What's the best way to reduce the size of a large picture? My options are
to reduce by pixels or by percent of the original. The originals are
typically 2-3M bytes (6.2 M byte camera) and I want to reduce to around
400-500 kbs to facilitate emailing of pictures without it being a huge file.

Is there a preferred method (pixels vs percent of original) that maintains
the best picture quality?

Eisboch

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...
What's the best way to reduce the size of a large picture? My options are
to reduce by pixels or by percent of the original. The originals are
typically 2-3M bytes (6.2 M byte camera) and I want to reduce to around
400-500 kbs to facilitate emailing of pictures without it being a huge
file.

Is there a preferred method (pixels vs percent of original) that maintains
the best picture quality?

Eisboch

If you are just trying to reduce the size for the purpose of email, and you
don't wish to save the smaller file for later use, Windows XP can handle it
for you on the fly. Simply right-click the file(s) you wish to email in
Explorer, and then click Send To, then click Mail Recipient. A box will
open asking if you want to make the pictures smaller or keep the original
size. Click show more options, and you can choose between small (640X480),
medium (800X600), and large (1024X768). Click OK and a new email window
will open with the file(s) already attached. You should be able to see the
file size in the attachment section of the email. You can experiment with
the small, medium, and large size to get the ending file size you are
looking for.

If, on the other hand, you have a use for the smaller file down the road, or
the small medium and large sizes aren't resulting in what you want, it would
probably be best to save a smaller version of the file with a different name
than the original, using any photo editor to resize and save the picture.
There are lots of choices in resizing an image, depending on the program you
are using. You will always want to preserve the aspect ratio. From there,
depending on the program, you can alter the pixel dimensions of one axis and
the other will follow suit. You can resize the image to a percent of the
original's size. Or, like in the email solution, you can often choose a
size that will fit inside common screen resolutions. Either of these will
result in the same quality image, if done in the same program. You will
probably want to resample the image in the resizing process. There are
usually different resampling interpolation methods, each trading speed for
quality.

I use Adobe PhotoShop Elements to do this, mostly because it's where I do my
editing. However, for image viewing, I use IranView. IrfanView is just
about the slickest image viewer out there. It's fast, efficient and free.
It will handle editing chores, but not at the level of PhotoShop. It will,
however, easily handle any resizing duties easily. It can be found at
www.irfanview.com.

"RG" responded with good suggestions at
news:jx5Bf.1227$MJ.608@fed1read07... to:

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...

What's the best way to reduce the size of a large picture? My options
are to reduce by pixels or by percent of the original. The originals are
typically 2-3M bytes (6.2 M byte camera) and I want to reduce to around
400-500 kbs to facilitate emailing of pictures without it being a huge
file.

Is there a preferred method (pixels vs percent of original) that
maintains the best picture quality?

Eisboch

If you are just trying to reduce the size for the purpose of email, and
you don't wish to save the smaller file for later use, Windows XP can
handle it for you on the fly. Simply right-click the file(s) you wish to
email in Explorer, and then click Send To, then click Mail Recipient. A
box will open asking if you want to make the pictures smaller or keep the
original size. Click show more options, and you can choose between small
(640X480), medium (800X600), and large (1024X768). Click OK and a new
email window will open with the file(s) already attached. You should be
able to see the file size in the attachment section of the email. You can
experiment with the small, medium, and large size to get the ending file
size you are looking for.


I was using some HP photo editing software that came with the camera ...
when you want to downsize a image file it offers two sizes - one recommended
for e-mail and one recommended for images for a web page. Then, after
selecting one of these, it offers a choice of decreasing it by pixels or by
percent of original. This is the part I am not sure about. I'll try both
and see if I can determine the difference, if any.

I recently bought a copy of Paint Shop Pro X, but I have not installed it
yet because I am not sure it was the right program. Seems like I remember
another program with a similar name like "Photo Shop" or "Print Shop" or
something like that. I suppose I should just load it up and try it.
Nothing else to do - snowing pretty good out there at the moment.

Eisboch

I was using some HP photo editing software that came with the camera ...
when you want to downsize a image file it offers two sizes - one
recommended for e-mail and one recommended for images for a web page.
Then, after selecting one of these, it offers a choice of decreasing it by
pixels or by percent of original. This is the part I am not sure about.
I'll try both and see if I can determine the difference, if any.

Shouldn't be any difference. Reducing a 3000X2000 image to a specified
1500X1000 pixels should give the exact same result as a request to reduce
the image by 50%, within the same program. Same resizing and resampling
algorhythms should be used to get there.


I recently bought a copy of Paint Shop Pro X, but I have not installed it
yet because I am not sure it was the right program. Seems like I remember
another program with a similar name like "Photo Shop" or "Print Shop" or
something like that. I suppose I should just load it up and try it.
Nothing else to do - snowing pretty good out there at the moment.


Seriously, download IrfanView and give it a try. It's been a favorite among
digital photographers for years as a photo viewer. With a single keystroke,
you can view images in full screen mode, which will completely remove any
program interface from the screen and will optionally scale the photo to
fill the screen. Will also easily make self executing slide shows of your
images that can be burned to CD's and can then be played on any PC. I have
IrfanView assigned as the default program to open any digital photo file.

"RG" wrote in message news:vY5Bf.1228$MJ.555@fed1read07...




Seriously, download IrfanView and give it a try. It's been a favorite
among digital photographers for years as a photo viewer. With a single
keystroke, you can view images in full screen mode, which will completely
remove any program interface from the screen and will optionally scale the
photo to fill the screen. Will also easily make self executing slide
shows of your images that can be burned to CD's and can then be played on
any PC. I have IrfanView assigned as the default program to open any
digital photo file.


Thanks. I'll try it.

Eisboch

More advanced programs such as Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro give you a
choice of several reduction methods and optimizations. I use Irfan
view also, and it does a pretty crude job of resizing, and the
resulting file size is always much larger than those produced by more
sophisticated programs.

Irfanview is mostly useful as a quick viewer when you want to go
through a folder of photos. It's not really intended as an editor.


I use IrfanView strictly as a viewer as well. There are indeed any number
of better editors out there. But I have yet to find an editor that's as
quick and easy to use as a viewer as IrfanView. Since I don't use IrfanView
as an editor or resizing tool, I've never compared post-resizing file sizes.
But I just did a resize as a test in both IrfanView and Photoshop Elements
version 3, and you're right, the resulting file size was about double in
IrfanView versus PS Elements.

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...
What's the best way to reduce the size of a large picture? My options are
to reduce by pixels or by percent of the original. The originals are
typically 2-3M bytes (6.2 M byte camera) and I want to reduce to around
400-500 kbs to facilitate emailing of pictures without it being a huge
file.

Is there a preferred method (pixels vs percent of original) that maintains
the best picture quality?

Eisboch


If you use windows, go here

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx

Download image resizer and install it. You can then right click on any
picture, click on resize and you will be given all kinds of cool options.
This is one of the best windows apps on the net. The quality is fantastic.

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 07:44:01 -0700, "RG" wrote:



I was using some HP photo editing software that came with the camera ...
when you want to downsize a image file it offers two sizes - one
recommended for e-mail and one recommended for images for a web page.
Then, after selecting one of these, it offers a choice of decreasing it by
pixels or by percent of original. This is the part I am not sure about.
I'll try both and see if I can determine the difference, if any.

Shouldn't be any difference. Reducing a 3000X2000 image to a specified
1500X1000 pixels should give the exact same result as a request to reduce
the image by 50%, within the same program. Same resizing and resampling
algorhythms should be used to get there.


I recently bought a copy of Paint Shop Pro X, but I have not installed it
yet because I am not sure it was the right program. Seems like I remember
another program with a similar name like "Photo Shop" or "Print Shop" or
something like that. I suppose I should just load it up and try it.
Nothing else to do - snowing pretty good out there at the moment.


Seriously, download IrfanView and give it a try. It's been a favorite among
digital photographers for years as a photo viewer. With a single keystroke,
you can view images in full screen mode, which will completely remove any
program interface from the screen and will optionally scale the photo to
fill the screen. Will also easily make self executing slide shows of your
images that can be burned to CD's and can then be played on any PC. I have
IrfanView assigned as the default program to open any digital photo file.


Eis, Irfanview is a great, simple, small sized program. Download it. You'll
love its convenience, and it doesn't take two minutes to open.
--
John H

******Have a spectacular day!******

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 15:08:11 GMT, Commodore Joe Redcloud©
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006 07:44:01 -0700, "RG" wrote:



I was using some HP photo editing software that came with the camera ...
when you want to downsize a image file it offers two sizes - one
recommended for e-mail and one recommended for images for a web page.
Then, after selecting one of these, it offers a choice of decreasing it by
pixels or by percent of original. This is the part I am not sure about.
I'll try both and see if I can determine the difference, if any.

Shouldn't be any difference. Reducing a 3000X2000 image to a specified
1500X1000 pixels should give the exact same result as a request to reduce
the image by 50%, within the same program. Same resizing and resampling
algorhythms should be used to get there.


More advanced programs such as Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro give you a
choice of several reduction methods and optimizations. I use Irfan
view also, and it does a pretty crude job of resizing, and the
resulting file size is always much larger than those produced by more
sophisticated programs.

Irfanview is mostly useful as a quick viewer when you want to go
through a folder of photos. It's not really intended as an editor.


Commodore Joe Redcloud©

With Irfanview, you can make the file size as small as you want.
--
John H

******Have a spectacular day!******

"Dan J.S." wrote in message
...

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...
What's the best way to reduce the size of a large picture? My options
are to reduce by pixels or by percent of the original. The originals are
typically 2-3M bytes (6.2 M byte camera) and I want to reduce to around
400-500 kbs to facilitate emailing of pictures without it being a huge
file.

Is there a preferred method (pixels vs percent of original) that
maintains the best picture quality?

Eisboch


If you use windows, go here

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx

Download image resizer and install it. You can then right click on any
picture, click on resize and you will be given all kinds of cool options.
This is one of the best windows apps on the net. The quality is fantastic.


Thanks to all that responded. Shortly after I posted this question we lost
power and I didn't have a chance to try anything. Power just came back on.

Eisboch