is toward the middle of the drop-down menu.
  4. Click Paint. It's beside a blue icon depicting a paint palette.
  5. Click ▼ beneath Select. Select is in the "Image" section of the Home tab at the top of the "Paint" window.
  6. Click Rectangular selection. It's the first option in the drop-down menu here.
  7. Click and drag over the image. Doing so will drag a rectangular dotted line over the image; anything inside of the dotted line will remain when you crop the image.
    • If you're trying to remove a border from a photo, the best way to do so is to click in the top-left corner and drag diagonally into the bottom-right corner (or similar).
    • To remove the dotted line and start over, click anywhere outside of the area surrounded by dotted lines.
  8. Click Crop. It's at the top of the "Image" section of options and to the right of Select. Clicking this button will remove everything outside of the dotted lines, leaving only the part of the image that's inside.

Tips

  • When printing your resized image, make sure your printer's settings aren't automatically resizing the image before printing.
  • Reducing an image's size, even by a little, makes the image's file size smaller.

Warnings

  • Enlarging an image will reduce its quality.
  • Consider resizing a copy of the image rather than the original image itself. To copy the original file: right-click the image, click Copy, and then right-click the desktop and click Paste. You can then right-click the copied image and proceed with opening it in Paint.

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