Resizing pictures

[mhoy]

Nifty s/w for a forum. Seems to be used by a number of places.
Anyway guess things work.

Mark

[LCHIEN]

Resizing pictures

Hey guys,

I see big pictures being uploaded and with new multimegapixel cameras
under $200 people are just uploading pictures directly from their cameras. This could be characterized as inconsiderate or lazy, but maybe we just don't know what to do. So a little education...

These big files create four problems:
One, people can't see the whole picture, having to scroll around,
Two, it expands the column width off the screen
Three it chews up Sams (not unlimited) space
and four it take a long time to transfer, especially for people who have limted bandwidth - they'll stop reading a post and won't view it if they have to wait too long.

I think the ideal size for e-mail and forums is some where around 400 wide to 640 wide. Horizontal pics would then be 300 to 480 tall. A 640 x 480 JPG files is typically 50-60K as opposed to 500K and up for 3 megapixel files.

Here's how to shrink them using a program you already have in Windows:
Click Start>Programs>accessories>Paint.
Then load your JPG image using the file command.
Select Image>Stretch/Skew
In the dialog, enter a stretch Horizontal value of less than 100%, say 50.
and an identical value for Vertical. This will make your picture 1/2 linear size and 1/4th the memory size.

I recommend using 50%, 33%, 25%, or 20% (which corresponds to
1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5.) which makes less distortion since the program throws away every Nth pixel without having to create middle pixels.

Image>Attributes will display the current size of the picture (You should have pixels selected as the units) if you don't know.

Pick a stretch/scale value that gets your width between 400 to 640 pixels. For most modern cameras 33% or 25% will do well.

I have a 1600x1200 pixel camera and use 1/4 or 25% to get 400x300 in 1/16th the file size for all my recent uploads.

Then click File>Save As and specify a new name (so as not to destroy your original). Also use JPG as the type. I usually use the same name with _sm on the end tso i know its the same pic but smaller. E.g. MyWorkshop.JPG becomes MyWorkshop_Sm.jpg

Other photo programs do the same function but may call it SCALE or RESIZE.

My favorite "goto " program is Graphics Workshop. It has a host of features: thumbnail displays, slideshows, editing,special effects, batch operations like resize, rotate, change formats (Lots of formats!) etc. It's shareware and works well even if you don't register, but registering is only $40. I use it to sort out and right-side up and fix exposure problems when I down load my camera.

http://www.mindworkshop.com is the homepage and Graphics Workshop is the program.

Its quite easy once you do it.
Maybe Sam can build a image resizer into the uploaded file tools, with auto rescaling to a practical size.

[gmack5]

Thanks for the information, good to know. [)]

[RodKirby]

If you run XP, another option is to right-click and resize. I use "medium" 800 x 600, which seems to work/fit fine.

[bruffc]

I'm one of the guilty parties

Sorry, I will change my ways.

[LCHIEN]

quote:Originally posted by bruffc

I'm one of the guilty parties

Sorry, I will change my ways.

ah, don't feel bad...[8)]

[lrogers]

Wish I had read this a minute ago. I'll do better on my next up load.

[monte]

Good to know Loring. Thanks!

[Deadhead]

This would make a good "sticky" post in the Finished Projects forum.

[RayintheUK]

A surprising number of digital cameras come with software that'll do the job for you - and well, too. For example, my camera came with Adobe's Photoshop Elements, a very good and simple piece of software to use. Load in the picture, crop if necessary, resize (I use a 500 pixel width as a maximum for web pics), click on "Enhance" then "Autolevels" to get both brightness and contrast optimized, then click on "Save for Web" and select "Medium quality jpeg." I'm sure that other cameras come with equally simple and effective software too, but users are often so keen to post up their results, they can overlook or forget to examine the included programs.

Ray.

[Eric]

Another piece of software is Jasc's Paint Shop pro. I've used several different versions. Their most recent version has a "One Step Photo Fix" which is kinda handy for automatically adjusting brightness/contrast.

It can be found at http://www.jasc.com you can download a full working copy for free and have 60 days to test it out.

It might be a little heavier than what most users will need to resize and adjust their photos, but it's also a free way to get a decent foot into photo manipulation. Think the full version is around $100

[BobSch]

A graphics program that I use a lot is irfanview http://irfanview.com/ And its FREE!