Thanks, Frances

Dear Frances,

I did not have Picasa installed on my computer when I read your question, so, I went ahead and installed a copy. Here is what I learned.

First, I’m guessing that when you resize the photo in your program, all you are really changing is the view, not the actual file.

Picasa allows you to do some limited resizing using the, “Export picture to a folder” option under the File menu.

When you have your picture displayed, you click on, “FIle” then click on “Export Picture to Folder…”

A dialog box will open with several options.

Export Location: Make sure you save the smaller photo in a different folder from the original. You don’t want to replace your full size picture with the smaller one.

Image size: This gives you a slider you can drag to make your image smaller. The smallest size is not quite as small as you want, but it is close.

Watermark: If you want to add your name, your website or a copyright notice to your photo, you can select this option and then type the text in the box below.

Once you have made your selections, you just click the “Export” button to save the smaller version of your photo.

This should work for most photo resizing needs, but if you need more control over the size of your photo, try Irfanview at www.irfanview.com

Elizabeth

Thanking you in advance for your time and attention, Helen

Dear Helen,

There is a free program, named Irfanview, that you can download and then use to convert your picture into black and white.

First, lets download Irfanview:

1. Head on over to www.irfanview.com

2. Click on “Download” on the left side of the page.

3. Or, use this link to download: http://irfanview.tuwien.ac.at/iview400_setup.exe

4. If you are not familiar with the process of downloading and installing a program, use my tutorial at: http://asktcl.com/tutorials/download.html

Once you have downloaded and installed Irfanview, here is how you can use it to change your picture.

1. Open Irfanview

2. Open your image, click on “File” in the menu bar, then click on “Open…” Navigate to your image, click on it, then click the “Open” button.

3. With your image in Irfanview, click on “Image” in the menu bar, then click on “Convert to Greyscale”. Your image will appear in greyscale.

4. If you want true black & white, click on “Image” in the menu bar, then click on “Decrease Color Depth”. In the window that appears, click on “2 Colors” to select, then click on the “OK” button to save your changes.

5. If you like your new picture, save it by clicking on “File” in the menu bar, then “Save As”. Be sure to give your picture a new name or you will delete the original color picture. Click “OK” to save the new picture.

Elizabeth

Dear Computer Lady,

I have a question and hope you can help me.

I have a digital camera I use quite a bit and I usually use the highest megabytes when I take pictures.

My question is how can I send them in the email without them taking so long for me to upload and the receiver to down load? I have sent some on and it takes forever to download. I hear there is a shorter way of doing it.

Can you help me?

Thanks, Steve 

Dear Steve,

What you need to do, is create a smaller version of the picture to send via e-mail.

If you are using Windows XP, there is a fairly easy way to do this…

1. Open your “My Pictures” folder by clicking on “Start” and then “My Pictures”.

2. In your picture folder, find the file you want to send by e- mail, and right click on it, point to “Send To” and then click on “Mail Recipient”. If you want to send more than one picture, you can highlight a group of pictures by dragging with your mouse, or click on the first picture, hold down your shift key and then click on the last picture.

3. A small window will appear that gives you the option to make your picture smaller, or keep the original size. Just chose “Make all my pictures smaller” and then click “OK”.

4. This will open up an e-mail message with your smaller picture already attached. All you will have to do, is fill out the rest of the e-mail and send it. The nice thing about this method, is that your original picture is not changed, Windows just makes a smaller copy of the picture and sends it.

If you don’t have Windows XP, you will need a program to make a smaller copy of each picture before you send them. A free, and easy to use program that I like is called Irfanview. You can download it at www.irfanview.com If you need help downloading, check out my download tutorial at http://www.asktcl. com/tutorials/download.html this should help you download and install Irfanview.

1. Once you have Irfanview installed, open the program, and then use the “File” and “Open” commands to find and open your picture. 

2. With your picture open, click on “Image” in the menu bar, then click on “Resize/Resample”. The Resize/Resample Image window will appear.

3. Make sure the size method section in the lower right hand corner of the window has “Resample (better quality) selected and that there is a check mark in the box that says “Reserve aspect ratio”.

4. The easiest way to quickly reduce the picture, is to click the “Half” button until the size of your picture is down to the size you want. Something that is 300 to 400 pixels would be a good size, then click the “OK” button.

5. Now you need to save this smaller copy of your picture. Don’t just click on “Save” because you will lose your nice high resolution picture, instead, click on “File” and “Save As”.

6. In the Save As window, change the file name of your picture, I usually add the word “small” or letters “sm” to the beginning of the file name. That way, I can quickly locate the new smaller file when attaching to my e-mail message.

7. Now attach the new, smaller picture to your e-mail message and send it.

Elizabeth

A friend introduced me to your site…I love it and I thank you. 

How would I reduce a JPG photo that was taken by some else and downloaded on a CD for me? I have reduced it but I can not download the reduce one that I copied to my document folder.

Arax in Boca Raton, FL USA

How you reduce a jpg photo in size depends on the software program you are using to work with your pictures. Since my favorite photo program Irfanview, is free, I will give you directions using that program.

If you don’t have Irfanview installed on your computer, you can read about it, and download it on their website at Irfanview.com

When you have Irfanview installed on your computer, open your picture in Irfanview. You can do this using the “File” and “Open” commands in the menu bar.

When you have the picture open, click on “Image” in the menu bar, and then click on “Resize/Resample”. This will bring up a small window with some options to chose from.

In the Resize/Resample image window, you will be able to chose from several options. You can set a new size by typing in the pixel size, make the new picture a percentage of the original, or select some standard sizes.

I usually like to use the button on the upper right hand side of the window that says “Half” You can click on that button once or twice and get the picture as small as you would like. Once done, click the “OK” button at the bottom of the window and you will see your image in its new size.

If you like the size of your new image, you can save it. Don’t forget this step, because if you close the image without saving, you will revert back to the original large size image. Just click on “File” and “Save”.

I always give the smaller image a new file name so that I don’t lose the original.
Elizabeth