Emailing Photos

[petruspjs]

Probably the majority of photo applications e.g. roxio photosuite reduce the size of photos by offering reduced pixel options e.g. reduce from original size down to 1024*768 or 800*600 etc. However some e.g. paintshop pro 7 (and presumably more recent editions), serif photoplus, provide an export function where for the loss of say 20% quality you can reduce the photo size by much more than 20%.

 

Are these facilities bascially the same? Or is the described export function just a much better way of reducing photo size?

[ggrussell]

If you are referring to FILE SIZE which is important when emailing, there are two ways to decrease the file size: you can decrease the RESOLUTION say from 2016x1512 to 800X600 or by increasing the JPEG compression or both. Shrinking the image's resolution will decrease the file size quicker so most applications will do that first. Some may apply higher JPEG compression to further decrease the file size.

[petruspjs]

If you are referring to FILE SIZE which is important when emailing, there are two ways to decrease the file size: you can decrease the RESOLUTION say from 2016x1512 to 800X600 or by increasing the JPEG compression or both. Shrinking the image's resolution will decrease the file size quicker so most applications will do that first. Some may apply higher JPEG compression to further decrease the file size.

 

Thanks for your reply. It seems to me that increasing compression is a better way of getting quality for a given photo size than hitting the resolution. Most progs tell you which of the two it is doing. Is there a program which allows you to batch increase compression for multiple photos? Or is my assumption about compression v resolution flawed?

[vid2man97]

I exclusively use Adobe imaging products (your options may differ).

If I have an image at jpeg compression level 10, IMAGE SIZE 3000x2000 pixels, and change it to level 10, 300x200 pixels, I have a smaller file with the exact same quality.

If you want to keep the IMAGE SIZE of 3000x2000 and change the compression level to 5 (for example), you end up with a smaller file BUT, your image quality will start to become relatively poor.

 

So, if you want image quality, reduce the image size (pixel dimensions).

If image size matters, reduce the compression setting (in Photoshop, smaller number means more compression), but beware that at some point the image will look blocky.

 

As ggrussell mentioned, using both together within reason will also dramatically reduce the file size.

[ggrussell]

Thanks for your reply. It seems to me that increasing compression is a better way of getting quality for a given photo size than hitting the resolution. Most progs tell you which of the two it is doing. Is there a program which allows you to batch increase compression for multiple photos? Or is my assumption about compression v resolution flawed?

First you need to decide what is teh final purpose for the image before emailing. If only to be view on a monitor, a lower resolution with less compression. However if the final purpose was for printing, then a higher resolution with more compression wold work out better.

 

As Vid2man states regardless of resolution , more compression will cause poorer quality and can get to a point where the image gets blocky.

[petruspjs]

First you need to decide what is teh final purpose for the image before emailing. If only to be view on a monitor, a lower resolution with less compression. However if the final purpose was for printing, then a higher resolution with more compression wold work out better.

 

As Vid2man states regardless of resolution , more compression will cause poorer quality and can get to a point where the image gets blocky.

 

thanks for all your helps. I am emailing photos for printing and viewing but would like not to reduce the size of the viewed/printed photo. Therefore I think I am looking at compression.

 

Can you confirm that easy media creator 10 does not offer a compression facility? If the answer is no then apart from adobe products do you know of budget/free progs which offer batch compression?

[ggrussell]

EMC 10 Suite includes PhotoSuite which is the image editor. Like all photo editors, it gives you a choice for JPEG compression when saving a file. Just click the OPTIONS button in the SAVE dialog box.

[Guest ml]

You might want to consider an online photo sharing service.... some of them are free. Look here: http://www.roxio.com/enu/solutions/roxiolabs/resources.html

 

The person you're sending the photographs to might have a size limit to attachments they get via email.

 

An online photo sharing service will allow them to download the original file. Look for one where you have to send the person a link to the photos by email and the photos can be kept private. For those without photo printers, they can order prints at a reasonable cost.

[Willard M]

There is a form of compression that will reduce TIFF file size by 50%. It is called LZW compression. What is important about LZW compression is that it is non-lossy. JPG compression is described as lossy as manipulation of the file will continue to degrade the file.

 

It is generally used for TIFF files and gif files. TIFF will supply the best quality as gif will only provide for 256 color. This compression is available on Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 that I use. It may also be available on other programs as well.

For Photoshop Elements. Click on Save As for any image. Select TIF format. Click OK. Box will appear with several choiced, None, LZW, ZIP and JPG. Click on LZW and click OK.

 

Here is a more in depth description of LZW compression. I have no idea what they are saying except to know that it works.

 

"LZW compression is the compression of a file into a smaller file using a table-based lookup algorithm invented by Abraham Lempel, Jacob Ziv, and Terry Welch. Two commonly-used file formats in which LZV compression is used are the GIF image format served from Web sites and the TIFF image format. LZW compression is also suitable for compressing text files.

A particular LZW compression algorithm takes each input sequence of bits of a given length (for example, 12 bits) and creates an entry in a table (sometimes called a "dictionary" or "codebook") for that particular bit pattern, consisting of the pattern itself and a shorter code. As input is read, any pattern that has been read before results in the substitution of the shorter code, effectively compressing the total amount of input to something smaller. Unlike earlier approaches, known as LZ77 and LZ78, the LZW algorithm does include the look-up table of codes as part of the compressed file. The decoding program that uncompresses the file is able to build the table itself by using the algorithm as it processes the encoded input."

 

 

[sknis]

For Photoshop Elements. Click on Save As for any image. Select TIF format. Click OK. Box will appear with several choiced, None, LZW, ZIP and JPG. Click on LZW and click OK.

 

Does the person getting the e-mailed photo need a codec to decode the compressed file? I know there are some jpg formats that Video Wave can't (or doesn't seem to want) to handle.

 

For those of you that do not have Photoshop Elements, Adobe now has a free Internet version (beta) called Photoshop Express with 2gig of images storage..

 

[Willard M]

Does the person getting the e-mailed photo need a codec to decode the compressed file? I know there are some jpg formats that Video Wave can't (or doesn't seem to want) to handle.

 

For those of you that do not have Photoshop Elements, Adobe now has a free Internet version (beta) called Photoshop Express with 2gig of images storage..

 

I did a little experiment. Using a 4.5 x6 picture I save it at best quality jpg. Size was 705kb. I saved it as a tif. Size was 3180kb. Then I saved it as a tif using LZW compression and the size was 2191kb. File size for tif was reduced by about 30% using the LZW. Some descriptions of LZW will work best on pictures with a lot of solid color in them. I have sent LZW compressed pictures to many others with no problems. The pictures still have tif format.

 

I have been playing with the new beta Photoshop Express. Looks like it will be a great program when they get some of the bugs out. One of the things I didn't like about it was that when sending an album to multiple recipients at the same time that all of the email addresses show. There is no way to send to Undisclosed Recipient. The alternative is to send the album to one person at time which is a hassle. Also the recipient is not restricted to only the album sent. By clicking on My Photos the recipient can see the senders entire album collection. This may not always be desirable. But for beta it is great program and i'm sure that Adobe will correct some of the bugs.