Depending on what you need to do with the image, you can import or open the image in an image editor (such as Graphic Converter® on the Mac) or a full-featured graphics program (such as Fireworks® or Photoshop®).
Scanners create very large image files, often 300 dpi (dots-per-inch) or greater resolution. Graphics for screen resolution should be 72 ppi (pixels-per-inch). That's why scanned images, when opened in a graphics program, are often so large: the resolutions don't match.
Here's an example:
Adobe PhotoDeluxe® saved a scanned image as a 300-dpi jpeg file. The file size is 339.3 K. (I'm not including the actual image here, as it is too large to be displayed easily).
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In GraphicConverter®, I selected Picture-->Resolution.
I then selected 72 ppi (pixels-per-inch), or "screen resolution."
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I then resaved the image as a jpeg, with 80% (high) quality. The file size shrank to 32 K, with very little loss in quality (at least for on screen display purposes).
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