TIP OF THE MONTH: How to resize digital photos with Outlook

October 2008 | Posted by Carolyn Pikoulas
Before we start, it's important to know why your photos need to be resized. Say you have 50 high-quality photos on your camera or computer, and you're planning to use them all for a web gallery. In order for the end-user to be able to download the images at a decent speed, the pictures will need to be compressed, or downsized. So, how do you scale-down multiple photos at once without Photoshop?

Simple. On your computer, locate the folder that contains all the images you want to resize. Go to Edit > Select All. Right click on your mouse and choose Send to > Mail Recipient. It will ask you what size you'd like to make the images. Choose either Small or Medium (depending on your needs). Click Attach, and it will open a new mail message with your files in the Attachment box. Just click and drag the JPG files to your desktop or a new folder, and you're done! Instant Photoshop.

What's the difference between web and print quality photos? About 228 little squares per inch. Those squares, known as pixels, are the smallest pieces of information in a digital image. They determine "resolution," or sharpness and clarity of an image. Higher resolution equals a larger file size. Basically, a pixel is a colored swatch made up of either a combination of Red, Green & Blue (RGB for web) or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black (CMYK for print). The amount of pixels in an image is measured by its pixels per inch (PPI). If an image is set at 300 PPI (the standard for printing), the file size will be rather large. That's why images for the web should be set at the web standard-72 PPI.

It's also important to be familiar with your camera and know how you'll be using the photos you plan to take--will they only be for web use, or do you foresee using the pictures in print material later? There are settings on every digital camera to choose whether you want to take web-quality or print-quality pictures. But once they're set at web quality, they can't be scaled back up for print.

And, by the way, some people refer to image resolution as DPI (dots per inch). That's ok, but if you're dealing with a printer, it can get confusing. DPI is used to describe the printer's density of dots (actual ink droplets). For example, a 300 PPI image could be printed on a 1200 DPI inkjet printer. Just so you know!