How to add Photos and Other Files to your Message

[Dave]

How to add Photos and Other Files to your Message

There are four ways to include pictures in your post or attach a file.

1  Attachments

This is the fastest method and quite easy, providing the file size of the image is 4000KB or less or you are able to reduce the file size of your image to 4000KB or less. At the bottom of the posting window you'll see an Attach window like this



For full instructions on how to use the Attach photos feature, please see the two sections below called

• How To Prepare Your Photo
• How to Post Photos using Attachments

2  Email

This is the easiest, but may take up to 12 hours to be added to your post. Photos can be any file size and no preparation is needed. Please send your photos to the address shown in this topic.




3  Uploading to your own webspace or server

If you have your own webspace with your ISP, or access to a server, this takes a bit more time but gives you more control over how your photos are displayed. It requires FTP software and some technical expertise.

Please see the two sections below called

• How To Prepare Your Photo
• How to Upload it to a Server

4  Displaying a photo from another web site

Use right click > Properties to get the URL of the photo as it appears on the other site. You can highlight the address (URL) with your mouse and use control+c to copy it.

Now scroll down to the post - How to post your Photo using BBcode - which explains how to include the URL in your message.


Updated details for emailing photos - Dave, 11Feb2021

[Dave]

How To Prepare Your Photo

1. For Attachments

If the file size of your image is 2000KB or less, you don't need to do anything. Just attach it and make the post.

If the file size is larger than 2000KB, you will need to reduce it using some sort of photo editing software. This can usually be achieved by cropping and changing the dimensions (width and height) of the image. No compression is necessary. Please follow the Instructions for Editing your Photo below but you can skip the section called "Compress the image". Then scroll down to the next section - How to post photos using attachments.

If you're not able to reduce the file size. just send your photos to the address shown in this topic.

2. For Email

If you are emailing the photo, just send your photos to the address shown in this topic. We'll do the editing for you.

3. For uploading to your own webspace or server

Please read on.


Instructions for Editing your Photo

The photo that comes out of your digital camera or scan from a print is too large to post without editing. By “large”, we mean both large in area and large in file size.  You will need to adjust

• the size of the photo – especially the width
• the size of the file that the photo occupies on your hard disk drive.

To make these adjustments you will need some image editing software such as PhotoShop, PaintShop Pro, PhotoImpact, Imageworks, PhotoSuite, PhotoStyler, or Photo Editor or similar.

Open and Save the Photo

Open and re-save the image immediately under a new name that describes the subject - something like douglas-s6.jpg. This is because we want to leave the original file intact and produce a special smaller file for posting in the forum.

Crop the picture

Now crop the photo using the Crop tool to trim off any excess around your subject.

Reduce the size

Generally, we try to display photos at a size of 750 pixels wide. This is a good size photo for seeing the content and generally doesn't require the reader to scroll horizontally to display it.

The height of the photo doesn't matter as we can scroll up and down to view it.

Resize the image using the Resize or Image-Size option. Make sure the “Maintain aspect ratio” or similar box is checked so that the height and width ratio are maintained.

Reduce the resolution

If there is a resolution option included with the Image resize tool, choose 72dpi – this is the resolution required for display on a computer screen.

Compress the image

Now we need to compress the jpeg file by reducing the “quality” or number of colours in the image. The appearance of the photo will hardly change, yet it will reduce the size of the file used to store the image dramatically. This will greatly speed up the time it takes to appear on readers' screens.

If you use Photoshop with ImageReady, choose a quality of about 20-30. The drop in quality will be barely noticeable.

In other software, look for an option called Colors, Color Palette, Decrease Colors, or something similar. Photos from your digital camera or scanner have millions of colours, but you don’t need this many for display on a computer screen.

The goal is to reduce the file size of the image to less than about 100kb for a 900 pixel wide photo.


Updated details for emailing photos - Dave, 11Feb2021

[Dave]

How to Post Photos using Attachments

When you're typing the text of your message, you'll see a window like the one below, underneath the white area where you type. Here you can attach these sorts of files - .doc  .gif  .jpg  .mpg .pdf .png  .txt  .zip

To attach a picture or file, click on the Browse... button to browse for the file.




Now select your file by clicking on the filename and then Open.




The directory path will appear in the Attach window as per below.




If you wish to attach a second file, click on (more attachments) and a second Browse... button and window will appear. Repeat the file selection process by clicking on the new Browse button that has appeared underneath the first.



Currently, the settings for attachments are:

- up to 5 files to the one post
- each file must be 2000KB or less (updated from 1000KB September 2009)

These may be increased or decreased in the future depending on what we find works best.

If you have more than 5 pictures to display, simply make a second or third post. There is no limit on the number of pictures you can post.

The width and the height of the image don't really matter. The software will automatically resize the image to fit the width of the page.

When you are ready to post your message, click on Post and your message with images will be posted.

Please note, attached images will not appear in Preview mode. Save your post to see how the image looks and use Modify if you wish to make changes.


Deleting an Attachment

If you wish to delete an attachment, click on Modify (top right corner of the post display window) and the modify window will appear with a section labelled Attached:. There is a white check box and the name of your attached file.



To delete the file, simply uncheck the box, Save the message and the attachment will be deleted.

Here is a sample of a 1000 pixel wide attachment which the software has been re-sized to 750 pixels wide.

[Dave]

How to Upload it to a Server

You will need -

- FTP software to upload the picture to the server such as FileZilla (free), CuteFTP or WS FTP Pro.
- Some space on an internet server somewhere – eg your personal webspace with your ISP
- You will need to find out from your ISP how to use your personal webspace. ISP’s use many different styles of URL addresses to reach your webspace. You will probably find full details on your ISP’s web site.

The URL of your webspace, will probably be similar to one of the following:

http://users.your_isp.net/your_username
http://members.your_isp.net/~your_username
http://your_username.your_isp_host_name.your_isp.net

Follow the FTP software instructions to connect to the server and create a subdirectory in your webspace called “photos” (or similar).

Upload the photos to this subdirectory.

IMPORTANT: Please make sure the file name of the photo has no spaces in it. So if your photo is called "my douglas.jpg", rename it to my-douglas.jpg.

Other characters that won't work in a file name are & and %.
 

[Dave]

How to post your Photo using BBcode

Log in to the forum and create a new topic or reply to the topic where you wish to post your photo.

Enter your subject heading and message text as normal.




At the point where you want your photo to appear, type the URL address of the photo (which will be similar to the URL in the picture below).




Now highlight the URL




Now click on the Insert Image button.



The img tags will be added to each end of the URL.

 

Now click on Preview or Submit to see if your photo is being displayed correctly.

If your photo does not appear, the most likely cause is the wording of the URL.

Check the URL as follows.

• Make sure there are no spaces in the filename. eg "my douglas.jpg" will not display. Rename it to "my-douglas.jpg".
• Make sure there are no spaces between the URL and the IMG tags at each end eg -picture.jpg_[img]
• Copy the URL and paste it into the address line of your browser and press enter. The picture should display in your browser. If not, either the file is not in the right directory on the server, or the URL is incorrect.

Please check it thoroughly and experiment by making small changes and Preview the photo again.

If the above fails and you cannot get the photo to appear, please send your photos to the address shown in this topic. We will upload it to our server and provide you with the URL.

Updated details for emailing photos - Dave, 11Feb2021