Tips & Tricks

Pictures in E-Mail - Part 1

One of the most commonly asked questions I get is, "How do I put pictures in e-mail?"

Today, we're going to look at getting the picture to be an appropriate size for e-mail. Tomorrow, we’ll discover how to actually insert and send.

The Right Size
Have you ever gotten a picture via e-mail that was WAY too big? Or maybe too small? Sure, some e-mail programs let you set the size you want the picture to be, but that's not the best way to do it. Who wants to download a 10 meg picture file that should have only been 10K?

What's the "right" size? Well, that depends on the photo. Most monitors display at 72 dpi (dots per inch). So, if you want the picture to be 5 inches wide (probably about the biggest you would want for an e-mail message), the picture would be 360 pixels wide (5 inches x 72 dpi = 360 pixels).

So, how do you make the picture the right size? Use your imaging software! Most scanners and digital cameras come with some sort of imaging software that will allow you to resize an image.

Open the picture in your imaging software and resize the image to your desired resolution. You can usually do this via an Image or Edit menu. Your menu style and commands may vary depending on your software.

Usually, you'll get a screen that lets you input the image size in pixels. If there's a checkbox that allows you to constrain proportions, make sure that's checked (this insures that when you change the height or width the picture remains proportional).

That should do it. Since you've changed the picture size, you may want to save it under a different name. Use the Save As command under the File menu of your imaging software.

On the next page, I'll show you how to actually place the picture in your e-mail.

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