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One of the main reasons to use a digital camera is the ability to share the images with others by attaching them to emails. This comes with its challenges however.
First of all, if the picture was taken on a high resolution, it will be great for prints, however, the resulting HUGE file size will make it difficult to send as an attachment because email service providers do not like having these big files sent through their ‘pipelines’. Even if your provider allows you to send it, your recipient’s provider may not allow them to receive it. And just forget it if either one of you is still on dial up.
In addition to the gnarly file size, the display of images with a lot of pixels is often not a good experience. The problem is that a 6 megapixel image is made up of 2800 pixels across and 2200 pixels down. Most monitors are set to display only 1024 pixels across, and 768 pixels down. Hence, if the recipient is viewing the image full size, it is THREE times the size of their monitor display, and they will have to scroll right and left and up and down to see the whole thing.
What to do? Fundamentally, you need to resize and compress the image before attaching it to an email. Here are two ways to do that:
Method #1: Using Windows XP – NOTE: will NOT work with email programs such as AOL/Yahoo/Comcast etc, - works best if using Outlook or Outlook Express for your email software.
1. Open the folder with the picture in it
2. Select the picture you want to email by single clicking it
3. Click E-mail this file from the list of choices on the left side
4. Select Make My Pictures Smaller in the dialog box that comes up/OK
5. The picture will be resized, compressed and attached to an email. Fill in the recipient’s name, subject, and your message and send it on its way.
Method #2: Using image editing software – use this method if using other than Outlook or Outlook Express for email software
1. Open the image in your image editing software
2. Many programs have a function that will automatically resize and compress the image and save it as a file that can be attached to an email. Open the Help menu, click the Search tab. Type in Email and read their advice. OR
3. If you’re lucky, you’ll find ‘Save for Web’ in the File menu. Use that, or, ferret out the Resize option by going to through the menus at the top, or searching on the word ‘Resize’ in the Help for the software.
Resize the image to be no larger than 600 pixels in either direction, at a resolution of 72 ppi (if they give you the tool to do that).
Save the image as a jpg (File > Save), with probably a 20% compression (maximum quality). Remember where you saved it!
4. Once you have resized, compressed and saved the image, open a new message in your email program, click the ‘Attach’ icon (often a paper clip), find your file, double click on it to attach it to the email. Fill in the recipient’s name, subject, and your message and send it on its way.
Either of these methods are good for sending a few images, use an online photo sharing service, such as Snapfish, Costco, Shutterfly, or Flicker to share a lot of images.
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