Sometimes it is important to know how large a file is, particularly when you are working with pictures, video or music files (often large files).
Windows: right-click and choose "Properties."
Mac: right-click or ctrl-click and choose "Get Info" or simply select the file and use CMD-I.
Sizes are in KB or MB (=1000KB). Emailing anything larger than 3MB is not recommended, and 500KB or less is good for inserting images into documents or web pages.
Showing posts with label resolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resolution. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Resizing Images
The proliferation of high resolution digital cameras and scanners has begun to cause issues when people try to put these HUGE images into documents, on the web or send them via email. Unfortunately the camera industry is pushing us to use much higher quality images than most of us need!
Suggestion#1: Know how big your images are! Windows: right-click and choose "Properties." Mac: right-click or ctrl-click and choose "Get Info" or simply select the file and use CMD-I. Sizes are in KB or MB (=1000KB). Emailing anything larger than 3MB is not recommended, and 500KB or less is good for inserting images into documents or web pages.
Suggestion #2: If you only intend to use your images on the computer (in documents, on the web or in presentations) I recommend turning the resolution DOWN to 3.2Mpx. This still gives you a decent quality image (will still print fine in 8x10) with a manageable file size. True: Zooming in to choose just a small portion of your picture will result in degraded quality.
Suggestion #3: Learn how to resize your images.
Suggestion#1: Know how big your images are! Windows: right-click and choose "Properties." Mac: right-click or ctrl-click and choose "Get Info" or simply select the file and use CMD-I. Sizes are in KB or MB (=1000KB). Emailing anything larger than 3MB is not recommended, and 500KB or less is good for inserting images into documents or web pages.
Suggestion #2: If you only intend to use your images on the computer (in documents, on the web or in presentations) I recommend turning the resolution DOWN to 3.2Mpx. This still gives you a decent quality image (will still print fine in 8x10) with a manageable file size. True: Zooming in to choose just a small portion of your picture will result in degraded quality.
Suggestion #3: Learn how to resize your images.
Windows: Our school computers have the "Image Resizer Powertool" installed. This is a free tool available from Microsoft (Google it for the link). Once installed, you can right-click on an image and choose "Resize Pictures," then choose from a list of sizes (small, medium, large). This will create a COPY of your image with the size added to the filename. You can also select multiple images and resize them all at once.
Mac: The Preview program has the capability to reduce the quality of images. Open the file and choose "Save As," then rename the file (so the original is preserved) and move the quality slider to the left. Unfortunately this only works for single images.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
About Macs and Projectors
Several times recently I have received calls or messages about projectors not displaying properly when connected to iMacs, or the iMac display changing when a projector is connected. The solution is to adjust the display settings so that the two displays "match" resolutions.
Although the iMacs are pretty good at automatically sensing a projector when it is connected, sometimes they do not do this properly or may not detect the projector at all if it is connected or disconnected with the Mac asleep.
1) On all of our school Macs you should see the Displays icon (looks like a monitor) in the menu bar (upper-right) in Finder. If your resolution has been reduced you may need to minimize/hide programs in order to see it. The first thing to try if you are not getting a correct image is to choose "detect displays" from this menu. This will force the Mac to check what is connected.
2) The second item in the Displays menu should say "mirroring on. " Mirroring means showing the same thing on screen and projector. Mirroring OFF will give you a spanned display: Think of an ultra-wide display showing across two monitors side-by-side, with the projector showing the right-hand monitor. There are times when this might be useful, like if you wanted to work on something on your screen while showing students a short video or website on the projector. If you ever see just your desktop background on the projector, it is likely that mirroring is off.
3) Sometimes connecting a projector will "dumb down" the iMac display, making everything larger or showing you a narrower screen. To fix this, start by changing “number of recent items” in the Displays menu to 5 (default is 3.) Next, scroll down the Displays menu to the lower section (iMac Display) and choose "1280 x 800." This is the point at which the two displays "match" and show a good image on both.
What makes this whole thing a challenge is that the proportions are different: our projectors are designed for 4:3 and the iMacs are 16:9. This is also why Windows computers do not have these issues, since they are designed for 4:3 display.
Although the iMacs are pretty good at automatically sensing a projector when it is connected, sometimes they do not do this properly or may not detect the projector at all if it is connected or disconnected with the Mac asleep.
1) On all of our school Macs you should see the Displays icon (looks like a monitor) in the menu bar (upper-right) in Finder. If your resolution has been reduced you may need to minimize/hide programs in order to see it. The first thing to try if you are not getting a correct image is to choose "detect displays" from this menu. This will force the Mac to check what is connected.
2) The second item in the Displays menu should say "mirroring on. " Mirroring means showing the same thing on screen and projector. Mirroring OFF will give you a spanned display: Think of an ultra-wide display showing across two monitors side-by-side, with the projector showing the right-hand monitor. There are times when this might be useful, like if you wanted to work on something on your screen while showing students a short video or website on the projector. If you ever see just your desktop background on the projector, it is likely that mirroring is off.
3) Sometimes connecting a projector will "dumb down" the iMac display, making everything larger or showing you a narrower screen. To fix this, start by changing “number of recent items” in the Displays menu to 5 (default is 3.) Next, scroll down the Displays menu to the lower section (iMac Display) and choose "1280 x 800." This is the point at which the two displays "match" and show a good image on both.
What makes this whole thing a challenge is that the proportions are different: our projectors are designed for 4:3 and the iMacs are 16:9. This is also why Windows computers do not have these issues, since they are designed for 4:3 display.