really uninformed question about APUG submission formats

[David Lyga]

Folks, I do not even own a computer (I use libraries and universities) but I have a question that can be answered by almost anyone. What formats does APUG accept for submission of photos?

I can easily have a scan done at FEDEX OFFICE for 89 cents. When I do this (like for my avatar here) I usually ask for JPEG and save it to my UBS flash drive. But then, the question becomes "what size file". I usually opt for about 300 DPI (good? bad?) but have found some sites do not accept more than 200 DPI.

So, I ask, if I wish to share, in the future, say, four photos here for comment (color or B&W), what should I have them saved as? JPEG? PDF? And what size? Thank you for answering a question that is a bit embarrassing in this day and age. - David Lyga

 

[SuzanneR]

If you want to post pictures in the gallery, a good size jpg would be 72dpi at about 600 pixels wide. 300 dpi is great if you want to make a print, but it's too large for web presentation. Also, you need to be a subscriber to use the galleries, but you can post pictures in a thread if you are looking for feedback.

 

[David Lyga]

That's all I want, Suzanne, to post on a thread. Is the maximum four photos per post? I would suppose that 200 DPI JPEG would be ideal? Other formats allowed or recommended? Thank you. - David Lyga

 

[removed account4]

hi david

200 dpi is still pretty big .. a computer screen is only 72dpi resolution so it is pretty much overkill
AND if you upload large images, it will be a pain because you and everyone viewing
will have to scroll all over the place and never really see the image as a whole, but ... in pieces kind of like an abstraction ..

6" is about 432 pixies
5" is about 360 ...
8" is about 576 ...

have fun !
john

 

[SuzanneR]

What john said, 200 is too big to post. When you get the scans, I'd suggest getting the larger 300 dpi scans, and if you can make duplicates, then resize them to 72 dpi in jpg format, save those on your CD or whatever you get at teh FEDEX office, and I'll confess, not sure how many pictures you can post in a thread, but four should be enough for discussion.

 

[David Lyga]

Thanks, anyway, Suzanne, but I do not know how to resize to a lesser file size. I merely wanted to know what to say at FEDEX to get what would work when I post. - David Lyga

 

[tkamiya]

It's really depends on what you are looking to show.

With 300DPI, you can create a great looking print. The file size will be huge....
If you are trying to post something for your for sale ad, 75DPI is more than sufficient.
Most of my gallery postings were done at 150DPI or less.

You also have to deal with compression ratio for creating jpegs and it has as much impact to the file size as the DPI. Frequently, they are labeled something like "best" or "minimum compression" for good quality (read big file size) compression and "small file size" or "maximum compression" something for most compression.

If you compress too far, file size will be smaller but you'd start to see loss of detail in not-so-textured areas like sky and deep shadow. I tend to pick somewhere in the middle - depending on the size of original and scan DPI.

Bottom line, though.... for online galleries, unless you are going to be judged or someone is going to view it critically, it really doesn't matter. It's hard to tell them apart.

 

[jeffreyg]

I don't know how FedEx works but you might be able to have them save the same image both ways. Once it is scanned at high res save it then resize it there and save at 72 dpi. You would have one file for printing and one for posting.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

 

[MattKing]

Hi David:

As has been mentioned elsewhere, you need to be subscriber to post to the galleries, but can, within reason, attach photo files in threads as well.

The technical restrictions for gallery posts and post attachments are different, but I find that if your posts fit within the rules for the galleries things work well.

Jpeg format works well, and is easily recognised and handled by everyone, so for these purposes I would recommend jpegs.

The maximum size of each gallery image is 850 pixels x 850 pixels (i.e. no more than 850 pixels on a side).

Almost all monitors display images at 72 pixels/inch (sometimes incorrectly shown as 72 dots/inch or 72 dpi), so use that as the resolution.

A little simple arithmetic (850 pixels/ 72 pixels/inch = 11.8 inches) reveals that if you use 850 pixels as the target size for the long dimension in your image, your posted photos will expand to a nice big image on most screens.

And the file sizes are nice and small too.

Technically speaking, you can load larger images (up to 3000! pixels on a side) as an attachment, but it doesn't make any sense to do so unless for some reason you want people to be able to download them and print them! As that adds a lot of bandwidth overhead for APUG, by doing so you are more likely to make Sean and the moderators unhappy.

Folks, I do not even own a computer (I use libraries and universities) but I have a question that can be answered by almost anyone. What formats does APUG accept for submission of photos?

I can easily have a scan done at FEDEX OFFICE for 89 cents. When I do this (like for my avatar here) I usually ask for JPEG and save it to my UBS flash drive. But then, the question becomes "what size file". I usually opt for about 300 DPI (good? bad?) but have found some sites do not accept more than 200 DPI.

So, I ask, if I wish to share, in the future, say, four photos here for comment (color or B&W), what should I have them saved as? JPEG? PDF? And what size? Thank you for answering a question that is a bit embarrassing in this day and age. - David Lyga

 

[ROL]

I shoot for 72 DPI, ~600X400 pixels max. Depending on the image this rarely results in a file larger than 100Kb, pretty small as images go, but usually large enough to fill most screens without scrolling, and all the resolution needed for web presentation (new hi-res "retina" displays excluded). An image of around 100Kb or less will come up immediately with DSL, and 4 to 5 seconds on dial–ups eek. See Netproofing.

That said, I no longer post images on other's servers. I link to the URL's on my own site, so as not to overload hosts. That would require you use your own site, which you could, and probably should, do remotely (i.e., the cloud) anyhow, often for free (see WebMarketing).

 

[David Lyga]

Thank you all. - David Lyga