Hi all,

I thought I'd send a little info about how to resize images from your digital camera before they are uploaded to our webiste, or even sent to others in email.

Most new digital cameras take some pretty impressive pictures. The resolutions of these images usually start at 2-megapixels and go up to 8-megapixel. And, I'm sure the technology will keep making these images better and better quality which means more megapixels and storage space.

When it comes to websites, emails, and sharing photos, there really is no need to share these images at high-resolution. The high-resolution is better when you're printing. Therefore, before you send any photos or share them, you should consider RESIZING the images.

By resizing the images, you will save a lot of disk space and transfer time. Not to mention, the people on the other side looking at your graphics will like you better because they won't have to sit for 10 minutes waiting for your images to download. Ever get a warning message from your email host saying that you've exceeded your space limits? Go check to see how many image attachments you have in your inbox!!

Anyway, when you upload images to a website, the best thing to remember is 1-2 megapixel... A 1-megapixel image is approximately 640x480 pixels. To get the megapixel rating of an image, simply multiple the width by the height.

When uploading to websites, it is safe to go with 1.5-2.0 megapixel images. This is anywhere from 1024x768 to 1280x1024 or a little bigger. But, most websites (such as ours) will automatically resize your images to a smaller size once you've uploaded them. For instance, we allow images up to 1024x768 here.

If you email an image to somebody... just send a 1-megapixel image (640x480). You will be doing them a favor...

Anyway, there are few utilities available to help you resize images so you can upload them to various websites and/or send to your friends in email. Be cautious though... you want to keep copies of your high-resolution images around in case you send them out for printing or whatever. So, when you resize images, make sure you tell the software to make a COPY and never replace.

Here are a few good software packages:

Microsoft's Power Toy - Image Resizer. This utility is great because it fits right into Windows XP. Simply right-click on the image (or images) you want to resize and it will ask you how big or small to make it.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Picasa. This is a great image management utility for Windows systems. It's a freebie from Google. The utility will allow you to manage all kinds of graphics on your PC and is pretty easy to use. http://www.picasa.com

Graphics Workshop Professional. This utility is a shareware package that can be used on any Windows PC (including older versions). http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/gwspro.html

Most of the above utilities allow you to resize images one at a time or in bulk. If you have any questions or comments about this article, the software, or any additional hints for our members go ahead and reply.

Hope this helps !!

-- MIke

Thanks Mike very useful information !!!!!!

To get the megapixel rating of an image, simply multiple the width by the height

and divide by 1000000.

The MS power tools resizer is very nice. The compression is good and I've never noticed nasty aliasing in the compressed images. The custom resizer is nice for making thumbnails for a website. Only problem I have is that it doesn't let you chose the name of the converted files - it always adds something like "(medium)" to the file name which I always have to go delete or change. A simple prefix or suffix option would be nice. Oh well... it's free.

Only problem I have is that it doesn't let you chose the name of the converted files - it always adds something like "(medium)" to the file name which I always have to go delete or change. A simple prefix or suffix option would be nice. Oh well... it's free.

You can always copy the images you care about to a new folder first and then use the advanced option "Resize the original image (don't make copies)"

is this auto resize new, because when i tried to upload pics last month it wouldn't do it. it said file is too big.

I am fairly lazy when it comes to this, what I do is select all the images I want to resize and then right click and select send to mail recipient. Windows will default to outlook to send the images and a popup should come up asking whether you would like to resize.

Click advanced options and you can choose from 3 emails friendly resolutions.

You can then copy the images out of the email and put them in a folder somewhere or just send them.

Too many steps. Sounds like more work than a simple right click on each original and then selecting the resize choice.

To Each His Own

Neat...............

Too many steps. Sounds like more work than a simple right click on each original and then selecting the resize choice.

To Each His Own

It's not really too many steps, just my way of descibing it. This way you are guaranteed for it to work on any windows based machine that is not your own and dont have to install more programs. I don't mind if people do it other ways, it's just the way I do it :classic:

is this auto resize new, because when i tried to upload pics last month it wouldn't do it. it said file is too big.

We don't allow any pictures larger than 1024x768... When that image size is uploaded, our system will create a medium file at 800x600 and I believe it also creates a smaller file at 640x480. Anyway, it's all automatic. If you want to see something bigger simply click on the photo....

For those lucky enough to have Photoshop you can also save for web which uses only 256 colours since that's all the web displays anyway and the file size is incredibly small.

I always keep higher res images as a backup myself.

For those lucky enough to have Photoshop you can also save for web which uses only 256 colours since that's all the web displays anyway and the file size is incredibly small.

Dunno where you heard that from, but have a look at the galleries. More than 256 colours (8-bit) mate! If the 'web' only displayed 256 colours then JPG's would be redundant as everyone would use GIF.

Sorry i should be more specific.

http://www.ricklineback.com/term2.htm this website explains it probably better than i could.

Basically it depends on the image you save sometimes if it's say a blue sky image it will be able to save the image in a lower bit rate and you won't notice the difference the only real difference being the file size. Yes Gif files are 8 bit or 256 colours however some jpg's can be saved this low although i'd say most use 16bit colours approx 65,000 colours can be used.