Forum Discussion
"Save as picture" saves the display size
Let's say an image is reduced in Word—for example, a 10-inch-wide image is reduced to 65% so it fits within page margins. If I left-click the image and "Save as picture," the saved file is 6.5 inches wide and blurry. The only way to save a full-size image seems to be to blow it up to 100% and then save.
If the original image information is still there, why doesn't Word save the original image file?
I DID try checking the Advanced option checkbox "Do not compress images in file," but that made no difference. (I didn't expect it to but thought someone would want me to try it.)
3 Replies
How about this:
- Use the .zip method:
- Save your Word document as .docx.
- Rename the file extension to .zip.
- Open the zip file and navigate to Word\media.
- You'll find the original images there, in their full resolution.
- Insert images at 100% scale before saving: If you know you’ll need to export the image later, insert it at full size and avoid resizing in Word.
- Use a graphics program: Open the original image in a program like Photoshop or GIMP, and export it directly from there instead of relying on Word.
Thanks, Kidd_Ip . I put a lot of work into a reply but it didn't get through. I just don't have the energy to redo it. In summary, people shouldn't take big pictures and then scale them down if the point is to show something to a reader which they then can't read because the text is too small. Your zip method is way cool, thanks! In my case there are over 500 images named image1, image2, etc., making it hard to know which one I need; they are too similar to each other for thumbnails to help me. No access to the originals. So I'll stick with blowing them up in Word and then ctrl-z to put them back after downloading. Thanks again for replying. Feeling dejected but grateful for your response.
Thank you so much, Kidd_Ip. Very cool info.
Allow me to explain further. This is a 165-page document I received from someone else. I don't have access to the original images.
- .zip method:
- Wow, so cool! It was worth making this post just to learn about the .zip method! But there are 520 images, and in the .zip file they are known as image1.jpg, image2.jpg, image3.jpg, etc., making it hard to find one particular image. In another situation, I'd download all to a folder and look at thumbnails. Unfortunately these are screenshots of a browser app and too similar to find my target as a thumbnail. But still, an extremely interesting method to keep in mind!
- 100% scale:
- This doc was given to me by someone else, so I didn't have control over the image creation. My motto is, "to make your text big, make your image small." Sadly most people just take a maximized screen shot and then shrink it down to 6.5 inches. How they think that's going to help their audience, I don't know. I recommend Snag it, a big screen shot program with a tiny price tag. Among its many amazing features is my favorite, "Cut Out," which lets you slice white space from the middle of an image. But even then, it's very common to still need to scale it down a little.
- Graphics program:
- Not sure how this is helpful; if I can open it in Photoshop, then I already possess the image. Of course in my case I don't have the original. Furthermore, if I'm measuring effort, it's more effort to open Photoshop or G1MP, open an image, and export the image, than it is to have Word restore an image to 100%, "Save as picture," and ctrl-Z in Word to restore the image to its smaller size.
Given my particular situation, that last is what I'm bound to do. But thanks again for teaching me some new tricks!
- .zip method:
