Help please. Reducing jpg image
 

Hi,

I have a scanned image that was e-mailed to my computer. I've saved it to my hard drive. It's jpg. Now I would like to post it but it's too big. I read about this on the post Cynthia suggested but when I do my "save as" there is no 'option' that let's me put in a 'quality' or 'compression' so my file will fit. Do I have to have some kind of special program (like Photoshop or some kind of editing prgram?) to crop or reduce an image so it'll fit?

Any help would be appreciated. This is so frustrating, I have literally spent more time trying to get this image onto this forum that I spent painting the image! But I know it'll be worth it when I do get it on the forum because there is such a wealth of information and artists willing to share out there.

Thanks,
Joan

Are you using "Windows" operating system? If you are and it is the "XP" version (and maybe other versions are the same) from the initial Windows screen at the bottom left hit "START" this will bring up another screen which has at the top right "MY DOCUMENTS", locate the folder where your picture resides and double click the image. When your image comes up and from the icons at the bottom, second from the right, click this icon and it will take you to an editing program. From the top left of this screen click "edit", within edit is a term "resize". Within the resize screen you should be able to alter the width and height ie: 300 x 450. When you change one the other automatically changes. I hope this helps.

Thank you Mike!
 

Thank you Mike for taking the time to try and help. I was able to get the image up on the screen by double clicking it. (After clicking on Start and documents).

But I don't see the icons you're talking about. On the bottom of my screen are the icons that are always there, the instant messaging icon, not connected icon, real player, MSN messenger, volume and virus scan stuff, then task schedule. Then there are 4 more icons that are always there, 'launch Internet explorer, view channels, show desktop, and then launch outlook express'. I explored 'show desktop' since that was the most logical place for an edit program to likely be. I found something called MB1EDIT and double clicked on that. It's math1/MB1edit. I'm not sure what it has to do with math? Anyway, it wouldn't even open because it 'could not find it or a component of it'.

I just can't seem to find this edit program. At the top of the screen is file, edit, view, favorites, tools, and help (which isn't helpful at all).

Oh, at the top of my screen when I opened that picture file was an edit icon but it wouldn't open. All the others were black and white but the 'edit' icon was grey and didn't respond when I clicked on it.

Any other ideas?

Thanks again,
Joan

Found something
 

Mike,

I found a program called 'Microsoft Photo Editor'. I went to START, then PROGRAMS, and there are tons of them but one is called 'MS Photo Editor'. I'm going to play around with that and see if I can get the image reduced that way. Then I guess I'll save it as a new name to the hard disk and try to post from that.

Thanks, I'll keep at it,
Joan

I guess you are using an older version of "Windows."

Could you contact the person that sent you the image and ask them to resend a smaller version?

You may need to skip down to "Best Buy" or such and by a photo editor. As to which one...? I don't think I can help. They range from high to low. Of course if your future plans include buying "Windows XP" you could go at it in that direction.

good luck

Older version
 

Hi Mike,

I suppose it is an older version, almost 3 years old and I guess in technology terms, that's old.

I did manage to crop the image and reduce it using that photo editor, but it didn't tell me how many pixels it is. It probably said it somewhere, I just didn't see it. So I'm going to try and post it, it'll tell me if it's too big.
I guess if this doesn't work I'll need to explore new software.

Thanks for all your help!
Joan

Still too big
 

Mike,

It didn't work, it says my image is still too big. So I'll see if I can get it smaller.

If I call my friend and ask her to send me a smaller image, I'm not sure she'll know how to do that and I don't know how to tell her to do that either.

Thank you for your help,
Joan

P.S. I may try a computer store tomorrow and see if they can tell me what I need.

Tiny
 

Mike,

I reduced my image to 25% and it was too big for the forum to accept it. Then 10% which made it about an inch wide and 1 1/2 inches tall (too tiny really to do much good for viewing) and it was still too big. I don't get it. I thought when jpg files were reduced, some of the pixels (or whatever they are called ) are thrown out and the file is actually made smaller. How else does one make a file smaller than by reducing it? I also cropped as much of it as I could.

Thanks,
Joan

Try sending me the original jpeg image, [email protected]. Maybe I can get it done and send it back.

The max. size for posting here is 400 pixels wide by 600 pizels high.

If all else fails, send the whole uncropped large image to Cynthia and ask her to help you resize and post.

p. s. :o Oops, Mike's kind offer appeared above as I was typing this. :) Thanks Mike.

Finally got it
 

Thank you Mike and Karin,

I did finally get it. I found a program (buried within all the other stuff on this computer) called photo editing. I have posted my first attempt at an underpainting in a post called 'attachment'. I was so excited that I did it right that I posted another portrait that I did last summer of my daughter but I never did finish it. Once I actually get a digital camera I'll really be in business.

Thanks,
Joan

Forwarding file
 

Mike,

On second thought I did decide to take you up on your offer and I just sent you the original file. Although I did get the image to fit the forums specs, it just doesn't look very clear to me. My friend took the photo with an Olympus digital camera with 2.1 megs and now I am wondering if that's enough resolution? I posted the image under 'attachment'. You may be able to get a closer up image that is clearer.

Thank you,
Joan

I would have jumped in here last night to help, but I spent the evening in a walk-in clinic and then conked out...nothing serious, just very umcomfortable...a viral infection.

Now that I've excused myself, I will mention as I have in other threads that Paint Shop Pro is absolutely wonderful and is under $100 and has nearly the power of Adobe Photoshop. You can find it on this page in my bookstore: http://portraitartist.com/bookstore/software.htm

In PSP, if you just hold your mouse over the image and in the lower right corner of your PSP screen, it shows the size in pixels. Then, you just do as Mike mentioned...edit, resize and you can then select the number of pixels you want your new image to be. If you want to keep the original larger file, choose "file save as", which allows you to create a totally new file with a a new name.

When you do the "file save as", there is an option button that appears (be sure to select .jpg as your file type before you click options) that allows you to select the level of compression. Select higher quality compression; maybe around 15.