1. Pictures from Camera into Computer
2. Getting Acquainted with Irfanview
3. Basic Terms: View Size vs Print Size, etc.
4. Virtually Free Photography - Naming Pics, Albums
5. When Digital Camera Photos Can't Be Found
6. Digital Photography for Not So Digital Seniors

1. How to Crop and/or Resize a Photo
2. Problem Enlarging Digital Pictures
3. Understanding CYMK & RGB Colors
4. How to Straighten (Rotate, Align) a Photo
5. Darkrooms Replaced by Computers
6. Be Your Own Photo Processing Studio

1. Adding Text to a Photo
2. Text & Picture In a Word Text Box

1. Printing Multiple Photos on a Single Page
2. Displaying Your Photos as a Slideshow
3. Merging Two Graphics Into One
4. When Multiple Photos Don't All Fit on a Print-Out
5. Print Yourself or Have Pics Processed Elsewhere?

1. Reducing a Digital Photo's File Size
2. Red X Instead of a Picture
3. Reducing the File Size of a Video
4. Print Yourself or Have Pics Processed Elsewhere?
5. Copying Images from a Web Site or an Email

1. Digital Picture Formats (JPG, BMP, GIF, TIF, etc)
2. Difference Between "Drawing" & "Painting" Programs
3. Digital Cameras & Megapixelss
4. Choosing File Associations for Picture Files
5. Understanding "Animated GIFs"
6. Comparison of JPG and GIF Image Files

Free - Picasa2 !
• A very handy free program for editing and organizing photos is Picasa2 from Google. Get it at picasa.google.com/download

Free - Irfanview !
• Another handy free program for editing and organizing photos is Irfanview. Get it at Irfanview.

Help with Email

Moving Outlook Express DBX Files to a New PC Moving Email Address Book Names from one PC to Another Using BCCs (Blind Carbon Copies) to Protect Privacy Pictures, Attachments, Senders Blocked in Outlook Express More PC Help & Other Free Programs Can Be Found Here. Some Favorite Links

Comparison of JPG and GIF Image Files

I've been asked about the differences between JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) photos and GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) photos.

The JPG image format has become the de facto world standard for copying images from a digital camera onto a computer's hard drive, and is the most-used format for displaying photos on the Internet.

Earlier image formats, such as RAW, TIF, and BMP, generated huge file sizes that took up lots of disk space and which were difficult to transmit as email attachments.

Admittedly, large file sizes were more of an issue back when disk drives were small and getting online was usually done via slow telephone dial-up connections. Nonetheless, folks still have various reasons for wanting to reduce the file sizes of their photos and other images.

JPG images have smaller file sizes because of "compression," which usually discards about 20% of the color information in a photo. This information tends to be redundant, and the 80% left over is normally adequate to be visually pleasing to the eye.

However, if you open a previously-saved JPG and then save it again, the new image's file size will be about 80% of the first 80%. Subsequent opening and saving of a compressed file will continue to discard information to where the final image may look mushy and out of focus. Once information is removed from a JPG there is no way to restore it.

Nonetheless, this problem can be circumvented by maintaining your JPG at its original "digital camera file size." If you want to edit the picture, open it in an image-editing program, go to File>Save As, and give it a new name. The original will then be set aside as you work on the copy. If you subsequently decide to open the copied image for more editing, do File>Save As, and give it yet another name. Using incremental names, such as Bob-1.jpg and Bob-2.jpg makes this easy to do.

You can also opt to save subsequent copies of an image at a "Save Quality" of 100%, or at any percentage of your choice. In Irfanview (free from www.Irfanview.com) this feature pops up in a dialogue box when you do File>Save As.

Another option under File>Save As is "Save As Type," where you can choose a non-compressible format, such as BMP or TIF. You can edit BMPs and TIFs without fear of losing any of their color information. Finally, re-save the edited file as a JPG.

You could also choose the GIF format; but photos limited to 256 colors are usually less satisfying than JPGs that can contain millions of colors. However, there is still a place for 256-color images on the Internet. Most of the cartoons and other simple graphics seen online are GIF files, including most of the cute animated ones.

Regarding "compression," many types of files can be reduced in size, and subsequently restored to their original state. This is often called "zipping" and "unzipping;" but such is not the case with JPG compression.