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Resizing Pictures for Sending in E-mail Messages |
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| Do you love to see pictures from your favorite groups but are limited to dial-up? If so, you know first-hand the frustration when messages include huge pictures and take forever to download. I'm not an expert in writing tutorials but I'm going to give it a try. Here's how everyone can re-size pictures so we can all enjoy them. ****Be sure to follow the size guidelines for the group you are posting pictures to. I am not speaking for any group in particular. It is not up to me to make decisions for list owners as to sizes they choose to use for guidelines.****
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| First, you'll need a graphics program. I use Paint Shop Pro for all my graphics but there's a great free program that's also easy to use. It's called Irfanview. Download and install it if you don't have a different program. |
This tutorial is written for Irfanview 4.10. I'll try to also write a tut for PSP for those of you who use it. Sorry, but I can't help with PhotoShop. Download Irfanview here
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| Download this image. Right click to save to your computer. It's 423kb and 144 pixel resolution. We will be resizing the image to no larger than 400 pixels on the longest side and reducing the pixel resolution to 72. One of the graphics classes I took required this size limit and I found it to be a good size to use.
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| Open the saved image in Irfanview. Click "Save As" and save it as "PassionFlower2.jpg. In the dialog box that should pop up: 1. Check box for "Keep original EXIF data". 2. Check box for "Keep IPTC data". 3. Check box for "Keep original jpg comment". 4. Check box for "Reset EXIF orientation tag". 5. Save quality should be between 80-100. Just move the button on the slide bar at the top of the window. I used 80...this is compressing the image by 20%. You can use 100...no compression but a larger kb image. Some people don't like to compress images. This amount makes a big difference in file size but doesn't visibly alter quality...at least in my opinion. :-) 6. Click "save". This will maintain your original photo without losing quality as you will be editing a copy .
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Click "image".
Click "resize/resample"
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| 1. In the dialogue box set the longest side of the image to "400". In this case, the width will be set at 400 and the length will automatically set itself for 300. In some cases, the length will be set at 400 and the width will automatically reset itself for the appropriate size. 2. Units should be set for "pixels". 3. Be sure to check the box for "Preserve aspect ratio". 4. Check the box for: "Apply sharpen after Resample". 5. For images being sent via e-mail or posted on web pages....set the DPI for 72 pixels. 6. Size method: "Resample"....use the default filter as shown in the screen shot to the right. 7. Click "OK". 8. Save your new image.
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| Here's what we have now. This picture is only 36kb in size. |
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| You can resize to a larger size than 400 longest side if you wish. Here's the same image in 500 pixel longest side. This image is only 46kb in size. |
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And now one in 600 pixel longest side. This image is only 57kb in size. After writing this tut and checking the images in e-mails to myself, I think I might prefer this size. It's still small enough for e-mail and isn't too big for the message window. The size you will need to use will depend on your preference and the guidelines (if any) of the group you are sending pictures to.
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| Your total e-mail size will include the image and any text so total size will always be larger than the size of the image alone.
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| To check the size of your
image in Irfanview, just open the image: 1. Click "Image" in the toolbar. 2. Click "Information" in the drop down box. You will see complete information on that particular image.
The image size is "Disk size". |
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| Let's compare the difference
in saving an image at a higher dpi. First, we'll look at the first
image we saved: 400 pixels on longest side using 72 dpi. Remember.... this image is only 36kb in size. |
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| Here is the same image resized
to 400 pixels on longest side but using the original 144 dpi.
This image is 317kb in size. There are some differences in the quality of the pictures but not enough to make a real difference when being used for e-mail or a web page. |
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I hope this tut has been helpful.
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