E-mailed pictures are way too big!!

DL
Posted By
Dick_Lemire
Nov 4, 2003
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282
Replies
10
Status
Closed
Using Photoshop Elements 2.0 on a PC with Windows 98 as O/S.

When I send pictures by e-mail, the recipients get pictures so large that they have to scroll around to see the picture, and can only get a small piece of the picture at a time. How can I send pictures via e-mail that are small enough that they can be seen all at one time without scrolling?
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BH
Beth_Haney
Nov 4, 2003
Choose the image you want to resize for e-mailing and leave it open on your desktop.

Go to File>Save for Web

Select a new size for your image, which should probably be a maximum of 600 pixels in width in order to fit on monitors set to low resolution. Make sure Constrain Proportions is checked, and the length will fill in automatically.

Save for Web will generate a copy of your image and not disturb the original.
PF
Peter_Frailey
Nov 4, 2003
Beth has the right idea. I have used the medium resolution at 600 pixels with great success. One of your issues may be that the orignial is taken at a fine setting (300 dpi). Since the resolution of a computer screen is 72 dpi your image will be blown up about 4x the printed size. When using the "save for web" feature mentioned by beth, it is converted to 72 dpi.
NS
Nancy_S
Nov 4, 2003
Oh, oh…

I hope the ppi screen thing isn’t going to spawn another controversy 🙂
BH
Beth_Haney
Nov 4, 2003
I thought the same thing, but I think we’re safe. 🙂

Peter, in case you’re wondering – there is a wild debate about whether that 72ppi resolution thing really "holds water" any longer. Nancy and I chose not to get involved in previous posts about it, but we remember it got to be kind of a sore subject with some people.
PF
Peter_Frailey
Nov 4, 2003
Beth… I am new to the board. Can you direct me to the post where this is discussed. Thanks.

(All I can think of is that with high-speed access, file size is not as big a deal as it once was…. *G*.
NS
Nancy_S
Nov 4, 2003
Peter,

I think the difference is whether one is sending a file intended to be printed or one which you attach to email and want your recipient’s browser to display it at screen size (ie reduced dimensions in terms of pixels).
PF
Peter_Frailey
Nov 4, 2003
Yup, got it. Thanks.
NS
Nancy_S
Nov 4, 2003
Peter,

I would suggest a good read at Wayne Fulton’s excellent site linked below. Read the first section at least.

In your #2 post, what you call "medium resolution" is not resolution at all. The low, medium and high settings allow you to choose the quality of the jpg in terms of compression. Jpg is a compressed format. Choosing Low (quality) will degrade the image the most because the file will be highly compressed. Choosing High (quality) will only compress the image a little and maintain good quality. The higher the compression, the smaller the file size but also the least quality.

<http://scantips.com>

Nancy
PF
Peter_Frailey
Nov 4, 2003
Thanks Nancy… Yes, I misspoke *G*. Most of what I have learned, first with simpler software (but very user friendly) like Photosuite, has been by trial and error and this is the first I have ever communicated about it. Unfortunately Photosuite did an awful job on resizing of the magnitude I require. I take photos of fishing flies in .tiff format with a 4 megapixel camera, do my editing, and then publish them on my Web site at anywhere from 300 to 500 pixels wide. The medium compression (and 72 dpi, which I assume the Web mode feature does automatically)is a nice compromise between quality and file size. With photosuite the resulting picture had lots of noise (I am not sure what you call it.. but it looked awful) while with photoshop EL it looks great.

Thanks for the link!!!!
NS
Nancy_S
Nov 5, 2003
Peter,

You’re welcome. It’s important to have a firm understanding of resolution and pixels. The differences between image preparation for screen or print are profound.

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