Posting pics help, please!

[Art Shirk]

I have checked the FAQ's and searched this forum but I still am not able to post a nice big pic in my posts. What is the usual protocal for doing this? When I attempt to attach after browsing, it always says that my file is too big or is invalid, yet I see huge pics posted all the time by others. What's the deal? Thanks

[coastal]

I'm not TGR but might be able to help...

How big are the pics you're trying to upload? Question pertains to data size, not display dimensions as it's very possible to have a 500KB file that's only 640x480 pixels.

To squish the files, use a freeware program like IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/) to compress, use around 70-80 JPEG compression, then try uploading again.

Or try BigLines.com, they may have less restrictive file size limitations.

Hope that helps!

[Art Shirk]

I'm not TGR but might be able to help...

How big are the pics you're trying to upload? Question pertains to data size, not display dimensions as it's very possible to have a 500KB file that's only 640x480 pixels.

To squish the files, use a freeware program like IrfanView (http://www.irfanview.com/) to compress, use around 70-80 JPEG compression, then try uploading again.

Or try BigLines.com, they may have less restrictive file size limitations.

Hope that helps!

thanks coastal, i was in the middle of compressing a pic and yes, it did actually post finally after doing so. however, it is pretty small in the thread, and i see these large, beautiful pics that people post and i cannot understand how they make the size limit. any knowledge on making the pic large even though i must compress it?

[lemon boy]

The large pics are hosted elsewhere and then {img}{/img} linked to the thread. Biglines is super easy once you set up an account b/c they automatically resize to a thread friendly format size.

[vtdownhiller]

good thread....I have struggled with this as well

[Buster Highmen]

Recent News About the Scottish Meal That Melts on the Tongue: In September in Bethlehem, Pa., the annual haggis-eating contest was won by Darren Lucey of Brooklyn, N.Y. (1-1/2 pounds in 2 minutes), but the only female entrant, slow-eating Joanne Shaver, said she competed only to get the free haggis, which she loves. (Haggis is sheep stomach stuffed with tongue, heart, liver, oats and onions, best served at the enticing color of gray.) [Morning Call (Allentown), 9-24-05]

[Art Shirk]

Recent News About the Scottish Meal That Melts on the Tongue: In September in Bethlehem, Pa., the annual haggis-eating contest was won by Darren Lucey of Brooklyn, N.Y. (1-1/2 pounds in 2 minutes), but the only female entrant, slow-eating Joanne Shaver, said she competed only to get the free haggis, which she loves. (Haggis is sheep stomach stuffed with tongue, heart, liver, oats and onions, best served at the enticing color of gray.) [Morning Call (Allentown), 9-24-05]

Thanks Buster. It is ironic that the TR I wanted to post was of the Haggis eating contest.

[Buster Highmen]

To minimize pictures size:
1) There's the number of dots or pixels
2) There's the amount of memory a stored pixel occupies.

1) Minimize the size in terms of pixels. Make it 800x600 pixels.
2) A pixel is a unit representing a dot on the crt. It has several formats. Most of these formats are in Red-Green-Blue-Alpha "space". At least on crappy windows and web sites.
What's really interesting in the format of a picture is how may Bits Per Pixels (bpp) there are.
For a lot of high definition pictures, they're stored in 32 bpp, where 8 bits are reserved for red, 8 bits for green, 8 bits for blue and 8 bits for alpha (or mixing).

But there's also 24 bpp, 16bpp, 8bpp, 2bpp and 1bpp in decreasing levels of palette. 1bpp is black and white. A lot of camera and web based images are stored in 24bpp jpg.

So, approach this backwards:

2) Load the picture into some graphics editing program like pcpaint. You can find pcpaint in windoze via start->all programs->accessories->paint.

First, make a copy of the picture and save the originals. Figure out how to do this first. When editing pictures it's possible to trash them.

Once that's done you "load" your picture into paint by telling paint where on your drive the picture is located. Use File->Open and give it the path and filename.

You probably have a 24bpp jpg. jpg is a compressed format where one averages over an 8x8 block of pixels to generate the saved block into a COmpressed format. It's then DECompressed into memory from that 1 saved block back into the 8x8 patch of pixels. That's what's "lossy" about jpgs. The software that does this is called a CODEC. While conservatives make up reactionary anger retribution fantasies, we liberals make up shit like this that's actually useful. If you use pdas, you might be running a CODEC I wrote.

In paint, you can edit the picture and save it as a lower format. Try saving it as 16bpp if it's higher than that. To do so in paint, try saving the file as a different name in 8bpp (use "save as" option under File and save it as a 256 color bpp of a different name.). Then save it again as a .jpg or .gif.

1) Now use pcpaint to shrink it. Image->Stretch/Skew.

There's snazzier graphic editing packages out there too. But give this a shot. I hope that helps.

[Art Shirk]

I appreciate the input Buster. I will work with that info and see if I can get some good stuff up soon.