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Advice wanted on converting images: please .gif generously

Ganesh

16:47 / 13.04.03

Okay, here's my problem: I've been forwarded some .jpg images as a Hotmail attachment. When I save them to my hard drive, the only option I'm offered is that of saving them in .btmp (bitmap) form, which seems to use up at least ten times as much memory. I'm using Windows XP, home version.

Is there any (reasonably straightforward) way around this? Is there any way of converting .btmp back to .jpg form?

Ariadne

17:13 / 13.04.03

Okay, apologies if this is too patronising, but are you sure there's not a drop down menu of file types when you go to save? I haven't got stuff from Hotmail in a while so I don't know if there's anything odd about the way it sends files.

Ganesh

17:27 / 13.04.03

There is a drop-down menu but 'save as bitmap' is the only thing on it.

Ariadne

17:30 / 13.04.03

Hmm. Ok, I have to go and eat tea - maybe when I come back I'll be inspired, or someone more au fait with images will have been able to help. Perhaps if you save it as a .bmp you can then save it as something less chunky, and delete the first?

Ganesh

17:33 / 13.04.03

I've looked, but there doesn't appear to be an option for resaving stuff that's already on my hard drive.

Potguns

17:36 / 13.04.03

If youve got photoshop you could go to the save as... option, sorry this is the only idea iv'e got.

Ganesh

17:54 / 13.04.03

Hooray! Xoc came up with the Photoshop/Paintbox idea too, and it works! Thanks to all.

Ariadne

17:58 / 13.04.03

Hurray! As we ate Loomis's (delicious) soup, he said "why doesn't he ask Xoc?" Which has been the best suggestion of the thread, obviously.

Glad you got it to work.

Ganesh

18:12 / 13.04.03

I tend to assume that our online knowledge-bases are similar but in this, as in sooo much else, the lovely Xoc doth surpass me.

netbanshee

19:19 / 13.04.03

'nesh...

Be careful not to save the same file in different formats over and over because each time you do, it compresses the data and loses integrity. So if you're looking to keep an image as crisp as possible, try not to do it more than once. Also, there are usually compression settings that you can apply to varying degrees in a format. Jpg's can be anywhere from 100% to 0%, progressive, etc. You can get a good idea in photoshop, if you "Save as for Web..." It shows you the images and how they look.

Also... jpg format is to be used for rasterized images (pixel format) and gifs are for vectors (line, shape, fill). Saving this way will keep quality and image size where you want it.

w1rebaby

19:31 / 13.04.03

Bitmaps are best saved as PNGs in my mind.

You only lose information when you save as a JPEG, because it's a lossy format - saving as a bitmap won't lose you anything. You can lose colour information with GIFs, because they have a limited palette, so best not to keep images as them if they're at all complex. It's best for icons and suchlike.

Mourne Kransky

21:06 / 13.04.03

That Loomis is a man of great discernment. And he knows his sausages too.

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