3 tools for resizing images without lossing quality

Manipulating images is quite an important task in the digital era. Do you want to reduce their size, change the resolution or adapt them to any of your other needs, but, preferably, not lose quality in the process?

It can be done with an enormous variety of programs, but we decided to focus on 3 of those that are, in our opinion, the best-suited for the job.

Thing is, you don’t really want to resize the photo since it’ll just change the size while keeping the same number of pixels. What you want to do is to resample it.

If you want to resample your photo without losing any of the original quality, make sure to check the tools we presented below.

Software to resize image without losing quality

1

GIMP 2

GIMP (version 2) is one of the best free tools you can use for basically everything regarding images.

It’s like the more modest free version of Adobe Photoshop with myriad features and tools that make it incredibly viable option for home users.

Of course, besides the standard editing and optimizing, you can enlarge images with GIMP. And even without them losing little to none of their original quality in the process.

If you’re not accustomed to GIMP 2 and how to resize images with this nifty little tool, make sure to follow the steps below:

1. Download and install GIMP. You can find the setup file on GIMP’s official site.
2. Open GIMP 2 and drag your image in the main working window.
3. Click on Image in the main menu and then click on Scale Image.
4. Select the preferred output resolution. In this example, we doubled the image resolution (from 700 x 700 to 1400 x 1400).
5. Under the Quality > Interpolation, select Sinc (Lanczos3).
6. Click on Scale to resize the image.
7. Now, click on File > Overwrite…: image name: to overwrite the image while keeping the import format.
8. And that’s it. If you’re keen to keep the original image, make sure to back it up.

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2

IrfanView

Moving on. We can’t skip on one program that’s there for ages and it makes many paid solutions superfluous.

At least, for the minor optimization and editing, which, of course, includes lossless resizing. Yes, we’re referring to IrfanView.

For those unaware, this application is so much more than just a viewing tool for online images and family photos. It packs a bit outdated interface, but it compensates that with an abundance of features and overall simplicity.

In order to use IrfanView to resize images while retaining the original quality, follow the steps below:

1. Download IrfanView for free by following this link.
2. Open IrfanView and drag and drop your image in the workplace window.
3. Click on Image in the main menu, and then choose Resize/Resample from the drop-down menu.
4. Set the new size manually or select the preset resolutions from the right. We decided to give a try to 4K enlargement.
5. Check the ”Apply sharpen after Resample” box.
6. Under the Size method, select Resample and, from the drop-down menu, select Lanczos (slower).
7. Click OK to resize the photo.
8. Now, press ‘S‘ as a shortcut for ”Save as…” option.
9. We encourage you to use the PNG format instead of the JPG and save the photo.

That’s it. You can easily compare two images and look for changes.

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3

Photoshop

Finally, it’s a must to mention Adobe Photoshop which is, as we’re all aware, the most used premium image editing tool. This isn’t a free tool, and it takes some time to process the immense capabilities it offers.

It’s an obvious choice for all professional users, but, once you get the hold of it, it’s rather simple to use even if you’re a newbie. At least for minor tweaks.

Of course, the final result is much better than on the other two programs we enlisted above.

Here’s how to resize images without losing any quality with Photoshop:

1. Open Photoshop and drag and drop the image you want to resize on the working surface.
2. Click Image in the main menu and select Image size from the contextual menu.
3. Now, you select Pixels in the right tab and select the size that pleases you.
4. Check the ”Resample” box and select Preserve Details (enlargement) from the drop-down menu.
5. Choose noise reduction percentage and click OK to finally resize the image.
6. After that, click File > Save as, and save your image, preferably, in the PNG format.

That’s it. We hope this was enough to get you started.

Every noted program has its pros and cons, but the important thing is that all of those can meet your needs regarding the lossless image resizing, or rather image resampling.

Try the best one that suits your needs and keep in mind that there are other tools to create the best photos.

In this article, we linked to several other lists of software that will help you edit and optimize your images.

If you have any alternative programs to recommend or questions regarding the ones we presented above, do tell. You can do so in the comments section below.

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2017 and has been since updated for freshness, and accuracy.

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