Saving photos for the Internet

Digital cameras and scanners can produce lovely high-resolution pictures. Unfortunately, while these make beautiful prints, they are far too large to be seen on a computer monitor. Your computer is set to display a specific picture size: 640 x 480 or 800 x 600, maybe up to 1280 x 1024. At these resolutions, even a 1 megapixel MB photo will span several screens.

Also, large pictures mean large files, and large files take time to load. No-one wants to wait minutes for a web page or email to load.

If the pictures are just for the internet, take or scan them at low resolution.
If you have high-resolution photos, reduce them to low-res before emailing or posting them to the internet.
eg. In Irfanview (a free image-editing program) click on Image / Resize and specify the new size (eg. 640 x 480)...Be sure to also check "preserve aspect ratio".
Check the file size
Find the file in Windows Explorer. Either check the "details" in the right window, or right-click and view the Properties. If it is more than 100K, think twice about emailing it!
Look at the reduced file in your browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer) to see how it will display when you send it to a friend (for example, will it fit on one screen?) This can be done in a couple of ways
- Double-click on the file in Explorer. This may directly open your browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer). If it doesn't, don't worry - it just means that a "file association" hasn't been set up for this file type.
- Open the browser (eg. Internet Explorer) , then choose
  - File / Open / Browse.
  - In the "Files of type" selection box, choose "jpeg files
  - Highlight your photo
  - Click on Open"
    This moves the file name to the Open dialog box
  - Click OK
  Your picture should now be in the browser window.
Email the picture
Compose a message, then attach the file. In Outlook Express you do this with Insert / File attachment (or click on the paper-clip "shortcut" icon).
(This will take you through the same File selection dialogs.)
OR
Post the picture to a web site (eg. Yahoo).
This is preferable to email, because people can go to the site and view the photos at their convenience (with email, the photo is downloaded onto their computer when they get their email)

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