With increasing frequency, TUG members are asking for information on how to submit image files for use on the TUG web site. The Image Tutorial below should help you through the process. But there are a few things we should discuss before you decide to submit your picture.
Should you submit the picture in the first place?
Image files eat up a large amount of disk space. One small image file will contain more data than the entire text of a fairly extensive resort review page. This affects not only the amount of disk space that TUG must purchase from our servers, but also significantly impacts the amount of data that must be downloaded from our site to the user each time this image is viewed. Images not only extend the amount of time it takes to download a web page (a significant concern for those users who must logon via a slow dialup web connection), but can potentially push us beyond the total number of megabytes of downloaded data we are allotted monthly by our servers, thus resulting in surcharges to TUG.
We want to include pictures that add to the value of the TUG experience, but for the reasons above we tend to be fairly critical when deciding which pictures truly add value beyond photos already there. Please don't be offended if the volunteer who maintains the area for which you are submitting a picture decides not to use it.
How big does the picture need to be?
For the reasons stated above, image files must be kept to as small a size as possible. With rare exceptions, the maximum picture file size on our site is limited to 50kb each. Many of our image files are much smaller than this.
While we don't want larger files than are necessary, pictures that have been reduced too much in size may not retain enough detail to be very useful. As a general guideline, we would like to have our pictures large enough to illustrate their intended content, but no larger. There are lots of hints on reducing the size of your image files in the tutorial below.
CREATING THE IMAGE
Digital Cameras
Cameras that store their images electronically instead of on film are becoming increasingly popular. Most of them come with software that can be used to edit the images they create. See the Editing the Image section for hints on using this software. Note that most unedited photos taken with today's digital cameras are much too large to be used on the TUG site as originally created.
Scanners
Printed photos may be converted to electronic files by means of a piece of equipment called a SCANNER. A scanner reads a physical image and converts it into a matrix of tiny dots called PIXELS, which is then stored in a file. Scanners have come down in price significantly in recent years and decent units can be found for less than $100.
Note that the control software for most scanners will permit you define the portion of the available scan area which is to be captured as an image. There is no need to capture an image of a full 8.5 x 11 - inch scanner bed when all you are interested in is one small photo placed on the glass.
The size of the your scanned image is determined by
You can control the size of the scanned image by setting the resolution used by the scanner to a lower figure. If the scan resolution were reduced to 100 dpi, that same picture would now only be 400 x 600 pixels and would be made up of only only 1/36 the number of individual dots, thus reducing the file size by over 97%. See the Editing the Image section for hints on further reducing the size of the resulting file.
Photo Processors
A growing number of photo processors are capable of scanning the film they process for you and providing your images on floppy disk or CD-ROM, already converted into image files. If the processor uses a proprietary file format for these images, please load them into the processor's provided software and resave them in standard GIF or JPG formats. (See the File Formats discussion in the Editing the Image section.)
If your image already exists as an electronic file, you can use image-editing software to modify it. In this tutorial, we'll mainly be dealing with ways to reduce image file size.
Image Editing Software
Image editing software is often bundled with scanners, color printers, and digital cameras. You can also find image editing software available for download from the Internet. Several good download sources are
Note that programs distributed as SHAREWARE are NOT free. If you choose to continue using a shareware program beyond its stated evaluation period, you are expected to reward the author for his effort by paying to register your copy.One particularly popular and extremely versatile shareware image editor is LView Pro. Recently I have found an image editor named IrfanView , which has many capabilities and is free for non-commercial use.
As you experiment with the editing functions below, it is good to remember that most image editing software includes an UNDO function in case you do not like the results of any particular operation. Also it is always a good idea to save a backup copy of the original unaltered image before you begin making changes.
Cropping
In many cases, only a part of the image is really of interest, such that portions of the picture may be trimmed from the edges and discarded. This is known as cropping, and is probably the first operation you should perform when editing an image.
Resizing
When you have cropped the image down to just the part you wish to retain, most image editing software will allow you to resize the image, that is, reduce or enlarge its overall size. Most editors will allow you to retain an image's aspect ratio while resizing, thus keeping the proper proportion of height to width. For most standalone images on TUG, I generally try to keep the longest dimension of the picture to 600 pixels or less. If the intent is for this to be an image that shares a web page with other images, I prefer to go even smaller, keeping the long dimension down in the 250 to 300 pixel range. In general, try to reduce the image to the minimum size that retains enough detail to show what you want it to.
Color Depth
I have found that 8-bit color (i.e. one byte used for each pixel) is generally adequate for posting to the web. 8-bit color provides 256 different color shades. Today's scanners are capable of 24-bit color (over 16 million colors) or higher, but each pixel then requires 3 or more bytes of data to define, with a resulting file size that is 3 or more times larger than the same image saved in 8-bit color. In some cases you may be able to set the color depth when scanning the image (or maybe not -- sometimes your only choice is color yes or no). Many image editors will also allow you to set this when editing. (I convert to 256 color depth using Irfanview all the time).
File Format
Your image acquisition or editing software may also give you a choice of file formats when saving your image files to disk. The two image formats supported and understood by virtually all web browsers are GIF and JPEG/JPG, so only these two formats can be used on the TUG site. Both formats have the advantage of compressing the image data to result in smaller files, while others, like BMP, do no compression at all and result in huge files. If your software provides both GIF and JPG capabilities, try saving in both modes and see which results in the smaller file size. GIF will generally do a better compression job where there are large expanses of solid unvarying color (rare in a photo), while JPG usually makes more compact files for images with lots of detailed variations.
GIF has another advantage in that it is lossless, that is, even though the data is compressed, when the browser uncompresses it for viewing, the resulting data is 100% faithful to the original file.
JPG on the other hand will lose a small amount of information as a byproduct of its compression algorithm - in many cases you and I won't notice the difference, though. Your software may permit you to adjust the degree of data compression it applies when saving a JPG file. I find that a setting of 75% gives results that are virtually indistinguishable from the original for most photos, but the 50% setting shows some image degradation. Many photos can be compressed all the way down to 30% or so and still give acceptable results. To judge this, be sure to view the saved images via your browser, as it may not show up in the image editing software unless you load in the saved image.
Summary
Quick summary of how to edit the image:
So now you've reduced the size of your precious image as much as you can. How do you send it in to the TUG volunteer who maintains the section where your image is to be placed?
Email Attachments
The easiest way is as a file attachment to an email message. When composing an email message, most of today's email programs permit you to attach a file that will be carried along with the message. All you have to do, generally, is find the "Attachment" command or button in your particular software while composing your message, then tell it the path and filename for the image file you wish to attach. Most programs will allow you to attach multiple files to a single message.
Posting to a Web Site
If you maintain a web site where you can post files, another option would be to place your files there temporarily, then send their URLs (i.e. their web addresses) to the TUG volunteer who can then pick them up from there.
Snailmail
If all else fails, you can always save your image files to floppy disk and mail them to the TUG volunteer. For that matter, many of us with scanners would be willing to scan your images and create the electronic files for you. If you would like to have your photos and/or disks returned to you, you should include a self addressed envelope, pre-stamped with sufficient postage. If you would like me to do this for you, please email me at makaiguy@tug2.net to obtain my mailing address.
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