If you don't have Windows XP, or you want to compress photos with your image software, then the process is more complicated. (If you do have Windows XP, return to Posting your Photos on the Internet by E-Mail)

First, make sure you understand the difference between compression (available in jpeg format) and photo size . To make a photo smaller, you will probably need to reduce both of these.

The goal is to make the size about 640 x 480 pixels - this equals about 300K which is significantly less than the the 3 to 6M pixels in common digital cameras. You also want to make the file size about 100KB or less - this is done using jpeg compression. The process is either automatic or in two steps: 1. reduce size, 2. compress image.

Windows XP has an automatic process and some other programs may also. However, other than Windows, you will generally have to do the following:

1. Start by saving your file in a known folder - or at least know which folder has the photo.
2. Go to your image Software and open the photo;
3. In Image or a similar menu item, go to Image size (or similar) and re-size the photo to be approx. 640 pixels wide. You may have to specify width in inches, if so, there is usually a specified pixels per inch. For example, if pixels per inch is 100, then your photo should be 6.4 inches wide. You should have the Re-sample box checked. A good re-sampling method is bicubic.
4. Go to File menu and choose Save as. If your program can compress, one of the options will be .jpg or .jpeg file types. Choose one of these (they are identical in effect) and enter. Then you will usually get a screen that asks what quality you want - usually on a scale of 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent) or in words like poor, good, excellent. You will also be asked to name the file. When you save the compressed photo, make sure you know which folder it is in.
5. Now e-mail as usual and attach the new file.

All image programs will be different and by far the easiest method of compressing photos for e-mail is to use Windows XP.