The photos I take with my camera are 2 MB Jpgs. These are too large to email. Is there an easy way to convert the photos to send. I can't afford Paintshop Pro or Photoshop.

Euan, August 2003

It used to work, but now I do not have the option to select smaller size. It just attaches the files in the original size. Any Suggestions? Pls email me any suggestion

Sofoklis, November 2003

If you use Windows XP this will re-size photos for you automatically!!! No software needed!!!

-Use Explorer to find the folder containing the photos that you wish to e-mail.
-Hold down your Control Key and select all the photos that you wish to e-mail.
-Release the Control Key and right-click on one of the selected photos.
-In the popup menu select SEND TO>MAIL RECIPIENT.
-A popup window will appear offering to re-size all your pictures. Select the "Make all my pictures smaller" option. Click OK.
-An e-mail will open containing all the selected photos. All the photos will have been resized.

Rich, October 2003

If you can't afford Paintshop Pro etc why not take a look at Kazaa's website where lots of stuff is available for download. Some less scrupulous file sharers also include viruses so protection may be needed!

Tony, October 2003

jpg compression is a compromise between file size and picture quality - presumably your camera uses a very high quality setting for the compression - or they are huge!! My camera takes pictures that are 1800x1200 and the resulting jpg files are in the order of 3-400Kb. I resize them to about 800x550 (or there about) as lots of people have screens that only show a resolution of 800x600, though they still look good on larger screens. The file size is then about 50-90Kb.

Compression programs such as WinZip or WinRar will have a minimal effect on the files, as jpg is already a compressed format - though at 2Mb a picture the compression may be minimal and you may get somewhere!! Jpg's usually compress about 2% (A saving of only 30Kb on my 300Kb files). If your file does compress well it may be that you get a 20% reduction, which would still leave you with a 1.6Mb file...

Resizing is the better option though, there is little point in the picture being bigger than the screen (especially if emailing). Save the resized version as a new file rather than overwrite the original if you want to keep a higher quality "original".

There are free graphics programs as mentioned earlier, I find the GIMP to be very powerful, and this has been included on cover disks and is available for download.

Phil Hull, October 2003

Yes - many utilities are available. Try www.webattack.com and look at the many freeware utilities including photoresizers, etc. There is also a useful freeware utility called Picture messaging specifically designed for the task of E-mailing images. If you use Irfan Viewer (freeware) or similar, then you can convert to .gif format, which reduces image byte size to an acceptable level for web page design and for E-Mail purposes. Have a browse - there are many useful utilities available!

Randolph Carter, August 2003

just open you your photos in any photo editing program and either reduce the resolution or the photo size or both this should help reduce the file size

chris del, August 2003

http://www.mihov.com/eng/ir.html

Simon, August 2003

Yes there is a way but you might have to download a program called winzip or winrar, both are fasntastic compression tools which compress the images within them so that you can send to whomever you please.
Another tip, winrar is a bit better than winzip for a whole host of reasons, but the main one in your cvase would be that you could split the photos into smaller parts and then join them up later.

Nadeem, August 2003

Euan
If your picture files are 2meg as JPEG files then there is probably not much more you can do to reduce them as JPEGs are one of the most minimilized formats available. I would recommend using a compression tool such as Winzip/WinRAR etc and using them to compress the pictures down.
Also if you do know a way of reducing the size via Paintshop Pro you can download a full version of the software from their website that works for 30 days with full features. I normally just download it once a month :)
Hope that helps

Neal Plews, August 2003