# How to put a picture on a post



## Rich

I've tried and tried to stick a picture of the back of my computer on a post and failed miserably. I used my wife's very expensive camera (damn thing kills me, I could have bought another big screen TV for what she paid for it and she hardly uses it) last night and all I got was a fatal error message. The picture apparently wasn't compatible with the resolutions allowed by the forum. 

Would a Thumbnail solve this problem? How does one put a Thumbnail on a post? I'm gonna take a picture of the computer with my Droid X in a little while, but I'd like to use that camera for something.

Any help would be appreciated. I know I've been on the forum for a while, but I've never posted a picture and I'd sure like to know how to do it.

Rich


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## veryoldschool

rich584 said:


> I've tried and tried to stick a picture of the back of my computer on a post and failed miserably. I used my wife's very expensive camera (damn thing kills me, I could have bought another big screen TV for what she paid for it and she hardly uses it) last night and all I got was a fatal error message. The picture apparently wasn't compatible with the resolutions allowed by the forum.
> 
> Would a Thumbnail solve this problem? How does one put a Thumbnail on a post? I'm gonna take a picture of the computer with my Droid X in a little while, but I'd like to use that camera for something.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated. I know I've been on the forum for a while, but I've never posted a picture and I'd sure like to know how to do it.
> 
> Rich












You need to scale down the image to these sizes or less.


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## Rich

veryoldschool said:


> You need to scale down the image to these sizes or less.


I figured it out. I just got obsessed and frustrated and started this thread, which might not be a bad thing. How do you scale the pictures down? Really didn't want to pester you with something like this.

Rich


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## veryoldschool

rich584 said:


> I figured it out. I just got obsessed and frustrated and started this thread, which might not be a bad thing. How do you scale the pictures down? Really didn't want to pester you with something like this.
> 
> Rich


Well that depends on what software you have for photos.
Windows seems a bit short on this, while photoshop works great.


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## fornold

For WinXP get the image resizer powertoy from here

For Win7, get it here


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## veryoldschool

fornold said:


> For WinXP get the image resizer powertoy from here
> 
> For Win7, get it here


Windows paint seems to have these options, but not the ability to change the compression [quality].


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## Rich

fornold said:


> For WinXP get the image resizer powertoy from here
> 
> For Win7, get it here


 Where is it for Vista Home Premium? 

Rich


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## Rich

veryoldschool said:


> Well that depends on what software you have for photos.
> Windows seems a bit short on this, while photoshop works great.


I got nothing. My wife might tho, have to check.

Rich


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## fornold

rich584 said:


> Where is it for Vista Home Premium?
> 
> Rich


The Win7 one works with Vista.


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## Rich

fornold said:


> The Win7 one works with Vista.


OK, I'll give it a try. Thanx.

Rich


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## TBlazer07

After you install the utility you simply RIGHT CLICK on the picture and one of the options in the context menu will be RESIZE IMAGE. Either MEDIUM or LARGE works.

Another way to do it is to set your camera to a smaller size image in the cameras settings for these kinds of pictures. The utility is easier for sure.


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## fornold

For something a little more sophisticated but still free, you could get paint.net

It is much better than the mspaint that comes with windows.


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## mikeny

Microsoft Office Picture Manager works for this purpose as well.


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## David MacLeod

mikeny said:


> Microsoft Office Picture Manager works for this purpose as well.


and is very easy to use.


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## Mike Bertelson

Since this isn't a DirecTV question and it about forum posting, I'm moving this to the forum support forum.

Mike


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## matt

Are you opposed to self hosting? I use photobucket, you just upload the picture, then when you have it uploaded there is a share tab when you mouse over the picture. Click that and it gives you the URL, then on here you can click that picture that looks like a mountain view and paste the URL in.

This way you can post any size picture you want. Speaking of size, you may have to resize the picture. We've all seen those giant ones some people post.


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## SayWhat?

Easiest to use is IrfanView at irfanview.com

There is a resize/resample function to bring the image down to standard sizes like 800 x 600 which will reduce the file size somewhat. Then use Save As:, select .jpg for the file type and use the associated slider bar to reduce the compression to about 70% or so. The file size will drop dramatically with no visually discernable loss of quality.

I try to reduce to around 50Kb whenever possible.


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## Mike Bertelson

I just use the Microsoft Office Picture Manager. It crops and resizes. I also use Gimp.

Mike


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## Rich

fornold said:


> For something a little more sophisticated but still free, you could get paint.net
> 
> It is much better than the mspaint that comes with windows.


Thanx for the download info. Got it.

Rich


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## barryb

I use Picasa to resize.

http://picasa.google.com/


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## Rich

matt said:


> Are you opposed to self hosting?


:lol:...I don't even know what that means!....:lol:



> I use photobucket, you just upload the picture, then when you have it uploaded there is a share tab when you mouse over the picture. Click that and it gives you the URL, then on here you can click that picture that looks like a mountain view and paste the URL in.


I'll try that.



> This way you can post any size picture you want. Speaking of size, you may have to resize the picture. We've all seen those giant ones some people post.


It was definitely my wife's camera. I had no problem posting a picture using my Droid.

Rich


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## Rich

barryb said:


> I use Picasa to resize.
> 
> http://picasa.google.com/


Downloaded it, thanx.

Been meaning to ask you, do you remember or know an artist from Chicago name Sparrow?

Rich


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## barryb

rich584 said:


> Downloaded it, thanx.
> 
> Been meaning to ask you, do you remember or know an artist from Chicago name Sparrow?
> 
> Rich


I do not Rich. (not personally)

I have been working with digital pictures since, well... a very long time. 

Picasa is my "quick editor" of choice when Photoshop is not needed.


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## Rich

barryb said:


> I do not Rich. (not personally)


He specialized in black panthers. Was a long time ago. It was very easy to pick out his work.



> I have been working with digital pictures since, well... a very long time.
> 
> Picasa is my "quick editor" of choice when Photoshop is not needed.


I was surprised to see all the options Picasa offers. Thanx for the tip.

Rich


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## barryb

rich584 said:


> I was surprised to see all the options Picasa offers. Thanx for the tip.
> 
> Rich


You're most welcome Rich. 

The best option: its free.


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## SayWhat?

So is IrfanView.

And the MSPaint on Win7 is far better than the old versions.


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## Rich

SayWhat? said:


> So is IrfanView.
> 
> And the MSPaint on Win7 is far better than the old versions.


I'm gonna go from no programs to use for photos to a whole bunch.....:lol:

Rich


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## BubblePuppy

You could download the pic to your phone, then use the DBStalk app to post it. Just a thought.

Sent using DBSTalk on Android.


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## Rich

BubblePuppy said:


> You could download the pic to your phone, then use the DBStalk app to post it. Just a thought.
> 
> Sent using DBSTalk on Android.


My head just exploded...OK, I got it back together again...:lol:

Rich


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## matt

What I meant was finding your own place to store the picture, instead of storing it on the forum server.


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## BubblePuppy

"matt" said:


> What I meant was finding your own place to store the picture, instead of storing it on the forum server.


Dropbox works for me.
You can have a public folder and private folders.


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## Rich

matt said:


> What I meant was finding your own place to store the picture, instead of storing it on the forum server.


I do have my few pictures stored on my computer. I was never much on photography. Looks interesting now...KAPOW...head exploded again...OK, I'm back together now. :lol:

Rich


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## SayWhat?

_I do have my few pictures stored on my computer. _

That won't help for this purpose.

You could use services like TinyPic, Imageshack, Photobucket or a few dozen others.

Self-Hosting would be if you had your own website or if you have web space provided by your ISP. Most offer at least some space for personal files. Some are more generous than others.

You would then upload from your PC to your web space and use a link from there to display your pics here using the IMG tags.

Head go boom yet?


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## Rich

SayWhat? said:


> _I do have my few pictures stored on my computer. _
> 
> That won't help for this purpose.
> 
> You could use services like TinyPic, Imageshack, Photobucket or a few dozen others.
> 
> Self-Hosting would be if you had your own website or if you have web space provided by your ISP. Most offer at least some space for personal files. Some are more generous than others.
> 
> You would then upload from your PC to your web space and use a link from there to display your pics here using the IMG tags.


OK, I understand. That would be perfect. Can I do that on Picasa? Hmmm.



> Head go boom yet?


Starting to make sense now. In your scenario, it would be kinda like putting in a link, no?

Rich


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## jdspencer

If you bought a scanner, some version of photo software is usually included.


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## Rich

jdspencer said:


> If you bought a scanner, some version of photo software is usually included.


Of course we have a scanner, or my wife does, I should say. It's buried someplace in her scrapbooking room under thousands of dollars worth of scrapbooking crap and I don't have the software on my computer. Are you beginning to see a trend here, my wife's camera, my wife's scanner, my wife's extremely expensive obsession with scrapbooking...:lol:

Rich


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## jdspencer

Time to dig out that photo editing software and install it on the computer.


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## Rich

jdspencer said:


> Time to dig out that photo editing software and install it on the computer.


That software is buried in that room and my wife's in Pittsburgh. Maybe when she gets back. Right now I'm trying to put something on eBay and I've gotta use her camera again and my heads gonna explode again....:lol:

Rich


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