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How to resize an image on your phone using Creative Cloud Express

Shrink those Pro-mode photos and save yourself some storage space

As phone cameras have improved in recent years, the size of photo files has increased with them. Uploading large files to your blog or your limited cloud storage is not always ideal. Thankfully, there are a few easy ways to resize your image using different Adobe Photoshop applications on your phone or Chromebook.

It’s not recommended that you increase the image size when editing, as this can often cause it to become pixilated. Instead, snap your photos at a higher resolution and then scale down as necessary to keep good image quality. This quick guide takes you through the process of reducing your image size in the Photoshop Express and Lightroom mobile apps and in Creative Cloud Express online. These are all free to use, but you may need to create an Adobe account.

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Photoshop Express

Photoshop Express has some basic photo editing tools, including filters, overlays, color correction, and more. Resizing doesn’t show as an item in the bottom toolbar but. Instead, it appears as an option when exporting your image.

  1. Open Photoshop Express and select an image from your device or shoot from your camera.
  2. Make any color or lighting adjustments to your image.
  3. Tap the Next button in the upper-right corner.
    First select an image from your device for resizing.

    Make any image adjustments first before resizing it in Photoshop Express.

  4. Tap the blue Size text under your image to resize to one of the preset pixel dimensions or your own custom set.
    You'll be able to resize the image when preparing to export it.

    Choose a standard resizing option or set custom dimensions.

  5. Tap the JPEG Quality text to adjust the quality of the exported image to further reduce the file size if necessary.
    Changing the JPEG quality can further reduce the size of your image.

  6. tap Save to Gallery when you are finished.


Adobe Lightroom

Lightroom is a popular option for people who want to edit their photos and videos while on the go. Its various presets make for easy editing to make your images punchier, and also has the tools to create your own. As with Photoshop Express, resizing an image comes as one of the last steps when you are ready to export it.

  1. Open the Lightroom app and import an image to your library. You can do this either from your camera or by searching your device storage using the blue buttons in the lower-right corner.
  2. Select the imported photo from your library that you want to resize.
    First import an image from your device storage or from your camera.

    Select the photo from your library for resizing in Lightroom.

  3. Make any lighting, color, or other adjustments first.
  4. Tap the Share icon on the top toolbar and select Export as.
    3_lightroom_interface

    4_lightroom_export

  5. Select one of the standard resizing options or set a custom size from the Dimensions drop-down list.
  6. When you’re done, tap the tick icon in the upper-right corner of the box.
    5_lightroom_image_settings


Creative Cloud Express

Adobe’s Creative Cloud Express is browser-based, so there’s no need to download any apps. Like Canva, there are templates for various applications and an easy-to-use image resizing tool as one of the Quick Actions.

  1. Open your browser and go to https://express.adobe.com.
  2. Create an account if you don’t have one and follow the signup prompts.
  3. Select Resize Image under the Try a quick action block.
  4. Drag and drop the image you want to resize into the highlighted box.
    The Adobe Express dashboard has several templates for different applications.

    Import an image for resizing by dragging and dropping it into the highlighted box.

  5. Choose one of the size presets based on where you’ll be posting the image, or opt to set custom dimensions.
  6. After adjusting the size, the Download button becomes active, and you can go ahead and save your image.
    There are a few different size presets or you can choose custom dimensions.

    After selecting your resize option, the download button becomes active and your image is ready to be saved.

Avoid the storage headache

It’s easy to put off cleaning out old and unusable photos until some later date. The last thing you want to get while exploring a new city on your vacation is that “Low on storage space” notification. Especially if you are learning to shoot and edit RAW photos, you can quickly deplete precious storage space. It doesn’t help if you’ve been filling up your cloud storage with large image files either.

So take the time at the end of a day of snapping photos to edit and stay on top of your file management. Your future self will thank you for it.