FOR EMAIL

Images destined to be sent by email should be resized in accordance with their end use.
Meaning, if an image is ONLY to be viewed on anothers screen, then you should resize
to fit that screen. We should assume that most people use a screen size these days of
around 1000 pixels wide, or greater. This then is your image size. Otherwise ask your
recipient to tell you their screen width in pixels.
Mac = System Preferences - Displays - Display - 1024 x 768 (or whatever)
PC = Start Menu - Control Panels - Displays

Lets assume that your screen size is 1024 pixels wide. So to check this in Photoshop;
'Image - Image Size - Pixel Dimensions - Width 1024'
and Resolution - 72 Pixels per inch for Mac (ppi) or
96 Pixels per inch for PC (ppi)


Click below to see different sizes (pixel dimensions) of the same image;
640 ppi, 800 ppi, 1000 ppi, 1024 ppi. So you can see that depending on your screen size
as measured in pixels, you will see a larger or smaller version of this image.
The image above is 283 pixels wide, or 9.98 cms @ 72 ppi.


Now what say I decided to email this picture from my camera that I have just downloaded.
My camera is 10 Megapixels, for arguments sake lets say this is 3712 x 2433 pixels
This equates to 10 million pixels, or 10 Megapixels and has a file size of 25.8 Megabytes as a
TIFF, or 7.3Mb as a JPEG, either way a large file to email.
This means I would be sending an image that is possibly three times the size of the average
screen! and my recipient would be able to view just one third of it!. Below is a slice of the cars
grill at the actual size.






FOR WEB

Generally you need to create two images if you wish your web viewer to see a larger
image. The first image is usually known as thumbnail, thats is a small image that gives
an idea or representation of the product, or object. The larger one depends on its
use. If it is to be viewed ONLY on screen and printed on a home printer, then a 1000
pixels is fine. See below to see how this works.


Please click for a larger view (104kb)

Otherwise the 'clickable' one can be any size you like, as long as to say exactly what the size is
that will be downloaded. This way your viewer can decide whether to download or not and for
what purpose.


All photographs © Jon Davison 2007