Inside Photoshop® CS

Preparing a Picture CD Image for Email

If you want to email your Picture CD pictures to friends and relatives, sending the full-size image straight off the CD might not be the best idea. The file sizes average around 500KB—a bit large for those with dial-up service. And unless the recipient's screen resolution is set higher than 2,100×1,400, only part of the image will be visible on the screen at one time.

So, to speed up the download time and enable the viewer to see your entire photo without having to use the scrollbars, you need to apply some edits to the image. The dimensions need to be reduced; then the image needs to be sharpened and saved with a JPEG quality setting that does not compromise image quality. Most of these edits can be programmed ...