Just in time for Easter, you have finished off the film with the Christmas photos. Now is your chance to try out that other Christmas present, the scanner, and share the pictures with friends and family. Please, before emailing them to me, take a few minutes to read the instructions that came with your scanner.

The latest scanners and digital cameras can now create very high-resolution pictures. If you also have one of the latest printers, you can now produce lovely "photo quality" prints. But, if are you scanning pictures to send by email, or to post on the internet, this high resolution is not just a waste, but an awful nuisance.

First, it's a waste because the standard resolution of computer monitors is 72 dots per inch. A picture scanned at a higher resoltion will just appear larger - and probably won't fit onto one screen. But more importantly, high resolution means more dots per inch, and since each of those "dots" takes up space in the computer, much bigger files. The literature that came with your scanner estimates the file size for each resolution.

When you have scanned a picture, check the file size. As a general rule of thumb, don't send anything bigger than 100K by email - at least without first asking permission from the recipient. Anything larger is an imposition - of download time and hard-drive space. Some older computers (or software) can't handle larger files. Worse, since they can't be downloaded, they effectively "block" the recipient's mail box until they are removed from the server.

Also, it's important to save the file in the correct format - that's what the last three characters of the file name mean. There are only two file formats that you can be sure everyone can access: .jpg and .gif. Any other formats require specific programs to be able to "see" them, and you can't assume that everyone has the same software that you have.

So - to ensure that Aunt Susie will be able to receive the pictures, and to see them once she does, scan them in at about 100 dots per inch, and save them as a .gif or a .jpg .

If you're interested in knowing more about scanners, come to the Kawartha Internet Users' Group meeting. The demo planned for March was postponed until the April meeting.We'll show you how to scan picures and send them by email, or, better yet, how to post them to a "bulletin board" site which your friends can visit at their leisure. The meeting is at 7 pm, Thursday April 13, at The Lions Hall, Main St., Bobcaygeon. Bring your own pictures!