E-mail, chat, & VoIP forum: What's the best format for sending pictures by email?

The best way to send email pictures is using .JPG extension. Jpg has compression and the files are very small when sending.
If you use the .jpg format you will never have email sending problems

This is the solution to email problems. Too large file sizes can cause your system to freeze.

bill

Would have to agree that jpeg is probably the most popular format.
The file size is one consideration. Although changes have been made, some ISP's limit file sizes [attachments] to 1mb or less.
GIF only supports 256 colors. UGH!
The actual 'size' of the picture matters too! It's pretty annoying when someone sends a photo that may be jpeg, but they don't consider that the picture [in pixels] is larger than what you [or your recipient] has their screen set to. When you have to scroll around just to see the rest of the picture, it isn't much fun & you quickly loose interest.
Guess i'm old school, but I resize pics for e-mail to either 640x480 or 800x600 [or close enough to it] so that the whole pic will fit on-screen. Then you can compress the photo for faster sending/downloading. Remember, not everyone has broadband! Yeah, too much compression makes the pic look like garbage, so play around with what looks good to you. Your recipient will get a good [enough] copy. If they love the pic so much, you can always post a 'full-sized' copy on a web-site [personal web space is usually offered by most ISP's].

Forget WinZip.

Windows XP comees with zip/unzip built in -- as does Mac OSX and Linux.

With XP, right click on the file, "send to" zipped folder.

WinZip is obsolete.

Auggie,

If you installed winzip, it will popup on opening a zip-file. Yes. But you don't need it. Windows XP will handle it perfectly without Winzip or any special utility. Both for putting files into this 'compressed folder' and for moving files out of them again.

In addition to what XP offers, I've installed the free version of Powerdesk 6; that's an Explorer-like program that also handles zip-files, but already did so in Windows 98. I use it for other features then this zip-file handling.

And I installed free Tugzip, but not for it zip-file handling, but because it also handles rar-files, which some students sometimes send to me.

So I have rather an overkill of zip-programs. At my work, I only have XP for zip-files and none of this other programs, and I don't feel I miss anything. No need for freeware, and certainly no need for paid shareware for this.

Hope this helps.



Kees

I would recommend using JPEG and keeping the shot to 640 x 800 or use some photo management site like Kodak.

For email, no doubt at all - jpeg is the way to go.
If you have XP then have a look for ''Power Toys for Windows XP''. (Google will find it for you)
In that set is a wonderful little tool (Photo Toys) which is quickly and easily installed.
When you right click on a photo, the usual window opens, but it now includes the option to Resize.
Choices are 640x480, 800x600 - usually my choice, plus 1024x768, and 240x300.
Clicking one of those reduces the file size, and puts the alternative alongside your original so you still have your large version.
It is free software, and although no longer supported, is from Microsoft.
I know there are other ways to do the same job, but I have yet to find anything which works so quicky and easily.
One minor warning - when you click on your choice of reduction, the new size photo is added to the album which contains the original, but initially you have to go to the bottom to see the last entry. Once you have clicked on it, or refresh the screen in any way, it moves alongside the original, with just 'small', 'medium' etc, added to the title.
Hope this helps.

You are right-on!

I don't know why in the world you would want to send anyone pictures that are 2MB or higher, unless you're really looking to make lots of internet enemies.
My sister once sent me a 1MB picture, back when I had dial up, and it took me over 5 minutes to download the darn thing. You need to get a grip and send pictures in jpeg format, unless your a portrait photographer who is sending clients their portraits so that they can inspect every pore on their nose. Resize your pics to a more reasonable size, 640X480. And duck for a while becuase they must be hurling curses at you from a far and you want to make sure they don't hit you in the head.