Image Posting Tutorial

 How to include pictures with your message

Including images with your message on Anglernet.net is really quite easy, but there are a few considerations that need to be discussed. This brief tutorial will take you through the steps necessary to manipulate your images so they meet uploading requirements, and hopefully, make the pictures more enjoyable for viewers.

You'll need an image editor, but if you have a digital camera or a scanner there was probably one included in the package. If you don't already have one, there are free editors available that are quite capable of doing everything needed to post pictures here. This tutorial will use Adobe Photoshop Elements as a guide, but the processes are similar among editors and you should be able to apply them to your own program.

We'll use the image below as an example. In its original form it's a nice enough picture, but with a few changes we can improve its display quality while bringing it into line with Anglernet.net's requirements.

As your image comes from the camera, it will be too large both in resolution and file size to post to the forums. The image above had an original resolution of 2048x1536, and a file size of 1.75MB. Resolution, or the display size can be taken care of by cropping and resizing the image, and file size is handled by saving the file at an appropriate quality to bring it within the restrictions. The actions required to post a quality picture on the forums are Resize and/or Crop, Save and Upload. Instructions for these steps follow. Never work on your original file when manipulating images as a mistake or computer problem might result in its loss. Make a copy first so you have nothing to worry about.

Adjusting display size

Anglernet.net has a display size limitation of 800x800 pixels so the first thing you need to do is get the resolution of your image down to that size or smaller. One consideration here is that the larger your resolution, the more quality loss will result when you save the file size below the Anglernet.net limitation of 110Kb. In other words, smaller images will keep more of their original sharpness than larger ones. There are several ways to take care of this, and three will be discussed here.

Save for web

Most image editors include a one-step function that will both resize your image, and save it at a quality suitable for posting on the web. This is a perfectly acceptable method, but does not allow any manipulation of the image that might improve display quality.

Under Photoshop Element's 'File' menu is the 'Save for Web' function. After choosing this, you are presented with a new window where you can enter values for display size (resolution) and file size (quality). Simply enter the desired values, apply them and save the file for uploading.
Cropping

Cropping your image provides two benefits. First, you can eliminate portions of the picture that may not contribute to its value, allowing you to emphasize your subject. Secondly, it aids in the reduction of your image's file size without adding to the loss of quality when saved. Looking at the example image above, you see lots of water in the foreground, an anchored boat near the centerline, and some distant cliffs. By cropping to remove some of the less interesting area, we can put more emphasis on the subjects (boat and cliffs) while enlarging the selected area to show more detail. While selecting the area to keep, you can also choose the aspect ratio of your finished product.

In the illustration above, the area to be removed is shaded and the area to keep has been set to a ratio of 6 to 4, just like the printed photos most of us get from processers. This is achieved by selecting the application's crop tool and choosing one of the preset ratios. After applying the crop action, we are left with the image displayed below.

Now the image depicts the scene we want, but both display size and file size will still be too large for uploading.
Resizing

Select your application's Resize function and you'll be presented with a window where you can determine the size at which your image will display on screen.

In this case, the cropped image is displaying at a resolution of 1519x1013 as shown in the Pixel Dimemsions section of the window, and you can see that the ratio is 6 to 4 in the Document Size section. Entering a width of 600 and height of 400 in Pixel Dimensions gives us the final size we see in the cropped example displayed above. Large enough to show good detail and small enough to save without much loss of quality.
Adjusting file size and saving

Again, Anglernet.net has a maximum file size limit of 110KB. Your application's Save function will allow you to adjust the finished quality to meet this requirement. Your image will most likely come from your camera as a jpeg file and that works just fine for adjusting quality and posting. Upon selecting your editor's Save function you'll be presented with something similar to Photoshop Elements' options window below. If not, you may have to find the Save Options function and select it manually.

The file size of your saved image is determined by adjusting the quality in the Image Options section. In this case, a quality level of 8 gives us a file size of about 87KB as displayed in the Size section of the window. Click the OK button to accept these settings, then save the file when returned to the save window.


Uploading your image

Your image is now ready to be included in your message. Just a few more steps before you're done. After typing your message, scroll down on the page a bit and in the Additional Options section you'll see the Attach Files box.

Click the Manage Attachments button to go to the next step.

In the Manage Attachments window, click on the Browse button and in the window that opens, choose the image file on your computer and click the Upload button to the right. After the upload completes, click the Close this window button to return to the previous page.

You'll see that the name of your file is now displayed in the window. Click the Submit button at the bottom to post your message and picture.


Displaying an image hosted elsewhere

There are many sites available to host your images online, and it is possible to display a picture hosted elsewhere along with your message on Anglernet.net. Note that some hosting sites require visitors to log in or be invited to view pictures, and in this case you may not be able to display your images with this method.

Click on the Insert Image icon in the message box.

A new window will open.

Enter the URL of your hosted image and click the OK button.

The code necessary to display your image is inserted into your message and you can continue normally to post your message.