Sending photos by email using Outlook? Find out here how to compress pictures and images for email in Outlook and optimize your messages for size and deliverability.
First, St. Augustine Talks about Sweat
In the 24th chapter of the second book of his seminal City of God, Augustine of Hippo gets a chance to incorporate what he himself has seen man do into a theological argument. To wit:
I myself have known a man who was accustomed to sweat whenever he wished.
St. Augustine
Let me set aside the theological intricacies of a human body after Eve and Adam for now. Squeezing salt-ful water out of forehead and armpits at will! What can be better?
Squeezing wasteful size out of images at will right in Outlook perhaps?
How to Compress Pictures for Email in Outlook
Not using Outlook for Windows? Compress pictures for email with an online image compression tool.
Time needed: 3 minutes
To compress an image in Outlook for Windows and optimize it for sending through email (to some extent):
- While composing an email in Outlook, highlight an image to compress in the email’s content.
Compress all images: Highlight any image to compress all images in the message.
- Go to the Picture Format tab on the ribbon.
Alternative: For some versions of Outlook, the ribbon tab is Picture Tools | Format.
- Click Compress Pictures in the Adjust section of the Format ribbon.
Simplified ribbon: In the simplified ribbon, click More commands to get to Compress Pictures if it is not initially available (which usually it is not).
- Typically, choose E-mail (96 ppi) under Resolution:.
Picture quality: This option will reduce the size of the image (or images) in the email while compromising quality to some degree
- To compress all images in the message in one go, uncheck Apply only to this picture under Compression options:.
To each its own: You can compress select images individually (for higher quality, for example), of course.
- Click OK.
Compress more: For (in some cases considerably) better compression, you can also use a free online image compression site.
How to Reduce Picture File Size in Outlook Signatures
To compress an image that you have added to an Outlook email signature:
- Open the Outlook signature editor via File | Options… | Mail | Signatures….
- Make sure to highlight the signature that contains the image you want to compress under Select signature to edit.
- Click the image to optimize with the right mouse button.
- Select Picture… from the context menu that has shown.
- Make sure you are on the Format Picture window’s Picture tab.
- Click Compress….
- Do pick Web/Screen for Change resolution.
- Now check Compress pictures as well.
- Click OK.
How to Compress Pictures for Email in Outlook: FAQ
How much image file size reduction can I expect?
Do to expect much compression from Outlook’s image optimization tool.
For a typical photo taken with a smartphone, you can see images compressed by around 75% through the reduction in resolution. For images that are already optimized for display on the web or email, expect much less or no compression.
Still, compressing images in Outlook can serve as a quick way to avoid the most egregious excesses of modern digital images in email.
Can “New” Outlook compress images?
No.
Only the legacy version of Outlook for Windows can compress images.
Can I compress images directly in Outlook for Mac?
No.
Outlook for Mac does not include tools to change the resolution and reduce image size. Do use online picture compression tools to shrink your images to size for email instead.
(How to compress pictures for email in Outlook tested with Outlook for Microsoft 365 Version 2401; updated February 2024)