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How to slim down your porky pics
Those 8-megapixel cameras take great pictures, don't they?
The top complaint I've heard since the holidays has nothing to do with rootkits, WMF files, or patches of patches. Nope. The people I know who scream the loudest got expensive new cameras, and they've learned that they can't do much with their pictures.
Having your cake and eating it, too
You didn't really think you'd get those gorgeous new high-resolution pictures free, did you? Robert Heinlein said it best — There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. No matter what you do, one of the prices you pay for really great picture quality is really huge files.
Send a handful of Christmas pics to a friend, and you may wipe out her inbox. Send a few to your parents or your great-aunt Mabel, who's still using dial-up AOL, and it may be Valentine's Day before they get them downloaded.
The funny part: You rarely need (or even want) all of the high definition that you paid so dearly to obtain. Yes, sometimes you want to make an 11-by-14-inch print, so you can hang your cat on the wall and admire the bits of Kibbles caught in his whiskers. But almost all of the time, the pictures you take rarely venture beyond a plain-vanilla computer screen. Big picture files are just overkill — expensive overkill, at that.
A free solution — from Microsoft!
OK. I lied. Or maybe Heinlein did. Sometimes there is such a thing as a free lunch.
Microsoft has (yet another) PowerToy that lets you reduce the size of your picture files. When you run a picture through the Image Resizer PowerToy, you lose some of that high definition: the resulting file is much smaller in size, and it's also grainier. If you slim down a file using the Image Resizer, then print an 11-by-14 of your cat, you might not be able to tell the brand of food stuck on his whiskers. Get the picture?.
As with all the PowerToys, Microsoft says it doesn't support Image Resizer — although the Redmondians developed it, distribute it, refer to it in many places on their Web site, their tech support people recommend it, and so on. It's another one of those best-supported unsupported products on the Internet. Unlike TweakUI, which has multiple versions for all modern versions of Windows, the Image Resizer only works with Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server.
Get yer Image Resizer here
To install the Image Resizer PowerToy, go to the Windows XP PowerToys home page. Download the file on the right called ImageResizer.exe. This is a little confusing, but the file that gets downloaded is actually called ImageResizerPowerToySetup.exe.
When ImageResizerPowerToySetup.exe is downloaded, double-click it to run it. You go through a very simple setup wizard. After you've finished the wizard, the program's ready.
Making the best use of Image Resizer
To use Image Resizer, start by selecting a picture file (or files) that you want to make smaller. (Say, click Start, My Pictures or Start, My Documents.) Right-click on the file or files and choose Resize Pictures.
The Image Resizer gives you the option of resizing to different screen resolutions — 800 x 600 pixels, 1024 x 768, and so on. But if you click Advanced, the Resizer lets you choose any resolution at all.
When you click Next, the Resizer makes a copy of the picture and gives it a new name. For example, if you right-click on Cat.jpg and choose "Small Fits a 640 x 480 screen," the Resizer makes a file called Cat (Small).jpg and sticks it in the same folder as the original. That new file is small in the sense that it isn't as high-definition as the original and the file itself is much smaller. But it's a picture file, just like any other picture file — you can print it, or email it, or view it on-screen.
Give it a try. Bet you'll be impressed.
mulligroup@miltonulladulla.com
Contact Information
This email is brought to you on behalf of the Mulligrubs - Milton Ulladulla Internet & Computers Users Group
http://mulligrubs.shoalhaven.info/
The Mulligrubs meet on the last Thursday of each month at the Ulladulla CTC - Top of the Town Complex, Ulladulla NSW 2539
Send comments, suggestions, or questions about this newsletter to mulligroup@miltonulladulla.com
You can subscribe or unsubscribe from this discussion group at any time.
Simply send a request to mulligroup@miltonulladulla.com
All names and addresses will be kept confidential and will never be sold or used for any other purpose than forwarding of this newsletter
Those 8-megapixel cameras take great pictures, don't they?
The top complaint I've heard since the holidays has nothing to do with rootkits, WMF files, or patches of patches. Nope. The people I know who scream the loudest got expensive new cameras, and they've learned that they can't do much with their pictures.
Having your cake and eating it, too
You didn't really think you'd get those gorgeous new high-resolution pictures free, did you? Robert Heinlein said it best — There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. No matter what you do, one of the prices you pay for really great picture quality is really huge files.
Send a handful of Christmas pics to a friend, and you may wipe out her inbox. Send a few to your parents or your great-aunt Mabel, who's still using dial-up AOL, and it may be Valentine's Day before they get them downloaded.
The funny part: You rarely need (or even want) all of the high definition that you paid so dearly to obtain. Yes, sometimes you want to make an 11-by-14-inch print, so you can hang your cat on the wall and admire the bits of Kibbles caught in his whiskers. But almost all of the time, the pictures you take rarely venture beyond a plain-vanilla computer screen. Big picture files are just overkill — expensive overkill, at that.
A free solution — from Microsoft!
OK. I lied. Or maybe Heinlein did. Sometimes there is such a thing as a free lunch.
Microsoft has (yet another) PowerToy that lets you reduce the size of your picture files. When you run a picture through the Image Resizer PowerToy, you lose some of that high definition: the resulting file is much smaller in size, and it's also grainier. If you slim down a file using the Image Resizer, then print an 11-by-14 of your cat, you might not be able to tell the brand of food stuck on his whiskers. Get the picture?.
As with all the PowerToys, Microsoft says it doesn't support Image Resizer — although the Redmondians developed it, distribute it, refer to it in many places on their Web site, their tech support people recommend it, and so on. It's another one of those best-supported unsupported products on the Internet. Unlike TweakUI, which has multiple versions for all modern versions of Windows, the Image Resizer only works with Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server.
Get yer Image Resizer here
To install the Image Resizer PowerToy, go to the Windows XP PowerToys home page. Download the file on the right called ImageResizer.exe. This is a little confusing, but the file that gets downloaded is actually called ImageResizerPowerToySetup.exe.
When ImageResizerPowerToySetup.exe is downloaded, double-click it to run it. You go through a very simple setup wizard. After you've finished the wizard, the program's ready.
Making the best use of Image Resizer
To use Image Resizer, start by selecting a picture file (or files) that you want to make smaller. (Say, click Start, My Pictures or Start, My Documents.) Right-click on the file or files and choose Resize Pictures.
The Image Resizer gives you the option of resizing to different screen resolutions — 800 x 600 pixels, 1024 x 768, and so on. But if you click Advanced, the Resizer lets you choose any resolution at all.
When you click Next, the Resizer makes a copy of the picture and gives it a new name. For example, if you right-click on Cat.jpg and choose "Small Fits a 640 x 480 screen," the Resizer makes a file called Cat (Small).jpg and sticks it in the same folder as the original. That new file is small in the sense that it isn't as high-definition as the original and the file itself is much smaller. But it's a picture file, just like any other picture file — you can print it, or email it, or view it on-screen.
Give it a try. Bet you'll be impressed.
mulligroup@miltonulladulla.com
Contact Information
This email is brought to you on behalf of the Mulligrubs - Milton Ulladulla Internet & Computers Users Group
http://mulligrubs.shoalhaven.info/
The Mulligrubs meet on the last Thursday of each month at the Ulladulla CTC - Top of the Town Complex, Ulladulla NSW 2539
Send comments, suggestions, or questions about this newsletter to mulligroup@miltonulladulla.com
You can subscribe or unsubscribe from this discussion group at any time.
Simply send a request to mulligroup@miltonulladulla.com
All names and addresses will be kept confidential and will never be sold or used for any other purpose than forwarding of this newsletter
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