From: "Marvin Kaye" <marv@lancaironline.net>
Subject: pictures and stuff
To: lml
Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2006 21:39:29 -0400
Message-ID: <web-1139526@logan.com>
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Hi guys,

I realize that saving me time isn't necessarily high on everyone's list of 
priorities, but things would operate a little smoother if we could at least 
all get on the same page for photos.  We've beaten the knots vs mph topic into 
the ground, so I thought I'd toss in some different terms to deal with.

Passing digital photos around is a great way to share information. 
 Unfortunately, everybody uses different cameras to get their photos, and each 
camera comes with its own software for downloading the pictures to your 
computer.  With all these different cameras and softwares out there we have a 
multipilicity of photo formats to deal with... JPG, TIF, PSD, GIF, BMP, FPX, 
JP2, and probably 4 to a dozen others that I have yet to encounter but I'm 
sure that I will sooner or later.  Formats like BMP, TIF and PSD (Photoshop) 
generally require very large file sizes but typically have the greatest 
resolution.   GIF files (Compuserve's early picture format) are usually 
smaller and JPGs smaller still, although both suffer from lower fidelity due 
to their compression algorithms.

We have over 700 people on the LML, most of whom probably enjoy broadband 
internet access.  Unfortunately, there is stall a large number of subscribers 
who are stuck with dial-up access, and for them downloading TIF or PSD files 
is pure hell.  During the message approval process I typically view any photos 
that are attached to your messages, and when they are too large I download 
them to my system, shrink them to a reasonable size, and save them off as JPG 
files.  I use a very simple piece of software for this photo manipulation, 
it's called IrfanView and is freeware, available at www.irfanview.com.  It 
would be much simpler if you would take your TIF, PSD, GIF, BMP or other files 
yourself, run them through IrfanView and save them off as JPG files.  Here are 
some simple guidelines... don't send photos that are 2500x1600 or even 
1600x1200... those formats are too large to view on most monitors and they 
result in huge file sizes.  Resize your photos to 640x480... they look fine on 
the screen and pass around easily with email.  When they're sized that way and 
you use high to moderate compression (selectable when you "save as" a JPG in 
IrfanView) the files will typically be less than 50k per picture.  At that 
filesize you could attach half a dozen photos and still be within the 300k 
limit I use on my other list, which works very well, thank you much.  If you 
attach more than 3 photos and I have to do the resizing, when I resubmit your 
message I have to send multiples because the online email software limits me 
to 3 attachments per post.  Additionally, when I have to submit your messages 
on your behalf, it is my email address that shows up in the "from" box and 
your name is only included within the body of the message at the top of the 
post where it says "Posted for.....".

In closing, please get IrfanView.  It is a very simple, yet powerful program 
that will allow you to manage just about all of your media files (it also does 
MP3, MIDI, AVI, MOV, WMV, etc), and once you get used to it you'll find many 
other uses for it besides resizing photos.  Please shrink your LML photo 
submissions to no larger than 640x480 and send them as JPG files.  Your 
assistance in this matter will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks...

    <Marv>