# Outlook express, reducing picture sizes



## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

When I send images in the body of an email in Outlook Express, they are too big. Too big in this case meaning they take up too much space in the body of the email, so much that you can't view the whole image in the program.

There is a way to resize it manually, by using the handles it provides to reduce the picture size. But, this is somewhat tedious if I want to re-size several photos, and if someone forwards the email I sent to them with the resized pictures to someone else, it will automatically restore them to their default size- before I resized them.


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## pip22 (Aug 22, 2004)

Send them as attachments so the recipient can open them in any compatible graphics viewer he/she chooses (provided it's installed) so they can easily zoom in or out to any size they want.


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## throoper (Oct 20, 2006)

Right click the pics you want to send and select Send to>Mail Recipient.
In the pop-up check "Make all my pictures smaller" and OK.

Or download Irfanview and resize them before inserting them.
IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

pip22 said:


> Send them as attachments so the recipient can open them in any compatible graphics viewer he/she chooses (provided it's installed) so they can easily zoom in or out to any size they want.


I want them to be in the body of the email so I can have text and pictures, comment on each of the pictures.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

throoper said:


> Right click the pics you want to send and select Send to>Mail Recipient.
> In the pop-up check "Make all my pictures smaller" and OK.
> 
> Or download Irfanview and resize them before inserting them.
> IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide


It seems after I click the icon in Outlook Express it will let me choose which picture I want to send, but only ONE at a time can I insert in the email. If I right click the picture and go to send to, it seems the closest option I have is mail recipient. It will insert the picture as the same large size (even if choose the "make all my pictures smaller" option) in Outlook Express, but strangely it will also open a Microsoft Outlook email message (I don't use that) with the image attached. I also get this error message, I don't know what it means



> The add-in fxsext32.dll could not be installed or loaded, the problem may be resolved by using detect and repair on the Help menu. Unable to load "fxsext32.dll." You may be out of memory, out of system resources, or missing a dll file.


I have Photoshop and can use that the reduce the size. Keep in mind I don't mean file size, or pixel size. I mean the size of the image on my screen in the body the email is too large. I have a feeling it makes it that large by default even if it was originally smaller.


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## throoper (Oct 20, 2006)

The error is because Outlook thinks it's the default mail program for Send to:Mail recipient but can't load the needed dll. 
If Outlook also tries to load when you click a MailTo; link, just set OE as the default mail handler.

You do want to reduce the pixel size (or dimensions).
If it's still too large in the body of the message, you haven't reduced it enough.
For example, my camera takes a picture that is 3968x2976 and on a monitor with a resolution of 1024x768 it would appear over 3 times as large as the screen. 
Resizing to 10% still takes up almost half of the screen.
Also the more pixels the image displays, the larger the file size will be.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

> You do want to reduce the pixel size (or dimensions).
> If it's still too large in the body of the message, you haven't reduced it enough.
> For example, my camera takes a picture that is 3968x2976 and on a monitor with a resolution of 1024x768 it would appear over 3 times as large as the screen.


Ok, so when I resize it using the handles (like I can in outlook express) it IS reducing the pixel size, it just isn't telling me about it? Not like setting the size you want in photoshop.




> Also the more pixels the image displays, the larger the file size will be.


This I knew actually. I usually save my pics as 0 quality Jpeg's in photoshop to reduce the file size.


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## throoper (Oct 20, 2006)

PC person said:


> Ok, so when I resize it using the handles (like I can in outlook express) it IS reducing the pixel size, it just isn't telling me about it? Not like setting the size you want in photoshop.


Well, no.
Using the "handles" reduces the display size when viewed in HTML.
The picture will be the same pixel size and file size as on your computer, but shrunk to fit the size allotted by the HTML code. Think of it as when you're on a web site and you use the zoom in or out. It's just an illusion created by HTML.
If it's sent to someone who only uses Plain text for their mail, the inserted picture will go as an attachment. If it's opened in their graphics viewer, it will be whatever size the original picture is.

If you want to see what I mean, send yourself a mail with an inserted image that you "shrunk" with the handles. 
It should display the way it was sent, but if you right click the image and "Save Image" you'll see it's the same as the original on your computer in size (pixel and file).
The best way is to just resize the pictures in a graphics editor before inserting them. That changes the actual file instead of just the way it's displayed.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

throoper said:


> Well, no.
> Using the "handles" reduces the display size when viewed in HTML.
> The picture will be the same pixel size and file size as on your computer, but shrunk to fit the size allotted by the HTML code. Think of it as when you're on a web site and you use the zoom in or out. It's just an illusion created by HTML.
> If it's sent to someone who only uses Plain text for their mail, the inserted picture will go as an attachment. If it's opened in their graphics viewer, it will be whatever size the original picture is.
> ...


Ok, so there are three different sizes to speak of? One is the file size, one is the pixel dimensions (resolution- eg 800x 600 or whatever) and the third is how much space it takes up on your monitor screen.


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## throoper (Oct 20, 2006)

There are just the 2 actual sizes to an image. The pixel size (how many individual pixel hi and wide the image is) and the file size (which includes pixel size and also color saturation and other elements that make up the image).

The space it takes up on your monitor isn't really a size. It's determined by the pixels and the monitors resolution. A high resolution will display more pixels in a square inch than a lower resolution and will appear smaller on the higher resolution. 

Sorry, but I seem to be doing a horrid job of explaining this.
Suffice to say if you want to E-mail images, a smaller file size is better to reduce the upload and download time.
A smaller pixel dimension will let it show on the recipients monitor without scrollbars appearing.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

throoper said:


> Well, no.
> Using the "handles" reduces the display size when viewed in HTML.
> The picture will be the same pixel size and file size as on your computer, but shrunk to fit the size allotted by the HTML code. Think of it as when you're on a web site and you use the zoom in or out. It's just an illusion created by HTML.
> If it's sent to someone who only uses Plain text for their mail, the inserted picture will go as an attachment. If it's opened in their graphics viewer, it will be whatever size the original picture is.
> ...


I went into photoshop with one of my images. I hit edit, select all, then went to edit/transform. Shrunk the image using the handles. Then I cropped out the remaining canvas in the picture (is there a way to make the image perfectly fit the canvas? I tried googling it- no dice)

The image definitely is smaller in the email, but it's not the same size as what it is in photoshop, actually- no, looks like it worked, as long as the image is zoomed in at 100%- that is what it will be in the body of the email.

I noticed it does look a little pixelated- that you are able to see the colored squares (pixels) at 100% magnification. What I did to compensate is set the pixeled per-inch higher. The document size of 2.135 inches by 2 inches, and pixels per inch of 200.


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## throoper (Oct 20, 2006)

You should give IrfanView a try.
It works really well for quick resizing. 
Just open the image in the viewer, click Image>Resize/Resample and you get a dialogue with common sizes or you can set the size by percentage of the original and maintain the aspect ratio. 
It also has a batch function that will do a selection of images at a time.
Very handy for when you download a folder full of pictures from your camera.


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