Giant photos !

[KingKonk]

Whenever I "save" a photo onto my computer hard disc it greatly increases in size - no matter whether it was downloaded from my camera or received by me in an e-mail.

Images which I saved as 6"x4" mysteriously turn into 24"x16" - or even larger - when I re-open them. (One of them even became 33"x22").

The ratios are always correct - its just the sheer size which alters.

Any suggestions as to what's going on and - more importantly - any suggestions as to what I can do about it would be very gratefully received.

[vehelpfulguy]

What file type are they being saved as. Can you see what the extension is ?

For example a jpeg file will have the extension JPG, a GIF file the extension GIF, and a bitmap the extension BMP.

My guess (only a guess) is that the are being saved as bitmaps (BMP) files.

[d0gsb0dy]

If they are bitmap, you can convert them to jpeg by using Reaconvertor. They do a free version which will convert one file at a time. I have the bought version and find it very useful. Quite inexpensive, too.

[KingKonk]

Thanks for your speedy response. The files in question are all JPG. ( Sorry - should have mentioned that first time around )

[kempie]

Firstly, an excellent FREE picture viewer/editor is Irfanview - downloadable here.

Secondly, the problem you describe is nothing to do with the file type. The different formats enable you to save pictures with varying degrees of compression, meaning that the GIF takes up less disk space than a BMP, with a JPG taking up even less space. All of this has no impact on the physical size of the photo when printed. Print size is determined by the resolution in dots-per-inch (or DPI) of the photo.

For example if we take a 4MP photo (2307x1728), the print sizes are:
360 DPI - 6.4" x 4.8"
100 DPI - 23" x 17.3"
72 DPI - 32" x 24"

Irfanview can be used to set the DPI and will show you the resulting print size.

[KingKonk]

Thanks Kempie for that advice - I followed your link and have downloaded Irfanview. You are right - it's a great tool for resizing images.

However I still can't figure out whats causing my photos to balloon up as they are saved onto my hard disc.

I guess that there is a setting somewhere in the bowels of my p.c which is telling it to automatically "blow up" all images as they are saved.

If only I could find that setting and turn it off I would not have to "re-size" every time.

[vehelpfulguy]

Try this (on Windows XP).

Right click on your desktop and select Properties.

Then choose Settings then select Advanced button.

I have a General tab with a DPI setting.

I have "Normal size (96 DPI)" selected.

Do you perhaps have another option there ?

[Foxglove]

All you need to do is to decrease the resolution of the picture. Open the photo in photoshop or whichever photographic program you have on your computer. Go to image size and decrease the resolution to about 72 pixels/inch. This will make the picture smaller so that it is easier to view and quicker to send as an email. If you wish to keep the original resolution for printing purposes then just save the smaller one under a different name. Et voila!

[KingKonk]

Thank you everyone for your helpful hints... changing the resolution as suggested seems to have done the trick. Cheers!!