Posting Pictures 101

[nealberk]

I have been asked about including pictures in posts and how to do them. The answer is both simple and complex.

First pictures can be of two types: images on the web that you copy into your post, and pictures from your computer that you upload to CF. You can easily identify the two types of pictures by the border surrounding uploaded pictures. Both types of pictures are easy to do although each has potential complications.

First, pictures already on the web that you want to include in your post. These are easy to handle if you remember two steps. First, you have to use the Insert Image icon on the toolbar (it is the yellow picture that looks like a postage stamp) When you click on the button a pop up asks you for the address of the web image that you want to include. The operative word is WEB. Unless your computer is a web server and you have made it available to all (NOT A GOOD IDEA) you will not be able to add pictures from your computer by this method. Most web pictures can be right clicked on at which time you can select properties. This will give you the address of the image (its URL) which you can highlight and copy using the CTRL-C key sequence. Past this address string in the pop up and the picture should appear in your post.

If you are using Mozilla Firefox the process of getting the picture location is even easier since one of the right click options after selecting a picture is to "copy image location".

There are a few "gotchas" that might cause problems. Since the image has to be read from the host site every time anyone here accesses it, it does result in a drain on the web site. Several sites, realizing this, have asked that users don't link. A few sites have gotten tricky and have made images unavailable to those who want to copy them. If you try to copy and image and it doesn't come over, just assume that the site has images blocked. A few sites substitute images with a 1 pixel image when you try to copy their location. This usually shows up as a quirky screen after you attempt the post. It is easier to forget about these sites.

The second type of picture is the attachment. More on this in the next post.
(I have to get some work done first)

[gardencat]

Thank you Nealberk. I'm going to print up that post so I can have it beside me next time I glitch something.

Waiting eagerly for the next installment.

[TONY]

If you are using Mozilla Firefox
My strongest recommendation....

[nealberk]

The second type of picture you can add to your post is the attachment. As mentioned in my other post, this is the only way to get a picture from your computer to the board. To add a picture go to the Additional Options section right under the message box where you are entering your post.

The second subsection is Attach Files and there is a button to Manage Attachments. When you click this button a popup appears requesting the file to upload. There is a text box and a button labeled browse. Trust me, click the browse button, it is easier than entering text. Anyway, this brings up Window's file selection screen. Highlight the file you want to upload and click OK. This will bring you back to the popup. The file you selected should now appear in the text box which can now be uploaded to the board with the upload button.

This is where you might encounter some problems. If your file is too big for the board to handle, 39.1 KB, or if the file is too large size-wise (about 400x400 pixels) a message will appear telling you that there is a problem with the file.

NOTE: The file size limit was on the old board. The sysops have not yet set a maximum file size but in consideration for others, keep the dimensions reasonable.

After a file is attached, it will appear in the popup under the section current attachments. While you can attach more than one file to a post, I have found that if there is more than one attachment, the attachments will appear as text in your posted message forcing the reader to click on each image which are represented by links. It is far better to post multiple messages each with one attachment so the reader can immediately see your pictures.

After the attachment is attached, you can close this window. You still have not posted, though. Until you click on the submit reply button, the message (and the attachment) are not recorded.

One additional warning. You have to have some text in all messages. If you just have an image or an attachment the system will inform you that it will not accept your post until you enter some verbage.


Next post- "what if your image is too big?"

[nealberk]

A short technical post for those interested in knowing why pictures are the size they are. The practical application of this infor will be in a following post.


Picture size is dependent upon three things, the physical dimensions of the picture,the "richness" of the palette, and the amount of compression.

Generally images are rectangular so the size can be calculated based on the width multiplied by the height. The goal is to have a picture large enough to fill the viewing area- or a reasonable amount of it. When monitors displayed 640x480 resolution, a 200x300 picturre filled a sizable part of the screen; now with most people running 1024x768 resolution or higher, a 200x300 picture only fills up a tiny portion of the screen. The one thing you have to remember about picture size is that not everyone has large monitors with high resolution settings. What looks fine on your monitor might easily overfill someone else's screen. Generally I find 800x600 image size is acceptable to all.

Back in the really dark ages, pictures were posted as bit maps (.BMP) format. These images have no compression. Each bit of the image, was saved as a separate piece of data so a 200x200 image took up 40,000 bits of data. A 400x400 image took up 160,000 bits of data. And for those who wanted large images a full screen 800x600 image took up a whopping 480,000 bits of data.

This brings us to the second aspect of pictures, the richness - or color depth. Initially pictures were simply black and white. Each bit of information, therefore, took up one bit on the computer. So 8 bits of data- 8 dots on the page- could be sent in a single byte of data. This is the format still in use for faxes, incidentally.

With color, people wanted more colors in their pictures. VGA monitors supported 16 colors making it very convenient to place 2 color bits in each byte. It wasn't log, though until standards arose for a color to fill all 8 bits of a byte then one byte for each of the three primary colors (using the primary colors, all other colors can be derived).

The only problem with this is that more information leads to greater size. What could be represented by 40,000 bits (40K) now takes up 8 times that space or 320K for a small image at one byte per pixel or almost a full megabyte for a full color picture.

The solution to this size problem is compression. Initially compression was similar to zipping a file. Adjacent bits were checked to see if they were the same color, and if so, a count indicator was used to replace the number of identical bits. For example, if a cartoon had a large expanse of blue covering a large adjacent area rahter than saying that the pattern was B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B the computer would store the information as 20-B. In other words, 2 bytes instead of 20.

This process fails, though, when an image uses millions of colors. The chance of adjacent colors being the same drops to almost zero. The solution to this difficulty was a new type of compression called JPG. With JPG compression a malthmatical formula is used to get the approximate value of any pixel in the image. The more approximation used, the smaller the image- and the greater loss of data. The more exact the image wanted, the smaller the degree of compression - and the greater the size of the image.

In other words, a tradeoff.

[Spence]

If you put the ship name and/or ports in the title, that would be helpful.

Thanks
Paul

[nealberk]

If you put the ship name and/or ports in the title, that would be helpful.

Thanks
Paul

Very good idea!

[Elizanessie]

Neal...just how do you make the pic the right size....remember this is my first attempt at this...I know how to manage attachments bit...all goes well until I get to the bit that says my pic is too big...and I dont know then how to make it smaller...help please.:confused:

[Folgy]

I would like to know how to post pics to my album here. HELP!

[worfsmom]

Folgy... it must be a canadian thing... I can't do it either. I've tried every aspect... my gallery, upload, admin gallery etc etc etc

[Folgy]

Worfsmom

I used to be able to upload photos easily here . Now I cannot do it at all ??

I guess Canadians are poo poo to post

[weezer64]

I can't post pics either..............probably because I live too close to Canada. ;)

[worfsmom]

OMG.... Michigan's getting our garbage, and now our computer problems.....
We need to call "Homeland Security"....... :)

[corina27]

:) hehehe now thats funny! :D

[nealberk]

Neal...just how do you make the pic the right size....remember this is my first attempt at this...I know how to manage attachments bit...all goes well until I get to the bit that says my pic is too big...and I dont know then how to make it smaller...help please.:confused:

Whoops, just noticed your post!
The easiest way to resize pictures is to use a program like ACDSee which allows fantastic image editing as well as some of the best tools for viewing images that I have ever seen. You can even get a free trial version from their site (http://www.acdsystems.com/nr/lp/na/acdsee/acdsee.asp?CMP=KAC%2Dgoogleawacdsee&CRA=USA_B). Take a look at the program and I will help you through the hard parts.