"RG" responded with good suggestions at
news:jx5Bf.1227$MJ.608@fed1read07... to:

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...

What's the best way to reduce the size of a large picture? My options
are to reduce by pixels or by percent of the original. The originals are
typically 2-3M bytes (6.2 M byte camera) and I want to reduce to around
400-500 kbs to facilitate emailing of pictures without it being a huge
file.

Is there a preferred method (pixels vs percent of original) that
maintains the best picture quality?

Eisboch

If you are just trying to reduce the size for the purpose of email, and
you don't wish to save the smaller file for later use, Windows XP can
handle it for you on the fly. Simply right-click the file(s) you wish to
email in Explorer, and then click Send To, then click Mail Recipient. A
box will open asking if you want to make the pictures smaller or keep the
original size. Click show more options, and you can choose between small
(640X480), medium (800X600), and large (1024X768). Click OK and a new
email window will open with the file(s) already attached. You should be
able to see the file size in the attachment section of the email. You can
experiment with the small, medium, and large size to get the ending file
size you are looking for.


I was using some HP photo editing software that came with the camera ...
when you want to downsize a image file it offers two sizes - one recommended
for e-mail and one recommended for images for a web page. Then, after
selecting one of these, it offers a choice of decreasing it by pixels or by
percent of original. This is the part I am not sure about. I'll try both
and see if I can determine the difference, if any.

I recently bought a copy of Paint Shop Pro X, but I have not installed it
yet because I am not sure it was the right program. Seems like I remember
another program with a similar name like "Photo Shop" or "Print Shop" or
something like that. I suppose I should just load it up and try it.
Nothing else to do - snowing pretty good out there at the moment.

Eisboch