Have you ever been sent an internet bomb from grandma? Maybe you've gotten an email that was so large it clogged your inbox and you had to call your service provider to un-stuff it? If you've experienced this you need to read further.
Not resizing an image before you send it to someone in an email is the most common etiquette faux pas on the internet. People take a great photo of the new granddaughter and quickly load it to the computer, they fire it off to everyone they know and just like that....everyone they know has a clogged email account.
This isn't as common as it used to be. Today's email accounts are very large; in fact some seem to have no limit. The other side of the coin though is that high speed internet access allows someone that doesn't know how to resize an image, to send you a massive bomb and in a hurry. When you get the email you read the caption "Daddy's Little Girl" and see something like this.
Needless to say, the child is very large and not exactly what you would call daddy's little girl! I am of course kidding but the reality here is that a few key stroke and a little time would have prevented this internet no-no from happening. Resizing an image is easy and a lot more pleasing to look at.
I am going to explore the Windows XP version of this first. If you are using the Microsoft client for email i.e. Outlook or outlook express, you can easily resize your photos before sending them. You will simply open the folder with the images in it. Highlight those images you want to resize and then along the left hand side of the window you will see an option that says “Email the selected items" click on it and you will see a window that will ask you if you want to resize the images before sending them. YES, you want to, there is a link at the bottom of this little pop up window that says “show more options" click on it. This option will actually allow you to choose just how small to make them. We recommend a medium size for good viewing in a new computer small size for easy viewing in most all computers.
There are other methods of resizing your images for internet transport that include a huge number of programs. In Photoshop or Photoshop elements, you would click on image, then image size to change the size of the image. You will want to resize it to around 640 pixels on the longest side and around 480 pixels on the shortest side; The DPI (dots per inch) setting should be at internet quality of 72. If you click on the option to in the image size dialog box to "maintain aspect ratio"; when you change one side you will change both, because the program will automatically change your image to maintain its current shape.
Once you have resized the image choose to "save as" and change the name so you don't make your original image too small to print. We generally use the same name as the original and add on an email extension, then save it back in the same place as the original. They will appear next to each other in your image catalog and you will know by the file name which one is smaller. Example:
Original name dsc_0023.jpg
Resized name dsc_0023.eml.jpg
All we did here is add the .eml after the original name. This not only makes the files easy to find, but you can always search out your email files if you forgot where you put them. Simply go to the search option in your start button menu and tell set the parameters to find pictures with a *.eml.jpg listing. You will get all of them in your computer to show up in a few minutes.
What if you use a Mac or AOL or Snapfish or Photobucket or some other program to store your photos and view them? Well this is where the reading part comes in. You can go to the little used but oh so partially helpful link named HELP. Do a search on resizing images or photos and you should be given step by step instructions on how that can be done in the program you are working with. Why is all this necessary? Well the answer is simple really, courtesy. If you bomb me with a huge file, it takes time for me to download my email or maybe I can't get it at all. Your friends and relatives would really rather you not send the picture at all if it isn't resized. Plus when you can really see what daddy's little girl looks like, the photo is a whole lot more appealing.
Bottom line, go out and get yourself a copy of Photoshop Elements, or just read the help menu on your image editor. It will tell you how to resize your photos and you will soon be emailing great photos to everyone you know. - Aloha
