Here Be Dragons

2007-06-12

Well, yesterday�s comments certainly opened up some doors for me. I experimented some looking at speed and the resulting file size as factors. I didn�t have access to a professional software package like Adobe Photoshop but I started poking around as suggested.

I went to Boxx�s greatestjournal.com site and they must have recently changed policies. Most pictures I take are an average of 1.2 Meg, that�s 1,200,000 bytes and I want them ideally under 100K, that�s 100,000 bytes. As you can see that�s a reduction of 12 times and I�m looking to not crop and loose picture geography or loose too much quality. So Greatest Journal didn�t want pictures larger than 330, 000 which means you have to reduce first to even upload. Alternatively they send you to photo bucket.

I went to photo bucket and uploaded a 1.2 Meg file and it came back 159K after editing. Not as small as I�d like it but not bad. I may have been able to get smaller results fooling around but for a quick and dirty fix it was very acceptable.

Next I looked at my Lexmark printer software. Sure enough they *DID* have editing software and one option was resizing. I used it and 1.2 Meg became 430K which is kind of big if you don�t want to run out of room quickly. I reopened it in Paint and resaved it and ended up with a 100K file but a two step process. I�ve discovered over time that Paint will reduce an already reduced JPG one more time with significant results for a mere open and save as. The pro to it was that it was done entirely on my computer and the shape the internet was in didn�t matter.

Lastly I tried Flickr.com. There was a glitch where it was my first time it got stuck in the processing message for hours! Finally, I just gave up and closed the window and opened another one and re-signed in. I had uploaded the same 1.2Meg picture. Flickr automatically parsed it into small, medium and large sizes. I downloaded the small (2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, good enough for the internet in my mind.) and it was only 50K! WOOT! Right off the bat with one upload and one download (or link it directly!).

Ladies and gentlemen I think we have a WINNAH!

For the heck of it I downloaded the medium size and it was just over 100K, still entirely acceptable. But 50K from 1.2Meg is a 24 times reduction in one shot and it was still very photogenic. I�m impressed and it means I can put twice as many pictures in my account before I run out of room if all my pics were 100K.

Thank You all so much for helping me out! Now I know multiple great ways to reduce and NONE of them take as long as the dumb ass way I was doing it!

In another world (mine) my daughter asked me to pick up the littlest girl at dancing lessons at 6:30 last night. My daughter was at her son�s softball game and she was afraid if she left it would rain and he�d be stuck alone in the rain if she left to pick her up and the game was called for rain.

�I would LOVE to�, I replied

So I went to go get her and asked her if she wanted to come eat at my house or go play at the playground while her brother played and eat the pizza her Mom bought. She opted for my house. Why do I rank over a playground and pizza?

Because I have a new puppy. LOL!

So we ate steak kabobs on my deck. I put out the nice plates (to hell with waiting on company. I�m worth it too!) and the real glasses (as opposed to plastic) with Iced Tea and Fred cooked it all for us while I sat and oohed and awwed. My little one ate a whole foot long skewer and afterwards we bar-b-qued pineapple slices basted in a mixture of equal parts brown sugar and lemon juice. It was DEELISH!

I�m so proud of myself. Yesterday I didn�t put one �bad for me� thing in my mouth.

Errr .. except for the potato chips.

Damn! I had a moment going for me here! But today is another day.

Have a great one guys and thanks again for the help!

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