iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Fourth Edition

Displaying Photos

So, you’ve done it. You, the Devotee of Displaying Digital Photos (or perhaps you’re the Coveter of the Color Screen), have ponied up the extra cash and purchased an iPod Photo, a video iPod, or iPod Nano with a vibrant color screen. No longer must you haul out crumbling photo albums, since you can show off your shots on the iPod. And, if you have a full-size iPod, you can hook it up to the television with an AV cable and present your pictures on the big screen.

What You Need for iPod Photos

In addition to a computer that meets the system requirements for iTunes 6 (or later) and your iPod model, you need a few other things to get your pictures syncing up a storm:

• Compatible photo management software for the Mac or Windows—or a folder of photos on your hard drive. The iPod and Nano can sync with several popular photo programs that you may already have. On the Mac, there’s iPhoto 4.0.3 or later. Windows mavens can grab pictures from Adobe Photoshop Album or the more versatile Adobe Photoshop Elements.

  You can also transfer pictures from a folder of photos on your computer, like the iPhoto Library folder for those who are a few iPhoto versions behind, or My Pictures on the Windows side of the fence.

• Digital photographs in the proper format. Most of the common photo formats used by digital cameras, Web pages, and email programs are acceptable to iTunes, along with a few others:

  —On the Mac, you can use JPG and GIF files, as well as images in the PICT, TIFF, BMP, PNG, ...