Shrinking photos to send via Email

Hi, Hope somebody can help me. I just recieved a CD of digital photograhs from our vacation. I'd like to shrink them and send via Email. So far, no luck. Each image takes a few minutes and arrives full size. Too big. Any ideas?

Thanks, Chris D

 

Hello Chris,

The following is from an MS Document that I saved on how to create a zip folder.


This article was previously published under Q306531


SUMMARY
This step-by-step article describes how to create and use compressed (or "zipped ") folders in Windows XP. You can use compressed folders to store files in a compressed format that uses less space than normal, and if needed, you can protect those files with a password.

How to Create a Compressed Folder

To create a compressed folder, use either of the following methods.

Open My Computer:

Double-click My Computer, and then open the folder where you want to make the compressed folder. For example, if you want to make a compressed folder in the root folder of drive C, double-click My Computer, and then double-click drive C to open the root folder.

On the File menu, point to New, and then click Compressed (zipped) Folder.

Type a name for the new compressed folder, and then press ENTER. Your new compressed folder appears as a folder icon with a zipper.

Right-click a blank area on the desktop or in a folder:

Right-click a blank area in an open folder or on the desktop, point to New, and then click Compressed (zipped) Folder.

Type a name for the new compressed folder, and then press ENTER. Your new compressed folder appears as a folder icon with a zipper.

Regards - Charles

 

I think creating the .zip file will only compress the file not the picture contain in the file.

I believe it will take some Photo editing software to actually shrink the picture it self.

My self Use PhotoSuite III to shrink pictures for my web site.

BillyBob

 

Chris, welcome to the BBS,
I did a quick search in an engine using 'reduce the size of jpeg images' and there is a plethora of 3rd party software including freeware programmes to help you reduce the physical and pixel size of images.

 

Regardless. Zipping up the file DOES NOT change the size of the image contained within it.

BB

 

That is why I use PhotoSuite to resize/cut the picture.

It does not change the quality of the image. I t fact when make it smaller it sometimes looks better.

And if I am going to use them on my web site I can set them all to 200 vertical and then they all use the same amount of vertical space. Makes things MUCH easier.

BillyBob

 

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm experimenting with Irfan View 3.8. It's free. If it messes up the shots, I'll just toss it into the bin. It just seems like there has got to be a way to shrink things down. I like to put photos in Emails. The photos that came on this CD are just way to big. My friend who shot them must have gone for maximum saturation. Chris D

 

HUH OH !!!!

AW !! I think the above will INCREASE the picture size on your screen ONLY. And yes that way it will not look as nice. Going from 800x600 to 1024x768 will chage itin size on your screen only.

I believe we may be referring to different things here.

You are refering to resolution. Which I will 100% agree does ( or can ) mess it up. And I thought the resolution could only be change by the Video SCREEN settings.

I am referring to actual pixel size of the picture itself. Such as taking a photo of 500 Vertical x 800 horizontal and reducing it to 200 Vertical and then PhotoSuite maintains the proper Horizontal relationship.

Doing that does not change the resolution. ( I don't think anyway ) But what size it in on your screen depends on how your screen resolution is set.

If we are not clear, lets keep in touch till we are.

That picture in MY post of " I like to have Fun too " was FULL screen when I put it on the web page the first time. I used PhotoSuite to reduce the size. But the resolution and size of it in your screen will depend on your machine settings ( I THINK )

BillyBob

 

OOPSS !! I missed ( or forgot ) this.

Going from 1024x768 to 800x600 screen resolution will INCREASE the size of the pix on your screen. No matter what size of the actuall picture is. And YES it will not be as nice.

You would then be spreading say a 200x300 picture over more area with more distance between the pixels. That is what may make it not look so nice.

Again I think you are referring to screen resolution.

BillyBob

 

You're thinking backwards BB. If you change a pic from 1024x768 to 800x600 the pic will be smaller on your screen. When you do this it does change the resolution of the pic and some quality will be lost although if the compression ratio you use isn't to high when you resave the pic, it won't be enough to bother. It has to lose some quality as some of the original pixels are thrown away (so to speak) in the resizing process. You won't notice it much going from a high resolution to a lower resolution but it's quite noticeable if you go from low to high. This is because the software has to guess what to fill in the extra space that's created when you make the pic larger. If you want to resize a pic to send to somebody, Irfanview will do just fine. Resize the picture to the size you want it and then save the pic with a different name or in a different location than the original and you'll still have the better quality original for yourself. If you want to make the pic smaller in file size and still retain the original size (resoultion) of the pic, simply open the pic in Irfanview and click file>save as and then in the save window click the options button. Then change the amount of compression to a higer amount. You can reduce the file size quite a bit by just doing this. How much compression to use is up to you. You have to try it at different amounts and see what's acceptable to you. If you save the file at varying amounts of compression you'll see what I mean.

 

I think we are still mis-understanding each other. Are we editing the actuall pictur file or changing screen resolutions ? Two different things.

OK. We have got to get cleared up here whether we are talking about ACTUALL picture size or the size in which it is shows on the screen.

If you have a picture at a size of 400x500 pixels. And I am referring to the size I set when editing the ACTUAL picture file in PhotoSuite.

In 1024x768 resolution it will DISPLAY one size. Now you change the resolution of the screen to 800x600 the picture will be bigger ON THE SCREEN ONLY. The ACTUALL PICTURE will still be 400x500.

Now if you go edit the picture file itself to 800x600 and keep the same screen resolution then it will be smaller on the screen.

In other words I am refering to the ACTUALL picture size not what size it shows on the screen. That depends on your Video settings.

A 400x500 pixel picture takes 400x500 pixels on the screen regardless of screen resolution.

As a trial. Go to my " I like to have fun too " post. Note what size the picture is on the screen. Now change resolutions and see how it displays. It will either be bigger or smaller depending on which way you change.

But the ACTUALL picture is STILL app 400x500. Your are changing the DISPLAY size not the size of the picture itself.

I won't bother to go checking as the exact size does not matter.

I just changed from 800x600 res to 1024x768. ( from right where I am ) This site DISPLAY then only took up about 2/3 to 3/4 of upper left section of the screen. Which says the the actuall picture size did not change. But the Display size on the screen did. And in order to get it to full screen I would have to drag it out. But I did not do that cause it would be no fun getting it back to 800x600 as it would then be way off screen.

BillyBob

 

Got it!!!!!!!

Hey, free software is available at Pic2Mail ..... It is exactly the answer. Works great. Thanks for all your care. Chris D

 

BillyBob
Sorry. I guess I did misunderstand what you were saying. Thought you meant a pic whose original size was 1024x768 reduced to a size of 800x600 would be larger on the screen. I now understand what you were saying and would agree with that.

One more note here. If the pics you're sending are ones that you took with a digital camera and your camera is one of those that attach an exif tag to the file you can save an additional 25 Kbytes or so if you remove the tag when you resave the file. A lot of the software out there will remove it without giving you any choice in the matter. Irfanview (and some others) gives you a choice of keeping it or getting rid of it. I believe it to is in the options part of the save as window. Don't remember what the default is however.

 

Zander

I believe we do have that cleared up.

Thank you

Mis-understandings are VERY easy to come by when communcating this way.

All of ( or most of ) the pictures on my Web site are pre set to 200 vertical with PhotoSuite in the original file on my machine. That also helps to keep down the size of the file itself and the size of the html file. And speeds up the loading of the page too by not having to resize the picture in the fly.

I learned A LOT about picture sizing and spacing while building my Web Pages. I would make changes so that things were fine on my machine and then forget to upload the new files. That created some bad language believe me.

And getting the spacing set so that the text showed properly was not always fun.

BillyBob