Dianne writes:

<<I have been trying to talk him through Photo Express but he is
unhappy with the finished size of his photo as received through email.  He
needs something really simple and I was hoping that irfanview would service
the purpose>>

Irfan should do all you need. The ideal combo for me is Picaview
(shareware) with Irfanview.

First use Irfan to crop and resize the pic.  Depending on the size of your
monitor and the resolution you are running, fullscreen will typically be
800x600 or larger---Irfan gives you a selection of "ready-made" screen
sizes on its resize page.

Remember also that fullscreen on your computer will not necessarily be
fullscreen on someone elses'.  I suggest that 800x600 is a good universal
compromise---any bigger is likely to increase file-size dramatically. Don't
save yet.

Then edit, color enhance, sharpen or smooth etc as needed, still in Irfan.
Anything you don't like, just click Edit/Undo to go back a step.

When you have the photo to your liking, Click File/Save As, and select jpg.
Then you will see an Options button. Click it to set the compression ratio.
This is a very important step.

If you select the compression ratio correctly, the saved file will
hopefully be around the desired size. A jpg compression rate around 50% is
a good compromise to start with--you won't see much loss of quality, and a
800x600 photo filesize should be under 60 kb, thus suitable for emailing.
It depends on how much fine detail the picture contains. More detail=less
compression.

Now save.

Check the file-size of the saved picture file. If it's too large, you'll
have to either reduce the picture size, or compress further.

For ease of converting, any further conversion is easiest done in Picaview,
just a right click on any picture file and you have an instant conversion
menu where you can easily alter the compression ratio to suit. (Picaview
has other facilities as well, but mainly it is an instant right-click
picture viewer---one I simply wouldn't be without.  It is invisible and
doesn't have to "open" or running at startup like other viewers do. Instant
MEANS instant!)

Without Picaview, you will have to re-open the picture in Irfan and reset
the compression ratio or resize the picture- depending on whether you want
size or quality. Play around till you get the best compromise.  Any
compression ratio much below 50% is going to start to look a bit grotty.

I doubt that any other graphics editing software would come anywhere near
Irfan for ease of use and versatility.  I have some fairly high-end
programs---CorelDraw and PSP, but neither challenges Irfan for speed and
ease of use for normal usage. I only ever use them when I want something
special which Irfan won't do.  In fact, Irfan's resizing facilities are, I
think, better than those offered by those two programs.

If you need to increase the size of any image with Irfan,  try the various
resizing filters (ie Bell, Spline, etc). There are several on offer, and
you might be surprised at the difference each one can make.  Once you
settle on one, it will lock in as default until you change it.

It is always better to do your resizing and editing BEFORE compressing.
Enlarging or editing a compressed photo will only enlarge the false
compression artifacts. Compression should be your final step.

Always do your photo editing on a copy of the photo. That way, if "Save As"
overwrites it, or you lose it for some reason during the processing, you
still have the original from which you can start afresh if you get messed up.

Don Penlington



Free computer tutorials at: http://www.geocities.com/donaldpen/
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