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how does one make a 300k+ jpg into a <50k jpg?


Ralph Snyder
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Hey Ralph, you need some software to "optimize" the image, which will reduce it's size. Here's a LINK to some tutorials that talk about it, as well as some other good information.

If you have Windows XP, there's an optimization feature when you click on the file in it's folder, right click and select the email option and then look at the options for the image to reduce it. Send it to yourself and voila, you've got an optimized image. That might get you closer to the size.

PhotoShop is a great program for doing this also, it's what I use, made by Adobe.

JASC makes PaintShot Pro, which you can download free and use for a month and it's got features for this. It can also be bought on Amazon.com for 59 bucks, and it's a very good program with lots of cool things.

First off you first want to crop the image, cutting out anything you don't need in it. That gets rid of unnecessary information that contributes to file size.

Secondly, select an image size appropriate for what you're going to use it for...for the web, if it was a portrait vertical photo say, maybe a height of 150 would be right for an image of a face in a thread, it's what I'd choose anyway or close to it. In most programs, you can select an option for the correct horizontal size to be automatically matched to the height you select. Just play with it till it looks right...150 height by 125 width might be okay, say.

Then select the optimization features. jpg's compress themselves. Once you save it you can see what size it is. Then work from there. Optimization can select common colors, get rid of some and let you look at it to see if the actual quality's being affected.

Or send it to me, if you want. I'll do it for you and send it back. Just let me know what's supposed to stay in and what can be cropped out, if anything. Takes a couple minutes. icon_smile.gif:)-->

soques@hotmail.com

She's the wave, She turns the tide, She sees the man inside the child,

it's alright, it's alright, alright, She moves in mysterious ways....

(U2)

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There is also Adobe Photoshop Elements which has many of the major features of the full blown Adobe Photoshop but at a fraction of the cost. Some people use Microsoft Picture It, others use use Adobe and there are many other choices ranging from free to $500.

I personally like one called Thumbs Plus by Cerious Software. One of its excellent features is batch resizing. You can take a whole group of digital photos and collectively resize the whole bunch at a few mouse clicks.

Another feature is Auto Rename. It is where you can rename the whole batch of photos all at one time instead of having to individually do that task. For example Birthday1, Birthday2, Birthday3, etc.,

Here is a helpful link too:

Digital photo info

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You can reduce the size of the file in 2 ways. You can either make it smaller in size by reducing it physical dimesnions or you can increase the JPEG compression level. Or a combination of both.

You really don't need any fancy software to do it. If you have MS Office you can do it with Microsoft Photo Editor. It is under Office Tools.

If you resize the picture to 50 percent ( You can eve do this in MS Paint), and then save it, it should reduce the file to about 25 - 30 percent of its original file size.

If you open the file in Photo Editor and then do a "save as" you can click on "more" at the bottom of the window. This will allow you to increase the compression (smaller file) and reduce the file size onsiderabily - but at the expense of some quality. Usually the change in quality is not noticable unless you take the compression below about 30 or 40.

Good Luck

Goey

"Most of my fondest memories in TWI never really happened"

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