Mail yourself resized smaller images

Cameras take photos for print (large files). The Internet however needs photo images that are much smaller and compressed to  . . .
fit in the space allocated in the blogging area  . . .
and to facilitate quick download times.

You can use Outlook to resized and compress in one easy step by mailing the images to yourself. There are two ways to do this – one works for blogs and one doesn’t! Here is the one that works  . . . . taken from Outlook 2003

Create a new mail addressed to yourself.
Attach the photo in the usual way.
On the right hand side you will see a small grey box called ‘Attachment Options‘. Click on it and you will see the sidebar shown below.

Resize photos using Ms Outlook

Open the drop down list under ‘Picture options’. Select ‘Small (448 x 336 px) – the exact blog friendly size you need!!

When you next download your mail the resized image (under 70Kb in size) will be attached ready to be uploaded onto your blog.

NOTE: The other method of select the image, right click, Send to, Mail recipient, make smaller – does not offer the blog friendly size of 448 x 336. It’s smallest option is 640 x 480 which does not fit into the allocated area as per your chosen blogging theme.

Great photos and images needed

In our efforts to sell the story, dream, lifestyle and experience GREAT photos and images are vital for your website or blog. Consider the Levi Strauss website below – few words and huge visual impact portraying the lifestyle.

Levi Strauss website

Because ‘meaning is the new money’ (Daniel Pink) having a give-back strategy is an important way to add an additional facet to a regular retail sale transaction. Currently Levi have a discount of up to R200-00 off a new pair of jeans when you donate your old one to charity via the bins in their Levi stores.

Levi Strauss website

A good digital photographic course is an excellent investment for your blog. Universal Image with four branches in Johannesburg is an option as they offer a number of different modules to suit everybodies skill level and personal interest – headoffice (011) 886 3116

Photo resize nightmares

Photos are critical – they sell the dream!

Unfortunately there is a big difference between print and the web. To print a good quality image you need a large file size (bigger than 1Mb i.e. 1000Kb). For the web however, you need images to be about 70Kb in size.

Your camera assumes that you are going to print the images and saves large file sizes (this is called Hi Res(olution).  It is better for you to reduce the file size yourself rather than to rely on your blogging or gallery software, but this is often a time consuming process and requires special software

If you only have one or two photos, a quick way is to view the photo in your Windows and Fax viewer – the way most images normally open. Right click on the photo and up comes a sub-menu. One of the options is ‘Send to’. Choose this and you will be offered a number of destinations. Choose ‘Mail Recipient’. It will ask you if you would like to reduce the file size from the original – more options allows small, medium and large. Choose small.

Your mail software i.e. Outlook will open. Send the image to yourself which will allow you to save the file and then upload the image to your gallery or website in the normal way (see caution on blogs below).

Reduce file size of photos via 'Send to - Mail Recipient'

Tip: Always try out the right hand mouse button, in every kind of situation. It offers additional options that relate to the current task thereby making your life easier.

Caution: For most blog themes the small size is still too big (i.e. 640 x 480) as the main column is usually quite narrow.  A better size is 450 x 340. This means that for blogs your own image resizeing software is still the best solution.

Adding images to your post

Images make a blog a lot more interesting. The links below have everything you need to know.

1) How to upload a single image

2) Video below deals with creating a gallery.

Creating an image gallery

►

Click here to view image FAQs covering many other image topics

Some additional notes and suggestions:

• Use your own image editing software to crop, lighten or darken your images
• Use you image software to resize the image down e.g. 500 pixels across is a good size for a blog
• Save as a jpg and compress your images down to less than 70kb
• If you insert one image and hit the ‘Insert into Post’ button with option ‘Full Size’ selected, the image is a standalone. If you upload more than one image and hit the ‘Insert Gallery’ button, a thumbnail gallery is created (you can still view the images full size by clicking on the thumbnails)

Show/Hide button on the right allows control over how the images are shown/arranged

Click on Show and all the images settings become visible