email attachments

[silkie]

I'm having trouble with what most of you would regard as a really basic procedure, so bear with me.

I've recently had occasion to send an email with, for the first time, an attachment - a handwritten diagram document.
I use AOL email set up and have a Lexmark all-in-one with which I scanned the doc and saved to My Documents.  I then added the attachment to a test email (to see if I had done everything ok) and sent it off to my Hotmail address.  I received the message ok but the attachment was about double (maybe more) the size of the original A4 sheet, and much larger than the screen.   I assumed there must be some size setting that should be set but after fiddling with all the size settings I could find and sending half a dozen tests (all with the same result, no matter what I did to the settings or the size of the original), I am stumped.  

What am I doing wrong?

[patio]

If you are scanning that document is it being saved as a .tiff ? ?

patio.  8-)

[silkie]

It's labelled JPEG image

[Raptor]

Use Irfanview (Google for it) to resize your documents.

Don't save as JPEG, only do that when you're done editing. Save it as .tiff instead like Patio asked.

[silkie]

Thanks for your suggestions -

I scanned again and saved as .tiff in My Documents, then sent as test again.  The message was received ok but no attachment at all.

I'm sending from AOL to Hotmail (MS) - does that make any difference?

Thanks for Irfanview note.  I'll dl that - I think I need all the help I can get!

[soybean]

This doesn't make sense.  I don't believe an image is going to mysteriously get larger as a result of having been sent as an email attachment.  At least, I've never seen that happen, and I've often emailed photos.  So, I'm inclined to think some basic facts may be missing here.

Anyway, I would use the JPEG format for emailing.  A JPEG image file is likely to be much smaller that a .TIFF file, based on what I've seen working with Paint.  I saved a small image in both formats, using Paint.  The JPEG image was 4,355 bytes, while the TIFF image was 40,244 bytes.  Be careful to keep your original image; don't overwrite it with the downsized JPEG.

Since you've not had previous experience sending attachments, I suggest you experiment with a few simple text files (you can use Notepad for this), and some small images to see whether they go through.

[silkie]

Thanks for your comments -

I agree that this doesn't make sense.  I faithfully followed instructions of my Lexmark for scanning - it asks me where I want to save  and as what file etc; I prepare the email text and add the attachment, which is noted at the bottom. then click send and when I check, the attachment is huge - about a quarter only of the original A4 showing on the screen.

Incidentally, the last test I did, the .tiff file, did not appear at the receiving end at all, although the note at the bottom of the message had the details of the file.  Also I had sent 2 attachments with that email, but only 1 was registered at the receiving end.

Sorry to bang on about this but it is frustrating and a bit depressing that I cant figure it out.

[soybean]

What is an "A4 sheet"?  What are actual dimensions of an "A4 sheet", that is, the source document?

When you say the image is much larger at the receiving end, with what software did you view it before sending it?  The scanner imaging software only?  When scanning, do you see a preview of the image in your scanning software?  Is that what you're comparing to when you say it's much larger at the receiving end?  If you open a newly scanned image in Paint, does it appear larger than what you thought it was, based on your scanning preview?  

Try using small text or word processing files to send multiple attachments.  Do they all go through?  

[silkie]

The original document is standard A4 sheet measuring 21cm wide x 29.5cm long.

The scanner preview fitted the screen ok, dimensions listed as 20.1 x 29.7cm.

The after scan image also ok - same dimensions.

The saved image labelled jpeg image 2480x3507 (not sure what measure this is), also fitted the screen ok.

I measured the image on screen of the Hotmail receiving site as best I could and I made the image size approx. 72cm wide and 108cm long.  So you see what I mean by huge.

The .tiff files that I have tried are not received at all.

I'll spend the next couple of days trying out the suggestions made - thanks again for the interest.

[dl65]

silkie.......   What resolution are you using when you scan the doc ..........
It sounds like you are using a high setting ?
Do you have any image editing software installed ....... if so what is it?
Let us know ........

dl65  

[silkie]

I had been using 300 dpi, which I thiink was the preset on the scanner.  I've now discovered this and changed to 150 and had some success, the image fitting much better to the screen - enough to send the stuff off and hope for the best!

Besides the scanner software, I have MS Office (Document Imaging) but I haven't located any scanner resolution control in my experiments with it, so far. I suppose there are other specialist programmes for image editing available.

Still no luck with the .tiff files - whatever I try they're just not received.

[soybean]

Have you tried sending JPEG files?

[dl65]

Still no luck with the .tiff files

Why are you sending in that format ......... use jpg.

dl65  

[silkie]

I think it's dawning on me...

Do you mean I should save as .tiff, then send as jpeg?

I've been saving and sending in the same format so far.

[soybean]

The original image from your document scan is a .tiff file, right?  So, save it in .jpg format and send it.  If, after saving in .jpg format, you have two files of the same name except for the extension, be sure you select the .jpg file to attach to your email.